Appreciate your reasonable responses. It's of course possible that they change the security level at times especially if the Forbidden City was closed as you sa

Appreciate your reasonable responses. It's of course possible that they change the security level at times especially if the Forbidden City was closed as you say. It likely also changes around the anniversary of the Tiananmen Square Massacre. Examining my own feelings on this matter further, I think I had a sense that the security at the Eiffel was very focused on keeping weapons and bombs out, while the focus at Tiananmen was more on controlling the crowd and tracking who was there. For example the police station and armored vehicles were inside the square. At the Eiffel the security was outside only.