On my first full day in Beijing I had planned to visit the embalmed Chairman Mao in his hideously ugly Mausoleum, which lies in the centre of Tiananmen Square, however that plan was thwarted by the National People’s Congress which was being held that week at the Great Hall of the People on the west side of the square. At other times of year you may see this notice: “Not always open when the corpse of the Great Helmsman requires attention.” …which I find rather hysterical for a dead guy more akin to hitler than God! The general public was definitely being kept at arms length from the communist big-wigs with identical looking PLA soldiers stationed along the length and breadth of the surrounding…