Report from Tian’anmen Square

The best anecdotes always involve national characteristics going on display. These normally bloom most in moments of crisis, judging from my European experience, but here are a few from a relatively calm series of events during Chinese National Day Celebrations in Tian'anmen Square.

We were gathered into the Foreign Experts' Hotel and each given an apartment - two bedrooms, a lounge and a kitchen plus bathroom and balcony, within view of the Olympics Birdsnest stadium. My daughter duly arrived from Africa and moved in, but as she was not a spouse, I could not get her into any official functions! I did manage to get a Chinese colleague into the fireworks in the Square, however, as the famous Chinese discipline began to slip for this final event.

My first conversation with one of the Americans was about the ' terrible smog' as he called the mixture of water vapour and pollution; but then miraculously the smog totally disappeared on National Day for the parade and we all got sun burned from the blazing orb in the sky. I don't think he worked out how the skies had cleared so easily, but old Beijing hands know very well that there are ways (making it rain in the early morning); also that there can be blue sky days if there is a nice breeze to blow the pollution away. His prejudices about the Chinese dated from the 1950's and would have been irritating if he had not been so completely predictable.

For the presentation, typically it was an Australian from the lucky country who was called up first.......while New Zealanders were put after the Netherlands and I was turned into a Brit and put just in front of the US (last in the English alphabet), with the UK delegation. There was no English rep, but a Scottish woman, a Welshman and an Irishman so the Celts were well represented. The Germans had a strong group and the only non tie wearer in the whole group was a prof from Berlin. He wore a white t shirt under his shirt, just as I wished to be dressed! He also made a good speech about his work from 1985 on production technologies. The Japanese made up the largest group, with many of them in their 70s and 80s even.

Vice-Premier Zhang Dejiang made an excellent job of shaking 100 hands, including that of a blind Austrian and a wheel-chair bound German. He also went out of his way to shake the hands of all the wives and the few husbands who were there. Next Premier, I would say and a real 'ladies man' as the Welshman said.

Premier Wen made a very warm speech to us, without notes, but with translation, and indeed I can see why they appreciate all the talents which have been deployed in China - from South Africans helping with animal farming in dry parts of the country, to nuclear engineers and mine safety guys, to aerospace engineers and computer whizkids, early childhood education and human genome profs.....the list is quite long - chosen from 10,000 names submitted by ministries, provincial governments and the like. Apparently, there were 480,000 foreign experts in China last year, compared with only 10,000 in 1978. What is certainly the case is that our work on mine safety is greatly appreciated. I was interviewed by People's Daily online tv but don't know when, after the events, it is to be broadcast. I do have a dvd of the 40 min interview but it is read only. Will try to copy it.

The parade itself was also rather memorable, not because of the military display, which was more of the 'don't mess with us' variety and defensive in my view, and commercial advertising to potential buyers in the developing world. China's army is on UN Peace Keeping missions, after all, not fighting vicious wars in Iraq or Afghanistan or deployed to military bases around the globe, like the US and UK, and half of the EU countries. even NZ has sent SAS troops to Afghanistan, although we kept out of Iraq.

What struck me about the parades was that they were predominantly young people, with many more in costumes than in uniforms or in tanks. These were amazingly colourful, not just the ethnic dress but also the uniforms of the women soldiers, airforce and navy marchers, with rather short skirts, with white or black knee length leather boots. Never seen anything like that anywhere in a puritan, Lutheran or Catholic country even, before! even American cheerleaders look rather shabby by comparison and not as sexy, I have to say, and this was Red China!

But the piece de resistance of it all, of course, was the banquet in the Great Hall of the People. More than 5000 were filling the hall and the balconies in tables of 10 and, once again the premier spoke, very warmly about us as well as dealing with the future and the present. There were many older people there and quite a few foreigners. It was all over quite quickly, with the task of feeding us very well, completed with great efficiency by hundreds of young people from the country side.

My last day in Beijing was spent with my daughter and a Chinese friend at the Water Cube and the Birdsnest. Very funny, as I am sure has or will happen to you if you are in China for a while - I was asked by young people to be photographed with their mothers, brothers and sisters or kids - people from the countryside in the big smoke, rubbing shoulders with foreigners for the first time. I duly obliged and grabbed the mums and held them close! There is an income stream there somewhere!