Photo by DC Metroblogger

This is the scene at 901 15th Street NW in DC these days. Everyone is moving out of the building. No, the structure is not about to become one less building downtown, the office edifice is being leased whole to a new tenant.

Those of us here now are moving out, moving on. My office is headed to 19th and M Street. There we’ll have better dining options, but I’ll miss the green stuff, the ice cream shops and even the Falun Gong takeovers of McPherson Square.

Not the trashy bums though.

Tonight, Things to Do DC has an Evening at the Embassy of China where you can

step onto foreign soil and experience centuries worth of Chinese history and culture. Our hosts at the Embassy of China are assisting TTD’s Young Professional’s Cultural Society with an evening catered to bringing two different countries together for an in-depth cultural exchange.

And while the TTD/Embassy of China event has authentic Chinese food, music, art, film, and lion dances for you, I would suggest a much more fun version.

First: Go directly to the open bar of Chinese drinks and pound a few 干儿 - lao bai gan’r (Chinese moonshine) until you’re feeling all Nadia Gates.

Second: Head for the Diplomatic Greeting and instead of exchanging “political, cultural and social dialogue” with several of China’s diplomats and hopefully the Ambassador, get all Falun Gong Dafa on their ass.

Third: Race the no-neck security guards to the Embassy gates in a mad dash of organ-protecting fear.

If you make it out the door with your kidneys, celebrate in the Connecticut Avenue turnaround with the ever-present Falun Gong Dafa protesters. If you’re caught, give my love to Drapchi prison.

Falun Gong

Damn these kids are popping up everywhere. Last night, as I went for a long afternoon run, Falun Gongers were over at the White House close to stopping traffic on 17th and making the Secret Service very nervous.

Down by the Capitol Building, they were doing a little back and forth march on the Mall side, the Capitol Police keeping them off the green Capitol grass.

Back at the McPherson Square protest site, the clean-up crew was bagging all the trash, and to their credit, even separating out the recycling.

Still, I doubt they were very effective at much past annoying locals and intriguing tourists. Chinese President Hu Jintao arrived late last night, long after the protesters went to sleepy-time.

Falun Gong Dafa

If you are downtown today, you might wanna check out the massive Falun Gongregation happening in McPherson Square.

Not content with the small ongoing protest in front of the Chinese Embassy on Connecticut Avenue, or last week’s better location of Farragut Park, they’ve now massing for a serious protest - going for numbers as well as location.

I’m going with a completely unscientific 1,000+ Falun Gong Dafa’ers, and based on the backpacks, food, water, and organization, they’re ready for a day-long occupation.

Oh and they’re also shifted tactics. No longer content with the usual “Oh we’re persecuted” line, or last week’s organ harvesting upgrade, now they’re going all out politically too. Chants of “Down with the CCP!”, calling for an end of the Chinese Communist Party is a sign they’ve given up thinking they’ll get anywhere with the current government. Now the Dafaists are for all-out regime change.

Good luck with that, kids. Just be sure to pick up your trash as you leave, or I’ll be calling you out for trashing the park too.

falun gong on the move

Not content with their usual protest space in front of the Chinese Embassy, Falun Gong is now is Farragut Square.

They also changed protest topics and are now saying the Chinese government is organ harvesting from Falun Gong detainees.

Just in time for lunch, they’re backing claims with vivid dissection photo too.

due to popular demand the national gallery of art has extended performances of le ballet mecanique through may 14th. i highly recommend getting down to see/hear it before then.
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