Tianamen Sq

This photograph, taken from Tianamen Square facing the Mao tomb, shows an entrance point into the Forbidden City. The portrait of Chairman Mao is about two stories and visible from all points of the square. Afterwards I walked the Dong Cheng (East City) neighborhood, which occupies the eastern half of the city center, spreading north and east from the southwest corner of Tian'an Men Square until it reaches the Second Ring Road. This area poor, filled with street hawkers, vendors, foodstalls, bicycles, telephone wires... in short, interesting and in sharp contrast to the modern sky-scrapers and high-rise condominiums which now own most of Beijing. By the 2008 Olympics, the East City will likely be history.