Shanghai'd

Tim and I spent 3 days at the Beijing Olympic Games this past week, and had a fantastic time.


Day 0, Sunday, we arrived into Beijing's massive new international airport terminal (largest building in the world, we're told). We easily found our way to the train to take us into the city. It was cheap, easy to find and the place was swarming with volunteers. "Excuse me, can I help you?" It was obvious right away that Beijing was putting it ON. We continued to be impressed by the level of friendliness and helpfulness, there would be a volunteer in a 2008 Beijing shirt on literally every corner for the rest of our stay. That night we checked into our hostel, upgraded to a double room on the 3rd floor (hotel occupancy rates were far below expectation, leaving many open rooms), and headed out for a delicious local hotpot restaurant. A pile of sheep vertibrae simmering in a Sichuan spicy (mala) broth provided the energy we would need for the next 3 days.


Day 1, Monday. We were headed first for the women's triathlon. This was the furthest venue from the city. We allowed 3 hours to get there and used all of it, arriving in the stands as the gun went off for the swim. The volunteers were eager and friendly, but we learned their advise was maybe not the most helpful. Anyway, we made it! The location was gorgeous. The swim was held in the Ming Tombs reservoir, which had an island with a pagoda in the center. The water and air was clear, and all the news articles about pollution were forgotten. The race took the women past the stands a total of 11 times before the finish, plus there were huge television screens to watch what was going on throughout the race, including a bike crash which took 3 or so athletes out of the race. It was so much fun to see the athletes up close, we were looking forward to the men's race the next day! After the race, we headed back to Beijing (2 hours to get back), had a nice long lunch and went by the drum and bell towers. They were both closed after the events of the previous week, where there was a stabbing of an American by a Chinese followed by suicide of said Chinese. We walked through a nearby hutong, or alleyway, and there were even volunteers on those corners! Finally it was time to head to the much-anticipated Athletics events, at the main Olympic Green with the water cube and bird's nest. We went by subway a few hours early. Good thing too, since security was super tight (multiple ticket checks, scanning bags, patdowns and metal detectors) and we had to do a lot of walking to get there. We took some pictures around these venues then headed up to our nosebleed seats, which still offered a decent view of the stadium. The highlight of the track and field was when Russian female pole vaulter Yelena Isinbayeva broke her own world record at the end of the night, vaulting 5.05m. She is kind of a celebrity in China, and everyone was going crazy! It was pretty amazing. It was late now, and all the lights were on so we walked around taking pictures of the blue watercube and the red bird's nest, just long enough to miss the subway and the bus home. So we walked until we grabbed a taxi back to our hostel. Long day, we finally went to bed and prepared to do it all again the next day.


Day 2, Tuesday. We got up and headed for the Ming Tombs reservoir again, this time for the Men's triathlon. This time we were a bit wiser on which bus to take, and we arrived in 2 hours. Many of the women who had competed the day before were there to watch, and I got my picture taken with 2 of the American women we had seen place in the top 20! The men's race was also amazing to watch, they didn't have the very clear skies of the day before, it was hot and humid, but the race ended in an exciting sprint finish. After the race, we headed back to Beijing and had lunch and headed for a nap. The Olympics were tiring! That night we didn't have tickets to any events, but were hoping to make it down to the baseball stadium to see US vs. Taiwan. We had some tickets for the next day's US vs. Japan game, but our flight was in the afternoon and we were going to miss it. Hoping for a trade, we brought the Wednesday tickets down to the stadium. There were TONS of scalpers there. It was shocking. Nearby signs said something like: Scalping tickets is not in accordance with Olympics guidelines and should be punished according to appropriate rules and guidelines. Finally, we found a guy who seemed reputable and we successfully traded our tickets, no need to pay any extra :) Inside the stadium, the Taiwanese baseball fans were going crazy! I talked to the guy sitting next to us, this Olympic team was made up of all the best ballers in Taiwan. Contrastly, we didn't recognize anyone on the US team. The US ended up winning the pool-play round 4-2. I was so glad we made it to the game! Afterwards, we were exhausted but headed out to Beijing's "ghost street", a line of 24-hour eateries with hundreds of red lanterns lining the streets. After a $1 bowl of noodles, we were ready for bed.



Day 3, Wednesday. We had 9am tickets to beach volleyball. Beach volleyball is an interesting sport for the Olympics. The pressure and intensity from swimming, gymnastics and diving is not present at all - instead we had a DJ and an MC, and bikini-clad beach babes who came out and danced to the hiphop songs between sets. Not to say the athletes weren't amazing - we saw the semi finals for men's and they were fantastic athletes. The first game was between US and Georgia (whose last names were coincidentally Geor and Gia) where the US won and then between two Brazilian teams. We managed to sneak up to some pretty amazing seats right at the net line. The Chinese photographers in the stands seemed more interested in catching both the beach babes and the decked-out Brazilian fans in the crowd than the athletes. Tim pointed out that the cheering section in China is pretty important, though. They even call it a team - la la dui, the cheering team. After these 2 matches, it was time to head for the airport, get home and get some rest!


Back in Shanghai now, and mostly rested up. Tim posted the photos on Flickr (check it out: www.flickr.com/photos/stelzert). The closing ceremony was last night; the Olympics are over. China's debut was successful, gorgeous and executed wonderfully - with 51 gold medals! What now, we wonder. In Shanghai, at least, we expect attention to be focused on the upcoming 2010 World Expo. Just 2 years to go...