Mao

Sara and I got up just after 5am this morning to go and see Mao's corpse. We had to get up early as the queues are horrendous (only open 4 hours a day, 4 days a week) and I wanted to see Tiananmen Square without too many tourists. As it turned out we had to queue for a long time anyway. The people behind kept trying to push in front and didn't appreciate my speech on the importance of queueing.

The Chinese showed their respect for the most "holy" site in China by dropping litter all over it.

All I have to say is that I don't think it's Mao. It looked very, very, very like a waxwork- and not a particularly good one in my opinion. Of course 30 years of being pickled might make you look less human but I reckon the real body is in a fridge and that's the spare.

Next post will hopefully be on Tuesday. There is no internet where we're going.