I arrived yesterday afternoon to a brown Beijing.  A massive sand/dust storm has turned the city into a murky mess.  Everything is covered in a fine brown powdering of air-borne dirt from Mongolia.  Many locals have broken out the surgical masks…

I didn't let the lousy air stop me.  Last evening I walked up to Nanluoguxiang and had a pleasant meal at the Pass By Bar.   It's a famous expatriate hang out, perhaps past its prime.  But it made for a comfortable spot to get over the first wave of jet-lag.  As I walked back down Nanluoguxiang afterwards, a poster caught my eye:

The man to the right of Mao is Liu Shaoqi, one of the main targets of the Cultural  Revolution.  Essentially, Mao killed him.  Forty years ago, putting up a post of Liu would certainly have brought serious repercussions.  Now, I suspect it's an ironic reminder of the changing nature of politics and Chinese society.  On my walk back to my hotel – the Jade Garden Hotel, which which was used for high level Communist Party meetings in the 1940s (maybe Liu walked these same halls…) – I saw a rather unsuccessful advertisement, at least for native readers of English:

Well thank goodness it's palatable, though that seems to set the bar a bit low.  Maybe the competition is unpalatable…

Today  I went out to the Museum of Military  History but it was closed.  So, I made my  way back on the subway to Xidan  and went into  a  gigantic book store.  I picked up  some copies of China is not Happy, to  read with some Chinese students back at  Williams.  I also bought the Confucius movie, so now I will actually be able to  come to my own conclusions about it.

After a long walk, and a quick plate of jiaozi, I found my way back to the hotel to rest. The combination of jet lag and warnings from the weather men to stay indoors to escape the bad air has convinced me to sit tight for the rest of the afternoon.  I have to tune up my presentation for Wednesday at the Beijing Academy of Social Sciences anyway.  Later, I'll meet up with Jeremiah, of Granite Studio fame, and wander toward Wangfujing for dinner.

I'll leave you with a  shot of the back wall of  Gugong.  I took this at about noon with no prospect of any blue in the sky: