Travel pool note #1 - Pool at Great Hall of the People

Good morning from Beijing, I’ll be your print pooler today and tomorrow. It’s warm at 77 F / 25 C today and sunny with a light haze of smog.

The pool has moved to the Great Hall of the People in advance of POTUS. A supplemental pooler will be with the motorcade for POTUS’s drive from the RON to the Hall. A long double column of white uniformed Chinese police motorcyclists was parked outside the RON.

We passed through the hall itself, featuring giant red carpeted steps and huge expanses of marble, and are now waiting on risers by the entrance which abuts Tiananmen Square. Soldiers are holding large US and Chinese flags. Several Chinese flags are also flying on the square and there are a number of cannons, presumably ready for a welcome salute. A red and gold dais is also waiting.

A band was rehearsing the Star Spangled Banner as we emerged to await the two leaders’ arrival. A couple of hundred Chinese primary schoolchildren in brightly colored outfits are rehearsing their welcome routine by the stairs leading up to the Great Hall, with the girls waving flowers and the boys US and Chinese flags and chanting ‘welcome, welcome, welcome to China’ (so I’m told by a Chinese MFA official)

Arrival is scheduled for 10am.

Danny Kemp

AFP White House Correspondent