America's new embassy is gorgeous, state-of-the-art, and the largest embassy in Beijing. We drove to it a couple of days ago to check it out. On our way we saw the embassies of Germany, Canada, Israel, India, Australia, Spain, the EU, etc. All are very nice buildings... then we arrived at the mammoth American mission. Much larger than the others... and a much more impenetrable wall surrounding the embassy! When we tried to take pictures, security guards freaked out. So, no photos. Anyway, it was fun to see. President Bush was there on Friday morning to officially open the Embassy, but the guard told us it still is not "open". Ambassador Randt, the current U.S. Ambassador to the People's Republic of China, declared on Tuesday that the opening of this large embassy (the second largest embassy building in the world - the first is America's embassy in Iraq) underscores the serious nature of the world's most important bilateral relationship in the 21st century: the U.S.-China relationship.
It is also interesting to note that Washington's largest embassy will soon be China's new facility.
