Every morning, three hundred and sixty-five days a year, hundreds of thousands of people watch the ritual of raising the Chinese flag over Beijing's main square, Tiananmen. Everything happens in a strict sequence, verified to the second, the soldiers of the National Liberation Army raise the flag to a thirty-meter height, chiseling out no more and no less in a minute, but exactly one hundred and eighty steps. All guidebooks say that Tiananmen Square is the first place to go in Beijing, as there are a huge number of attractions related to the history and culture of the Chinese people.→