One of the main tourist draw cards in Beijing is the Forbidden City which is accessed from the famous Tiananmen Square which features the benign portrait of Mao Tse Tung who looks lovingly across the vast expanse towards his own mausoleum where he lies in a waxen state.

The city becomes even more forbidding when there’s an event in this metropolis of more than 20 million souls.

An event like APEC means that those who trek to the city from all over the country to see the antiquities have to be patient.

And this week has been no exception with two hour queues stretching more than a block.

The crowd was being hustled by chattering blokes wanting to make a few bizzos on the side, offering them a shortcut through the back streets.

They weren’t amused and in fact not too many years ago, hustlers, in this strictly controlled society, would have been swept off to the closest gulag. But not too many years ago, the notion of hosting a meeting of international leaders would also have been out of the question.

The queues formed because the leaders were in town and when the eyes of the world are on a meeting like APEC, eyes are everywhere checking credentials and scanning bags. But the Chinese are used to kowtowing to green uniforms, the People’s Army are as common as fire hydrants in this city.

At least you can see them with the Chinese wanting to impress the world and that they’ve certainly done for the Aging Politicians Enjoying Cocktails, even if their shapeless, silken green shirts would have made negotiating the glass a perilous exercise.

Beijing’s been on its best behaviour.

Our old doctrinaire leader Rob Muldoon would have been impressed, they’ve put into practice his carless days concept. Rego plates ending in odd numbers are allowed out one day and evens the next which cuts the vehicle fleet on the roads in half and when you’ve got five million hitting the roads each day it does make a difference.

Smoke belching factories within a 200 kilometre radius of the city have also been shut down, crematoria are on a go slow and for some reason during the summit, no one’s allowed to get married.

When it’s all over later today, and the big wigs’ jets wing their way to the next cocktail function, the city will return to normal and you’ll once again need breathing apparatus to get around it and Mao’s portrait will once again be lost in the haze.

But hey, at least there’ll be no more queues to get to the Forbidden City!