The Reichstag story reminded me of my first experience in Tiananmen
Square in Beijing. It was 1993, and we were there for the Great Wall
Marathon, China's first-ever known unicycling competition. This had been
followed by China's first-ever unicycle track meet, a few minutes
earlier on this day. Jack Halpern somehow talked me into going to this
track meet to talk with some Chinese bigwigs, instead of going to the
Forbidden City with the rest of our group of foreigners. We enjoyed a
very hot taxi ride, and watching kids ride around a track like at every
other unicycle track meet.
Anyway, we finished up at Tiannanmen Square to meet the tourists. While
there, Jack and I decided to get our picture taken riding on that famous
piece of real estate. After about 10 seconds of riding, just enough for
Steve Dressler to get the picture, cops were literally *running* toward
us from several different directions.
Apparently, Tiannanmen Square was not yet ready for unusual stuff to be
photographed there (after the 1989 demonstrations where many people
died). We were told, through a translator, that we were welcome to do
whatever we wanted as long as we were at least a block away from the
square.
It was good enough to rate a "Things not to do..."
http://www.unicycling.com/things/index.htm#10
In 2000, 400+ unicyclists from all over the world gathered there for a
legal "demonstration" of our own during Unicon X!
--
johnfoss - The wilder Wilder
John Foss, the Uni-Cyclone
"jfoss" at "unicycling.com" -- www.unicycling.com
"Read the rules!" -- 'IUF Rulebook'
(http://www.unicycling.org/iuf/rulebook/) -- 'USA Rulebook'
(http://www.unicycling.org/usa/competition/)
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