An afternoon at Ritan Park

Tuesday we met for the first time with a group of Beijing homeschoolers. It was actually our first time with any sort of co-op of homeschoolers, so I wasn't sure what to expect. Since this is not a specifically Catholic or Christian group (I got the feeling that, at least those with whom I met yesterday, they probably have more in common with Salon.com's liberal homeschooler about whom both Rod Dreher and my cousin blogged the other day), I was pretty sure that we wouldn't be passing around the sign-up sheet for an All-Saints party or anything like that. All in all it was a great first meeting with some enthusiastic parents, and Myles really got along well with the other kids (he was disappointed, though, that we didn't do any actually schooling there because I told him it was going to be a meeting about homeschooling. I promised him next time).

What I was expecting, on the other hand, had nothing to do with our meeting, but rather our destination. I've mentioned before, and it has been all over the news, that the central part of Beijing has been in various stages of stepped-up security and lockdown in anticipation of this 60th anniversary celebration. We've been luckily mostly unaffected by the security measures living where we do (except, of course, for the visa checks, which all foreigners have undergone). I thought maybe we'd get to see first hand some of the things about which I've been reading.


Yup, all I saw was just more floral displays. I didn't notice any of the increased police presence, or encounter any road closures. Of course they were there, probably near where I was. I just never got to see them.