National Day Invitation

In case you were not aware, the Chinese "fourth of July" is October 1st. (I'd say Independence Day, but that gets into the subject of independence from what? and there it gets very tricky so I'll stick with fourth of July)

This year marks sixty years since the founding of "New" China, and large scale preperations are well underway for a massive celebration. Think something along the lines of Olympic Opening Ceremony last year and you're getting close. Despite personal feelings on the matter, it is still quite exciting to be here during this time. It got even more exciting a few days ago when our organization was invited by the government to commemorate this event at the Great Hall of the People and be representative of all the foreign workers in China at the celebrations. This is an astounding honor and one that has all of us pretty excited. Your average Chinese citizen will never see the Great Hall (which is similar to our Capitol) in real life, let alone ever dream about being invited inside. Honor guards stand ramrod straight all along the perimeter twenty fours a day seven days a week, rain or shine. Imagine the guards at the tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Arlington doing that around the US Capitol and thats what happens at the Great Hall of the People.