Been a while since I updated so in answer to my brothers question, yes, I'm still alive. We could ask the same of him.
Since the last post which was all about the quarantined students from Quebec it has been a busy time. I was lucky enough to have my lovely wife visit for a couple weeks and was able to see some of what Beijing has to offer for tourist.
Most interesting was the Beijing gardens. It's huge. We spent 3 hours exploring and all we really saw was the Rose Garden. We also did the Forbidden City which is spectactular, but very repetitive. Courtyard after courtyard. Very beautiful but after a while you're not sure which is which anymore. After the Forbidden City we hit Tiananmen Square and had fun identifying all the under cover police. Took Maggi to the Great Wall on the Sunday before she left. All in all a great visit for her first and hopefully not last visit to China.
Had some interesting times in the lead up to Tiananmen 20th Anniversary. Ben and I heading out the week before to do some oncamera stand ups. We went the sme day as Nancy Pelosi was in town so as to have an excuse to be there. Security was getting tighter and tighter in the days leading up to the 4th of June.
Qi, our producer and I headed to a spot to get some shots of the area where one of the Tiananmen mothers had lost her son. It is almost directly across from the Great Hall of the People. As I was shooting, the police approached Qi and I and asked to see our ID and asked what we where up to. Used the line about Nancy P and I continued to shoot. By the time they where done, several more police appeared, I was done.
Next stop was the Square itself. Ben had gone in on his own and was wired with the mic as we knew we would have much time to set up.
I headed through security and told Qi to get lost as he doesn't need to be there and complicate his life by being involved in Tiananmen Square stuff. Just simplier that way. I was tailed by two undercover police who did a very poor job of blending in. They started tailing me from when I left the corner with Qi.
After several minutes of them looking at my Press Card and Passport and copied several things from them I was allowed in and told pictures only no interviews.
Ben who was wondering where I was meet me on the stairs and I just told him to keep walking and find me later. I then set up and started shooting the guards and the flag. It took less then 30 seconds for at least 6 police and military to drop by and say hi. They to checked my ID and allowed me to continue. I moved on to a different spot, and met more police and military who wanted to see my ID. At this point Ben dropped by and was treated to the same checks.
Having enough visuals we moved to the back of the Square to do the on cameras. Our new friends followed to see what we where up to. Ben had put together a stand up about Nancy Pelosi so we where left alone. After several takes, our friends had relaxed due to the content.
So Ben decides to go for the big one and unfortunately didn't get a great take on it. So he tried a second and by this point our friends had heard the words tanks and Tiananmen and even if they couldn't speak English figured it. So they start trying to rattle Ben and were hang so close to me that I should of been able to tell what they had for lunch. They also started walking in between Ben and the lens. So we have these lovely umbrellas in between takes.
We did final get a couple of clean takes, but they never made it into the story. All in all just another day working in Beijing.
