Boy soldiers

Whilst scouting round the edge of the Olympic Green yesterday, I came across an astonishingly young-looking soldier in one of the sentry boxes.

We are used to the private security firms who provide the gate guards for offices and apartment buildings here using mostly gawky country kids who are not far into their teens - but this, this was a private in the PLA, assigned to a prestigious, on-display-to-the-public duty. And he looked like He Kexin's younger brother - maybe 12, at most!

Is it just another sign of my own advancing age, that I imagine all the soldiers look younger?