This is the CCTV building. The architect who designed this did an outstanding job! I'd like to be on the farthest out corner with the glass floors taking a look down into the city of Beijing!
Just little less than a week before we got to Beijing there was a terrorist attack on the Forbidden City. A husband, wife, and grandma crashed their jeep into the crowd and the jeep blew up killing six people and injuring 30. On this day as we passed by there were fences installed separating the street from the sidewalk which wasn't there before. On the Tienanmen Square side across the street the military and police were armed and ready for any terrorist planning an attack again.
These guys were working the corner commanding sympathy from all the workers in the Financial District. Looked to me like they made out pretty good at the end of the day!
This car set up shop right across the street from all the restaurants. They were serving hot rice, some type of soup, and some sort of chicken. They got pretty busy and a line started to form. The police saw them but said nothing, they might've even ordered something!
These were the familiar businesses I was talking about. They're all located right across the street from the lunch car and the place we were skating. It's amazing how much the Chinese adopt American brands into their own lives. It seems they're looking for something to identify with and they don't really have anything iconic to latch on to. Don't matter they probably own most of the shares of these American companies anyways.
The park on Financial Street is absolutely beautiful. Being that we live in Hawaii, we don't get to experience the colors of fall. This portion of the city is spotless and very clean. I watched the street cleaner come by three times that day spraying the street and sweeping it. There were landscapers manicuring the park as well.
She likes skateboarders!
Vince
Dunzi
Tsuyong
Lunch time!
And this is what happened after lunchtime! No more skateboarding!
Bathroom break!
Tsuyong, Chuck, Dyson, and Vince!
After our skate sesh we went to go check out the Joy City Mall. This place was jumping for a Monday evening. It's huge and it's 6 floors I believe. Pretty much every major brand that we have in the U.S. was here. Didn't feel like were in China.
I was asked kindly not to take pictures in the Vans shop for reasons unknown. There wasn't anything I saw in there that we don't carry at our Blue Hawaii Surf Beijing shop. For some reason when we walk into the different Vans stores in China they like to tailgate you. They don't say anything they just tailgate you and gear check you.
