In the refurbished underpasses there was a security check point. It's not like the TSA, but in some sense, it's trying to be. There is an x-ray machine and all bags are being scanned. Then, after your bag is scanned, there are three women and three men with handheld metal detectors checking everyone coming onto the Square (the male guards check men, female check women). I was rather impressed with the measures and the fact that they were being carried out. People were actually being searched. Unfortunately, that appreciation was challenged when on the way out through a different underpass, I saw the security check, but the people coming in weren't being scanned. People without bags could walk straight through. It was more crowded and chaotic at this check. More like the Chinese security checks I am familiar with.
Those are simply the security measures to get out onto the square. On the square there are a bunch of gardens being constructed. All of them impermanent. They were still being constructed when I was there. One was nearly finished, it was a model of the Sutong Bridge, made with flowers and metal. Flowers were planted on both sides of the bridge and on the bridge.
Another was a world map, the continents were green plants. Each city that has had the Olympics was marked with some sort of dot or star--like on a map.
There were a bunch of other gardens still under "construction." You can't really say they were being planted, because the plants were arriving in plastic bins, probably how they were transported from the farms at which they were grown. Upon arrival, they were being potted in plastic containers and then assembled together on metal grids or on the ground.
It makes sense to put security around the Square. History has proved it is a place to be seen on a world stage. So, whether the guards are searching for protest materials or weapons, the security checks will be worthwhile in protecting the reputation of China, not only the pretty flowers.
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