The ceremony begins precisely at sunrise and last exactly 127 seconds. In the dark, when we arrived, a few hundred people have formed a long queue, waiting. When the guard signals the square is open — officially an hour before dawn — the crowd trailed in and bee lined toward the flag pole. People accumulated in front of a short-fence distancing the pole about 10 meters away, like a physics experiment of magnetism. Uniformed security guards are few paces away: stood motionlessly. A patrol car floats back and forth, blasting recorded message on order and theft prevention. The sky is still black.
Hordes of people came in waves. Many of them wearing a same-color baseball hat and herded by a little flag. Many more do not seem to belong to any organized groups. Mass transportation has not started operating yet. Where do these people come from? I guesstimate at least 6,000 here.
Sky turned grey and street lights went off all of the sudden. Rowdy and drunk teenagers sobered up and got absorbed into the anxious population. That barf-into-grass young guy struggled to look respectful. (Why did he came at all?) Everyone sensed something is about to happen and cranked their necks toward the same direction. The speakers suddenly blasted out an anthem. The red national flag went up the pole slowly. Hundreds of digital camera screens lit up.
127 seconds later, it was over. Cars zoomed on.
A team of vendors, triggered by the unspoken signal, sprinted across the wide street, jumped into the square and attacked the dissipating crowd, “Kites? stamps? flags? post-cards?” City is now officially awake.
May 26, 2007. Sunrise at 4:51am in Beijing, TianAnMen Square.