Tiananmen WAS Re: REX84 (was Re: re VLVL Pynchon's eye for detail)

[pynchonoid]

Thanks for digging up that info, Mark.  

The one million people would be standing.  My
significant other took part in many such rallies at
Tiananmen Square during the Cultural Revolution,
before being sent down to the countryside with
millions of other urban youth for re-education through
labor -- and again in 1997 to celebrate the return of
Hong Kong from British control.

I just offered Tiananmen Square as an example of a
place I've been that's supposed to be able to hold 1
million people, that's all. Obviously they'd need more
room for that to live as prisoners. 

You ought to see the college dormitory rooms on the
university campus where my SO grew up -- 6 or 12
students on triple-decked bunkbeds in not much floor
space at all, about as little as you can imagine.

--- Mark Wright AIA <mwaia at yahoo.com> wrote:
> Howdy
> 
> Ever read "Stand on Zanzibar"? 
> 
> Doubtless the Chinese have prison camps, but a lot
> more than 4.7 square
> feet will be devoted to each inmate.
> 
>
http://www.sinohotelguide.com/aboutbeijing/tiananmen/overview.html
> "n 1949, the year  the People's Republic of China
> was founded, major
> renovation work began at Tian'anmen  Square. Three
> subsequent
> renovation projects in 1958, 1976 and 1981 have
> transformed the  square
> into the major landmark it is today. Tian'anmen
> Square now stretches
> 880 meters  from north to south and 500 meters from
> east to west,
> making for a total area of 440,000  square meters.
> That's about the
> size of 60 soccer fields, spacious enough for half a
>  million people to
> all stand on the square at one time."
> 
> One square meter equals 10.76 square feet. 440,000sm
> = 4,734,400sf
> 
> The square is about 4,730,000 square feet, or about
> 2'x2' for each of
> the million people you've been told can occupy the
> square. Doing Tai
> Chi? Sitting cross legged? 
> 
> Just imagine the Porta-potty situation!
> 
> Mark
>

=====
http://pynchonoid.org
"everything connects"


		
__________________________________
Do you Yahoo!?
Yahoo! Mail is new and improved - Check it out!
http://promotions.yahoo.com/new_mail