In an earlier post, "A warm welcome to Beijing", my colleague Paul Newman wrote engagingly about the sheer number of guards on view all across the city. The latest militaristic development here is that tanks appeared at key security locations in Beijing overnight last night (Monday into Tuesday), apparently in response to an unspecified heightened state of alert.
This post is not concerned with such seriousness, however, but rather with a few of my favourite guard locations to date. It is de rigueur that a guard should stand on a box, especially if his post is somewhere prominent or on show to foreign visitors. It also seems mandatory to stand stock still, to attention, moving not a muscle or even an eyelid for hours and hours on end. Goodness knows what goes through their heads. I've managed to elicit the smallest of nods from one or two, and even a smile, but it's not easy, I can assure you.
Anyway, here are five guards – four "on the box" – who have caught the attention so far.
North Star Media Village perimeter fence guard, on box
This is my fave so far, the man on the box as seen from my 14th floor window in the village. Whoever stands here has a little stream trickling just behind him, yet his only view is a low-rise block of flats through a fence. I have observed this post at various times of day and night and this guard does at least get some "torch action" during the night. Every 20 minutes or so he can flash his torch in coded bursts to comrades situated up and down the line. The changing of the guard is quite eerie: 20 men walking in utter silence in the dead of night in crocodile fashion in the shadows, replacing 20 along the fence.
North Star Media Village fireman, on box
Now this is a cracker of a box. Or rather two boxes. Our village has its own fire station, which is basically a tent with two fire engines inside. And next to each engine is a guard on a box. 24/7. I've got a smile from leftie and a nod from rightie, but that's it. Come on lads, give us a wave. (Ooops, forgot you cannot read this blog from inside China).
Bird's Nest Stadium guard at night, on box
This was taken about 5am on a swelteringly sticky day. What a job. He's not even facing the stadium.
Main Press Centre guard, on box
You can see him in the background, just standing there. No laughs from this one, but then the world's media go past him each day and if he was seen displaying anything close to a grin he'd be court marshalled before you could say "cheese".
Run-of-the-mill building guard, not on box
I liked this guy. He was at a non-Games building and (I'm guessing the reason here) that's why he had no box. He also moved about a bit, part skulk, part break-dance. You had to be there. Then again, he might just have been on his lunch hour from a nearby box elsewhere.
What a terrific blog. I only just caught it for the first time.
Posted by: A G | 18 June 2009 at 11:57 PM
Thanks A G.
Better late than never.
Posted by: Nick H | 23 August 2009 at 04:23 PM