Tiananmen Square

David and Chairman MaoWe’re not paranoid. Really, we’re not.

Still, it’s easy to get that way. You can’t pull up the official Web site of the Dalai Lama here. You can’t get to Tibet.org, either. Instead you get this:

The page you are looking for is currently unavailable. The Web site might be experiencing technical difficulties, or you may need to adjust your browser settings.

So when the subway we were riding breezed past the Tiananmen East and Tiananmen West subway stations without stopping, we jumped to the conclusion that they had closed the stations for political reasons.

The Chinese authorities seem capable of anything. After all, earlier in the day they revoked the visa of former Olympic speedskater and humanitarian activist Joey Cheek.

So what was the nefarious reason for the subway closing?

A 7-foot-6 inch hoopster.

Yao Ming was carrying the Olympic torch through Tiananmen Square while our subway was hurtling below it.

You can’t blame China’s rotten policies for this debacle, but our own rotten timing.

Eventually we hoofed it back to Tiananmen Square and took the obligatory pictures by the famous portrait of Chairman Mao.

We weren’t the only Westerners there, but we didn’t do a very good job of blending into the crowd, thanks to our bright yellow Olympic credential badges.

You don’t think the guards noticed us, do you?