After deployment I decided to cash in some of my hard earned leave and go to Beijing, China. After a few hiccups getting a visa and a plane ticket, I was on my way. I arrived in Beijing the evening of September 9, 2004. The only thing that seemed unordinary was the reminder that anything left on the plane would be confiscated by the Chinese government. After debarking the plane, I had little trouble clearing customs and finding a taxi. Accompanying me on this trip was ENS Brian Wolf, another officer on my ship and a UT grad.       The morning of the 10th we walked from our hotel to Tiananmen Square. Highlights from this include seeing the huge portrait of Mao Tsetung, seeing the spot where tanks drove over pro democracy protesters and buying cheap watches with waving Mao's on them. I was impressed by how wide the streets were in Beijing. There were four lanes for traffic in each direction and special bike lanes that were as wide as a residential street in the U.S. One could land a 747 on the boulevards surrounding Tiananmen Square. The buildings surrounding Tiananmen Square were designed in the Communist/Fascist style that we associate with the Soviet Union or Nazi Germany. After looking around for a few hours, Brian and I went to a nearby Roast Peking Duck restaurant where we grossly over ordered. The duck was very tasty and came with special crepes to roll the meat up in. After lunch we used the subway to go to the People's Liberation Army Museum. I knew this would be a good museum when I saw the ICBM missiles parked out front. Inside was a vast collection of tanks, planes, artillery pieces, weapons and exhibits from WWI to the present day. It is interesting to note that there was a considerable amount of US weapons and vehicles all dating from the World War II/Korean War era. I guess they were left behind or captured. In one gallery there was even the wreckage of a downed U2 spy plane. Most of the museum dealt with the Communists victory over Chang Kaishek's Kuomintang Party. There is some mention of the US, but the museum did not actually go out of its way to slam America. I thought that the museum more historically accurate than the National War Museum in Tokyo. As a souvenir, I bought some bowls with pictures of Mao holding a little red book. By this time it was late afternoon so Brian and I decided to find the Starbucks. We quickly learned that one does not have to go far in Communist China to find a Starbucks. I can now add a Starbucks Beijing coffee mug to my collection of Starbucks mugs from around the world. Still stuffed from lunch, we decided to forgo dinner and walk around in what seemed to be the trendy night shopping area. Beijing is loaded with glitzy shopping malls with American and European brand stores. We even saw a Rolls Royce dealership. It only took one day for us to lose our preconceptions of China as an oppressive, down trodden, military state. From what I hear you have to go a little ways outside of Beijing to find that.       The next morning we went back to Tiananmen Square, which marks the entrance to the Forbidden City. After buying our tickets and renting our audio cassette players with Roger Moore narrating, we entered what used to be one of the most secluded places on Earth. Now it is home to thousands if not tens of thousands of Chinese tour groups. Fighting our way through the crowds we saw numerous ancient buildings. Unfortunately, there was not really much to see inside of them. The Forbidden City was also lacking in the large gardens and ponds that I imagined it to have. In the end I am glad I saw it, but I was not as impressed with it as some of the other imperial retreats that I saw later on. After exiting out the other end of the Imperial City, Brian and I climbed a hill that overlooked Beijing. I am not quite sure what the significance of it was, but it provided a nice view. We then decided to walk around and see some of the historic Hutongs. These are the ancient residential dwellings of Beijingers. They are rapidly disappearing as Beijing is clearing way for modernization prior to the 2008 games.      Since it was Saturday evening we decided to go out and visit some of the bars that cater to the expatriate/foreigner crowd. After walking around for a while in the Embassy District we stumbled upon Bar Street. There were indeed lots of bars, but we could not find anything with a decidedly western crowd, save an Australian pub showing rugby. After a few Tsingtao beers we returned to the hotel.       We began the 12th by riding the subway to Tiananmen Square and purchasing tickets to go on top of Tiananmen gate itself. This was noteworthy because I was able to look out over Tiananmen Square from the same spot from where Mao Tsetung proclaimed the new People's Republic of China in the 1950s. Afterwards, we walked over to the nearby Hall of the People. This is an extremely large building which is in all practical purposes their equivalent to the US Capital Building. We were able to go inside and see the large hall where their "rubber stamp Congress" makes its laws. We also saw the state banquet hall where they have given receptions to such dignitaries as Richard Nixon. As a souvenir I bought two bottles of the official wine served at state functions. It is made in China under French supervision. Brian and I then ate lunch at a nearby Outback Steakhouse. For our afternoon sightseeing, we chose the ancient Temple of Heaven. I understand this to be the temple where the Emperor would worship. This is China's number two landmark, the Wall being #1. The temple itself is surrounded by a large park containing many Beijingers relaxing, flying kites and playing sitar like instruments. It was nice just to enjoy the peaceful quietness that is missing from the hustle and bustle of urban Beijing. Typical of most Asian buildings, the inside of the Temple did not contain anything worth noting, but the outside was pretty magnificent. Earlier in the day I made reservations at a restaurant called the Red Carpet Club so we returned to the hotel to clean up.       The Red Carpet Club's description looked very interesting in my Lonely Planet guidebook so I really had my heart set on eating there. However, Brian and walked around for nearly an hour and could not find the place to save our lives. The locals, who knew no English and couldn't read anything but Chinese picture symbols, were of no help. Forty five minutes late for our reservation and about to give up, we stumbled upon a city map. After comparing that map to my guidebooks map, I realized that we were looking at an incorrect map (guidebooks are not perfect). We got our bearings straight and used dead reckoning to get into the vicinity of where the restaurant should be. However, I became downtrodden again because we still could not find the restaurant. By this time it was 8:00 pm, pitch black and we were smack dab in the middle of a residential area composed of authentic Chinese Hutongs. As we stumbled along in the darkness through the slums where the lower classes live, an old Chinese man saw us and gestured for us to come. He led us through some dark narrow alleys to another street and pointed for us to go down it. I was starting to get a little worried, but I soon saw something that looked very promising. Parked to one side of the street was a 1950s black sedan with Communist flags on the front of the hood. This was definitely very out of place so I opened the big red wooden door of one of the nearby Hutongs. Inside I found a young Chinese lady in a gray 1950s Communist Party uniform. I had found what I was looking for and more importantly, they were willing to take us an hour past our reservation. The Red Carpet Club is a "P.F. Changs" style of Chinese food restaurant located in a renovated, several hundred year old Hutong. The twenty or so odd tables are located in and around a small center courtyard. The entire place is decorated like a 1950s politburo, with Mao memorabilia adorning the walls. It was like something out of the Manchurian Candidate. Brian and I ordered a bottle of the "Chairman's Select Red Wine" and toasted our good fortune in finding this extremely secluded place. We ended up eating Mongolian beef and Szechwan chicken. It was all very tasty, but incredibly spicy. After dinner we drank a glass of port in the bar room. One would have sworn that they were in the private hangout of Mao. There were large brown leather chairs, Cultural Revolution memorabilia and lots of books about Communist China. I found a very interesting photo book about US and Chinese Relations. It consisted of old pictures of our Ping Pong team playing the Chinese in the 1960s and photos of various heads of state visiting landmarks. From what I understand, there is a nearby bed and breakfast in a restored Hutong run by the owner of the Red Carpet Club. Whoever he is, he is going to make a killing during the Olympics. The morning of the 13th, Brian and I decided to visit the Great Wall which runs to the north of Beijing. My guidebook indicated that the easiest way to get there was by taking the bus. Unfortunately we were duped into buying tickets on a scam tourist bus. Of course we did not figure this out until our bus pulled into the "Nine Dragon Amusement Park" or something like that. A French couple that was on our bus was just as equally surprised. One of them could speak Mandarin so between the four of us, we were able to rent a cab to take us to the Jiangowan section of the wall which was nearby. The Great Wall, although rebuilt to the point where you don't feel as if you are walking on something old, is still very impressive. The wall is not level as I had thought, but goes straight up the sides of the mountains. I can honestly say that climbing on the wall was just as fatiguing as climbing Mt. Fuji. After several exhausting hours we headed back to Beijing on the public city bus. After a brief dinner at a mall and a trip to Starbucks we returned to the hotel to relax.       For our last day in Beijing, we decided it was time to pay our respects to Chairman Mao. This seemed very daunting at first. His mausoleum is located in the center of Tiananmen Square in a large building adorned with Communist statues. When we arrived we noticed that the line to get in stretched for several blocks. We were about to give up when we noticed that it was moving pretty quickly. We decided to give it a try. It turned out to be a good decision as we didn't have to wait long to come to the entrance. There is a flower stand right before the entrance. We estimated that about twenty-five percent of the people bought flowers. When you enter the mausoleum you are confronted with a very large statue of Mao. Those that had flowers would lay them at the foot of the statue bow and return to the line. The next room contained the casket. Mao is draped in a Communist flag and has two ceremonial guards on either side of him. All of this is encased in glass. Visitors are herded by security to keep people from gawking and holding up the line. A short twenty seconds later and we were back outside where numerous street vendors were hawking Mao memorabilia. I got a book that has a certificate to acknowledge that I had paid my respects, and several tins of Mao tea.       After lunch at Outback we headed to the Summer Palace. This is on the outskirts of town and was once the imperial retreat. It is built around a large lake. Unfortunately, it was raining so we decided to just spend an hour walking around the edge of the lake. Had we visited on a sunny day, we could have rented paddle boats and spent more time. For our last meal in Beijing we decided to treat ourselves at the Shangri-La Hotel. After a few drinks, we ate at the hotels Italian restaurant. The food was actually not that good and it later made me sick. I was disappointed because the Shangri-La in Kuala Lumpur had excellent restaurants with lots of Westerners to socialize with.       We flew out the morning of the 15th. Despite the fact that we decided to go only the week before, our vacation had turned out pretty good. I managed to see everything I wanted to see, but could have still spent more time. Now it is back to the salt mines.