St. Joseph’s Church on Wangfujing Dajie.

Tiananmen (The Gate of Heavenly Peace).

The Workers’ Cultural Palace, which used to be the Emperor’s own place of worship.

Tower on the outer wall of the Forbidden City.

Socialist design on the top of the Museum of Chinese History (currently closed for rewriting).

Detail on railings in Tiananmen Square.

The obligatory Socialist-Realist sculpture in front of Mao’s mausoleum.

Another sculpture.

Kites flying in front of the Great Hall of the People: Tiananmen Square isn’t all about tanks running over students.

Another view of Tiananmen and the painting of the big guy himself. The slogan says (roughly) “For the Chinese Socialist Republic” and “For the People of the World”.

Sign in an underpass: “Pedestrian walkway. Sitting and lying down forbidden.”

Hutong (alleyway).

Barbecued snake on a stick at the Donganmen night market.

Strawberries. I didn’t realise that they were going to deep fry them.

Sushi shop. I was slightly amused by the name, which reads “Edogawa” (the main river in Tokyo) in Japanese, despite what it says underneath.