"From China with love"

Peking.- Angers is really far away from Tiananmen square (Peking). Not only because of the distance - the travel from Angers takes more than a day - but above all because of the complete change of planet. For a first stay in China, the traveller coming from Angers crosses several times throughout different historical periods. In Shanghaï, some locations look as the settings of a science fiction movies while others exhale urban landscapes of ancient times and reminds scenes from "The Sand Pebble" movie.

Credit Picture : Iris

But in Tiananmen square, the traveller is caught by history. The location is the core of China because The Forbidden City, the place of the former imperial regime of China, is there as well as the main symbols of the communist regime which rules China since 1949. At this period of the year, the night falls early in China and, in Peking, the temperature is far below zero degree  and windy. Only a few people dared on Saturday to walk throughout the square. A police patrol was monitoring the comings and goings of lonely and shy Angers visitors.

In spite of its fame and size, and the time of the day (end of afternoon) the Tiananmen square was not jammed up by cars, pedestrians and buses. That tranquility gives some solemnity. Huge monuments enlighted run through the night making the stars invisible. As if China wanted to challenge the sky.