Friends and Tanks

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I think I am too relaxed from my foot massage last night because I had trouble getting up today. My legs were a bit sore, still, but feeling better. The medicine is really helping! I was a bit late to meet my friend, newly arrived to Beijing, but luckily, he was later than I was.

We headed to the military museum upon the recommendation of a friend. Upon seeing the throngs of people we realized it was the only indoor tourist attraction in the city. And today it rained--no, poured--the whole day. But it was free and much bigger than we had anticipated.

For the most part, the museum was very well done and thorough and quite impressive. Lots of good signs and tasteful displays. I learned a bit about Chinese history. But...
1. There were photos of dolphins and monkeys and women on beaches (we never did figure out the point of that exhibit--are these new military tactics?)
2. The English translations were a bit off from time to time. Which would lead to giggling, which felt horribly inappropriate in a military museum.
3. There were a lot of replicas. In some cases, there were replicas of things you shouldn't need replicas of, like pens. Or things that were obviously replicas, like boats--what miniature isn't a real boat? (We never did see any real boats.) There were so many replicas we started to wonder if the original even existed in some cases.

I can't lie, the tanks and guns were my favorite section. There were thousands of them; some were mislabeled, some were replaced by photos, but the sheer volume was impressive. And really, how do you go wrong with a multi-national tank collection?

When we left at 3ish it was still raining. So we ran across the street for a late McD's lunch, feeling lucky to get a table. Then it was off to dinner. We ended up at a pizza and pasta place close to the metro that had cheap beer. A delicious end to an amusing and educational day.

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Photos

I hope that rope holds
#183 on the list of things dad told you to never do

Captured Steering Wheel and Light!!
Yes, the sign really said, "captured".

"Used grenade"
Are you sure about that?

"Replica"
Sadly, no real boats were found in the museum.

Me, tanks, awesome
I believe this was taken in front of a US tank, a Russian tank, and a Japanese tank.

Peeking
He's 6'9' and assures me there was nothing in there.