Thursday, August 21, 2008
Photos!
I've got all my photos posted to Facebook. If you aren't my friend there yet, well, now's a good time. :)
Wednesday, August 20, 2008
Back In Town
Still working on those photos. Hopefully I'll have them up soon.
The trip back was uneventful; however, I'm still amazed/confused by the movie selection on the plane:
The trip back was uneventful; however, I'm still amazed/confused by the movie selection on the plane:
- Catch and Release (2006)
- Brother Bear (2003)
- Chocolat (2000)
Heck, I'm pretty sure I saw the last of those on my very first overseas flight, to Germany, way back in 2001...
Sunday, August 17, 2008
Better than I could put it
This article in the New York Times summarizes better than I could all of the flat-out weirdness that goes on here. Sometimes it's like an anime is leaking into the real world.
Beijing Impressions, Day 6 continued
I don't see many non-Chinese restaurants around town (besides McDonald's), but middle eastern food appears to be popular. I've noticed many outposts of "Holiland" [sic] around town.
So tonight was boxing. Not a sport I have a huge interest in, but hey, I had the ticket, so why not? In the course of the evening, I noticed several interesting things.
Tomorrow morning, I head back to the States. It's been a lot of fun here, but I'm feeling the need to get back. If nothing else, my feet can't take much more of this. My blisters have blisters, and it hurts to walk.
But! Stay tuned a bit longer, as I have tons of photos to post once I get back to my computer.
So tonight was boxing. Not a sport I have a huge interest in, but hey, I had the ticket, so why not? In the course of the evening, I noticed several interesting things.
- Each event has a new team of cheerleaders, with new costumes, dancing a new routine that's themed to the sport at hand.
- The Russians also cheer for countries that used to belong to the USSR. I think that's pretty sporting of them.
- I know I'm probably the only geek who listens to the Video Game Music channel on AOL Radio. But I swear, they used a sound clip from Kameo. Did anyone actually play that game?
Tomorrow morning, I head back to the States. It's been a lot of fun here, but I'm feeling the need to get back. If nothing else, my feet can't take much more of this. My blisters have blisters, and it hurts to walk.
But! Stay tuned a bit longer, as I have tons of photos to post once I get back to my computer.
Beijing Impressions, Day 6
Today I took it pretty easy, relatively speaking. Headed over to the Temple of Heaven, one of four that surrounds the city (Heaven, Earth, Sun, and Moon).
It was filled to the brim with people... well, doing things. Singing. Dancing. Tennis. Badminton. Judo. Tai chi. Poker. Dominos. Even hacky-sack - and in China, it's apparently a sport for the elderly. The place was also incredibly loud, and every twenty paces you'd walk into some new sound zone. Still, it was pretty cool, and made me feel like I was actually meeting the people, rather than just their tourist traps.
Have I mentioned water calligraphy? It's this cool thing I've seen a few times now; these guys move down the pavement, writing what I assume to be poetry with a sponge on a stick. It evaporates after a few minutes, of course, but still. It reminds me of the Buddhists, who create incredibly elaborate mandalas out of sand - then destroy them when they're done.
As for the temple itself, you'll have to see the pictures. Uniquely for China, they were all circular - apparently the circle represents heaven, and the square earth. Some of them were also suspiciously minimalist, and put me in a Zelda frame of mind. Maybe if I play the flute, it'll create a teleporter or summon a boss...
Went to lunch at Bookworm, which was a combination of bookstore, restaurant, cafe, and bar - except all together, not in sections. I thought it was pretty neat, and it's apparently a gathering place for local, English-speaking expats. Spotted a BBC reporter huddled in a corner with some sound editing equipment, probably preparing a report.
Got a massage in the afternoon, and I have to say, this part of the world deserves its reputation for doing them well. And no, there were no happy endings, you pervs.
Although: There was a sign on the wall which said: "Due to the new regulation before the 2008 Olympic Games, all guests must wear underwear, please." That raises a number of questions, but I'll leave them to your imagination.
More to come...
It was filled to the brim with people... well, doing things. Singing. Dancing. Tennis. Badminton. Judo. Tai chi. Poker. Dominos. Even hacky-sack - and in China, it's apparently a sport for the elderly. The place was also incredibly loud, and every twenty paces you'd walk into some new sound zone. Still, it was pretty cool, and made me feel like I was actually meeting the people, rather than just their tourist traps.
Have I mentioned water calligraphy? It's this cool thing I've seen a few times now; these guys move down the pavement, writing what I assume to be poetry with a sponge on a stick. It evaporates after a few minutes, of course, but still. It reminds me of the Buddhists, who create incredibly elaborate mandalas out of sand - then destroy them when they're done.
As for the temple itself, you'll have to see the pictures. Uniquely for China, they were all circular - apparently the circle represents heaven, and the square earth. Some of them were also suspiciously minimalist, and put me in a Zelda frame of mind. Maybe if I play the flute, it'll create a teleporter or summon a boss...
Went to lunch at Bookworm, which was a combination of bookstore, restaurant, cafe, and bar - except all together, not in sections. I thought it was pretty neat, and it's apparently a gathering place for local, English-speaking expats. Spotted a BBC reporter huddled in a corner with some sound editing equipment, probably preparing a report.
Got a massage in the afternoon, and I have to say, this part of the world deserves its reputation for doing them well. And no, there were no happy endings, you pervs.
Although: There was a sign on the wall which said: "Due to the new regulation before the 2008 Olympic Games, all guests must wear underwear, please." That raises a number of questions, but I'll leave them to your imagination.
More to come...
Saturday, August 16, 2008
Holy crap, I wasn't kidding
Remember what I was saying about volunteers? Apparently, out of two million applicants, they chose 100,000 people to work at the venues, and 400,000 more are scattered around the city.
Something like one out of every thirty people in this city is helping with the Games. That's just... wow.
Something like one out of every thirty people in this city is helping with the Games. That's just... wow.
Beijing Impressions, Day 5 continued
A quick rant first: there's a standard way of writing Chinese words in Western characters, known as Pinyin. Among other things, it includes accents that indicate the correct tone for each syllable. As a result, you know exactly how to pronounce any given word, once you've seen it written down.
But here's what drives me nuts: almost all of the signs I see around town (including street signs) completely omit the accents. As a result, the Pinyin is almost useless, because you have no idea how to pronounce the words, and the pronounciation matters. I'm sure there's some good reason, but it still sucks.
Anyway, after the Great Wall, I headed over to the Ming tombs. All of that dynasty's emperors are buried in this one valley, which is just overflowing with these tombs. A necropolis, I believe is the term.
Anyway, they all follow the same basic pattern. It's a bit like a mini Forbidden City, actually; a series of ever more imposing gates and halls. But at the back, there's a Soul Tower that houses the emperor's grave marker. And behind that, the tunnel plunges straight into the mountainside, and that's where the tomb is.
The one I visited had actually been excavated, so you could go inside. It was pretty impressive, actually, and vaguely Egyptian. A few hundred feet down, there are these rooms carved out, and lined with white marble. Unfortunately, the Chinese didn't mummify their dead (and fuck you, Brendan Frasier), so the coffins were in pretty bad shape by the time they found them. Those are replicas, but everything else was real. It was a surprisingly interesting excursion, on the whole.
Noticed on the way home: peaches must be in season around here. The roadside stands are crammed with them, and Charles gave me a bag when I arrived.
Tomorrow should be a fairly lazy day, with any luck - I'm just going to wander around town a bit, hit anything I may have missed. Boxing is tomorrow night. Stay tuned.
But here's what drives me nuts: almost all of the signs I see around town (including street signs) completely omit the accents. As a result, the Pinyin is almost useless, because you have no idea how to pronounce the words, and the pronounciation matters. I'm sure there's some good reason, but it still sucks.
Anyway, after the Great Wall, I headed over to the Ming tombs. All of that dynasty's emperors are buried in this one valley, which is just overflowing with these tombs. A necropolis, I believe is the term.
Anyway, they all follow the same basic pattern. It's a bit like a mini Forbidden City, actually; a series of ever more imposing gates and halls. But at the back, there's a Soul Tower that houses the emperor's grave marker. And behind that, the tunnel plunges straight into the mountainside, and that's where the tomb is.
The one I visited had actually been excavated, so you could go inside. It was pretty impressive, actually, and vaguely Egyptian. A few hundred feet down, there are these rooms carved out, and lined with white marble. Unfortunately, the Chinese didn't mummify their dead (and fuck you, Brendan Frasier), so the coffins were in pretty bad shape by the time they found them. Those are replicas, but everything else was real. It was a surprisingly interesting excursion, on the whole.
Noticed on the way home: peaches must be in season around here. The roadside stands are crammed with them, and Charles gave me a bag when I arrived.
Tomorrow should be a fairly lazy day, with any luck - I'm just going to wander around town a bit, hit anything I may have missed. Boxing is tomorrow night. Stay tuned.
Beijing Impressions, Day 5
Headed off to the Great Wall this morning. Confession: I cheated and took the cable car to the top. Yeah, I know, I'm not proud of myself either, but my feet were still killing me from yesterday. It could be worse; I could have stopped at the Great Wall Starbucks. There used to be one at the Forbidden City too.
That bottle of tea I mentioned yesterday? RMB 10 on top of the wall; how's that for a captive audience markup. Yeah, it's an awfully commercialized place. Disney-fied, too: the part I visited has been heavily reconstructed, and probably looks relatively little like it did originally. The wall may have been a zillion miles long once upon a time, but these days the vast majority is falling apart or has vanished completely.
It's also super, super, super crowded. Claustrophobes need not apply; it's shoulder to shoulder in some parts. Consider: most of the paving stones across the top of wall have been worn concave in just a few decades of foot traffic. You also have to watch your step, quite literally, as it's incredibly steep, uneven, and generally trecherous.
Of course, everyone knows all this in advance, but they still go, because it's one of the Eight Wonders of the World and all. Just to put the myth to rest: you can't see it from space, thank you very much.
In other news: You still can't swing a cat within an hour of Beijing without hitting an athlete; they were everywhere up on the wall. We passed a bunch of very serious-looking bicyclers on the way back into Beijing; considering the road race events are held in that area, I wouldn't be surprised if they were athletes out training.
More to come about the afternoon festivities...
That bottle of tea I mentioned yesterday? RMB 10 on top of the wall; how's that for a captive audience markup. Yeah, it's an awfully commercialized place. Disney-fied, too: the part I visited has been heavily reconstructed, and probably looks relatively little like it did originally. The wall may have been a zillion miles long once upon a time, but these days the vast majority is falling apart or has vanished completely.
It's also super, super, super crowded. Claustrophobes need not apply; it's shoulder to shoulder in some parts. Consider: most of the paving stones across the top of wall have been worn concave in just a few decades of foot traffic. You also have to watch your step, quite literally, as it's incredibly steep, uneven, and generally trecherous.
Of course, everyone knows all this in advance, but they still go, because it's one of the Eight Wonders of the World and all. Just to put the myth to rest: you can't see it from space, thank you very much.
In other news: You still can't swing a cat within an hour of Beijing without hitting an athlete; they were everywhere up on the wall. We passed a bunch of very serious-looking bicyclers on the way back into Beijing; considering the road race events are held in that area, I wouldn't be surprised if they were athletes out training.
More to come about the afternoon festivities...
Friday, August 15, 2008
Beijing Impressions, Day 4 continued
This evening I had a ticket for track and field, which means that I finally got to go to the Olympic Green and the National Stadium, otherwise known as the Bird's Nest.
What I hadn't realized from seeing it on TV is that the cross-hatched look isn't just a skin; that's the building's entire superstructure. The randomly criss-crossing girders continue all the way in. It's really quite stunning, like a magic trick that just gets better once you know how it's done. Ditto for the other buildings around it, like the National Aquatic Center and the International Broadcast Center. You'll just have to see the pictures.
The place holds 91,000, which is only a bit larger than Memorial Stadium in Lincoln (81,000). But I have to tell you, this one looks much, much, much bigger inside. In fact, I'm pretty sure it's the largest building I've ever set foot inside.
They play snippets of music in between events; they seem to like movie music. So far, I'm quite certain I've heard Amelie, American Beauty, and Pirates of the Caribbean. Plus, I could swear the cheerleaders were dancing to Rammstein.
Oh, and the discus robot! They were using these little souped-up RC cars to ferry the discuses (discii?) back, so that the officials didn't have to run around. I totally want one now.
Turns out that the Olympic Green isn't so much a green as an area where traffic has been roped off. For the central mall, instead of a field, they have a sort of sunken garden that's full of restaurants, artwork, shelters, light shows, etc. It was actually decently cool.
Thought on the way home: as horrific as the Beijing traffic has been, I realized that this is only half of it. For the duration of the games, even-numbered cars are only allowed into the city core on even-numbered days and vice versa. It must be completely insane here normally.
The little convenience store downstairs is proving useful in other ways. A bottle of tea cost me RMB 3 there; the identical bottle at the venues costs RMB 5. So that's a captive audience markup of, what, 66%? Nice...
Tomorrow: the Great Wall. Stay tuned.
What I hadn't realized from seeing it on TV is that the cross-hatched look isn't just a skin; that's the building's entire superstructure. The randomly criss-crossing girders continue all the way in. It's really quite stunning, like a magic trick that just gets better once you know how it's done. Ditto for the other buildings around it, like the National Aquatic Center and the International Broadcast Center. You'll just have to see the pictures.
The place holds 91,000, which is only a bit larger than Memorial Stadium in Lincoln (81,000). But I have to tell you, this one looks much, much, much bigger inside. In fact, I'm pretty sure it's the largest building I've ever set foot inside.
They play snippets of music in between events; they seem to like movie music. So far, I'm quite certain I've heard Amelie, American Beauty, and Pirates of the Caribbean. Plus, I could swear the cheerleaders were dancing to Rammstein.
Oh, and the discus robot! They were using these little souped-up RC cars to ferry the discuses (discii?) back, so that the officials didn't have to run around. I totally want one now.
Turns out that the Olympic Green isn't so much a green as an area where traffic has been roped off. For the central mall, instead of a field, they have a sort of sunken garden that's full of restaurants, artwork, shelters, light shows, etc. It was actually decently cool.
Thought on the way home: as horrific as the Beijing traffic has been, I realized that this is only half of it. For the duration of the games, even-numbered cars are only allowed into the city core on even-numbered days and vice versa. It must be completely insane here normally.
The little convenience store downstairs is proving useful in other ways. A bottle of tea cost me RMB 3 there; the identical bottle at the venues costs RMB 5. So that's a captive audience markup of, what, 66%? Nice...
Tomorrow: the Great Wall. Stay tuned.
Beijing Impressions, Day 4
So today, the Forbidden City. And do mean all day; I probably spent almost eight hours there. My feet feel like hamburger right now.
Anyway, the place is beyond big. It's stupidly big. Offensively big. Depressingly big, even. I kinda wanted to burn it down just for having the audacity to exist. And only half it is even accessable! The rest is, forgive the pun, still forbidden.
It probably didn't help that I went early and worked back to front: I was absolutely alone for quite a while, which was creepy in one of the world's busiest tourist attractions. Empty courtyard after empty courtyard, bordered by locked room after locked room. Look in the windows and you see forgotten relics, fading in the sun and gathering dust. It just goes on and on and on, to the point where it's just sad more than anything.
For the geeks, let me help you triangulate the Forbidden City: The dungeons from the original Legend of Zelda. The castle from Ico. The first half-hour of Labyrinth. And the final area of the Mulan level from Kingdom Hearts II. Mix them together, scale up to life size, and there you go.
What did I like? Well, they had some little sub-museums, one of which housed a large collection of clocks, both Chinese-made and from around the world. Some of them even still worked! Though, a curiousity: why were all of the Chinese-made clocks still labeled with Roman numerals, even though they were made for an imperial audience?
Promising development: the bathrooms had both squat and Western-style toilets, with each stall clearly labeled. Very nice. Less promising development: the chunk of bone still attached to a piece of my beef at lunch. Ugh.
Random musing: right now, Beijing is probably the most cosmopolitan city on earth. I mean, I'm pretty sure I've run into fans (or athletes) from pretty much every country I've ever heard of, and quite a few I haven't. Not even New York has that kind of turnout.
Make a quick dash through Tiananmen Square, which is... a square. Seriously, it's just a big open plaza between China's main government buildings, where some bad juju went down once upon a time. Nothing much to see, except maybe Chairman Mao. Seriously, he's preserved in a glass coffin, anyone can go in and have a look. It was only in the morning, though, so I missed out. :(
They do mean business: it's the only non-sporting venue I've been to in town where you had to go through a security check just to get in. And I'm pretty sure someone tried to give me a copy of Chairman Mao's Little Red Cookbook.
Random thing that keeps happening to me: a local guy will come up wanting either a picture with me, or more disturbingly, a picture of me with their girlfriend. I... don't get it. Maybe I need to coin some offensive new term for jungle fever in the Asian-on-Anglo context.
It was a beautiful, sunny day, not a cloud in the sky. First day like that we've had since I've been here. I think the rain last night must have pulled all the crap out of the air. Too bad the sun made the already bright pavement blinding. I literally had to wander across with my eyes nearly closed.
More to come about the evening...
Anyway, the place is beyond big. It's stupidly big. Offensively big. Depressingly big, even. I kinda wanted to burn it down just for having the audacity to exist. And only half it is even accessable! The rest is, forgive the pun, still forbidden.
It probably didn't help that I went early and worked back to front: I was absolutely alone for quite a while, which was creepy in one of the world's busiest tourist attractions. Empty courtyard after empty courtyard, bordered by locked room after locked room. Look in the windows and you see forgotten relics, fading in the sun and gathering dust. It just goes on and on and on, to the point where it's just sad more than anything.
For the geeks, let me help you triangulate the Forbidden City: The dungeons from the original Legend of Zelda. The castle from Ico. The first half-hour of Labyrinth. And the final area of the Mulan level from Kingdom Hearts II. Mix them together, scale up to life size, and there you go.
What did I like? Well, they had some little sub-museums, one of which housed a large collection of clocks, both Chinese-made and from around the world. Some of them even still worked! Though, a curiousity: why were all of the Chinese-made clocks still labeled with Roman numerals, even though they were made for an imperial audience?
Promising development: the bathrooms had both squat and Western-style toilets, with each stall clearly labeled. Very nice. Less promising development: the chunk of bone still attached to a piece of my beef at lunch. Ugh.
Random musing: right now, Beijing is probably the most cosmopolitan city on earth. I mean, I'm pretty sure I've run into fans (or athletes) from pretty much every country I've ever heard of, and quite a few I haven't. Not even New York has that kind of turnout.
Make a quick dash through Tiananmen Square, which is... a square. Seriously, it's just a big open plaza between China's main government buildings, where some bad juju went down once upon a time. Nothing much to see, except maybe Chairman Mao. Seriously, he's preserved in a glass coffin, anyone can go in and have a look. It was only in the morning, though, so I missed out. :(
They do mean business: it's the only non-sporting venue I've been to in town where you had to go through a security check just to get in. And I'm pretty sure someone tried to give me a copy of Chairman Mao's Little Red Cookbook.
Random thing that keeps happening to me: a local guy will come up wanting either a picture with me, or more disturbingly, a picture of me with their girlfriend. I... don't get it. Maybe I need to coin some offensive new term for jungle fever in the Asian-on-Anglo context.
It was a beautiful, sunny day, not a cloud in the sky. First day like that we've had since I've been here. I think the rain last night must have pulled all the crap out of the air. Too bad the sun made the already bright pavement blinding. I literally had to wander across with my eyes nearly closed.
More to come about the evening...
Thursday, August 14, 2008
Beijing Impressions, Day 3
Went to see wrestling today; Greco-Roman, I believe. Among others, I spotted fellow Husker Brad Vering. He got knocked out in the quarterfinals, but still, always nice to see a familiar face.
I'm pretty sure that nearly all of the non-natives in the audience were current or former wrestlers themselves. Never seen so much cauliflower ear in my life.
I've also gotten used to the ear-splitting screams and chants whenever a Chinese athlete comes out; it's only natural at events dominated by the home crowd. Still, I got pretty annoyed today when they kept chanting while the athletes were competing, which hadn't really happened before. Couldn't hear yourself think, and for some sports, it seems pretty disrespectful?
Finally had some real Chinese food; fast food, true, but at least it wasn't ramen. The place was called "Harmonious Valley", if I penetrated the Engrish correctly. Most WTF moment: the Thousand Island dressing that accompanied the salad was Kewpie branded.
So there are these Olympic mascots, whose colors match the ring colors. They're everywhere, on everything, merchandised even more heavily than the Olympic logos themselves. Anyway, after staring at them for the upteenth time on my placemat, I finally realized that they've interpreted the colors to represent the five elements of traditional Chinese medicine/feng shui/etc. Pretty clever, actually.
I don't think I've mentioned Charles before; he's my semi-host here in Beijing. He's a friend of my dad's, and he's been giving me pointers on where to go and what to do. In my hunt for gifts for friends back home (besides Olympic merchandising), he pointed me to a place called Silk Road.
Boy, was it a trip. The only way I can describe it is like a bazaar or flea market, except compressed and stacked five stories high. Like a department store, except with stalls, and you get accosted by pushy salespeople every few steps. Never encountered anything quite like it, even in Asia. Anyways, found some great stuff, but some of you readers will be the recipients, so no hints.
Charles also said that the place was a mandatory stop for foreign tourists, and boy, was he kidding. The place was jam-packed, and hardly a Chinese face in sight. Instead, I lost count of the number of athletes and coaches I spotted (they're all wearing credentials). Not to mention, I recognized a ton of people who'd been sitting near me at the various venues. In a city of seventeen million, the odds ought to be astronomical against, but this place was totally a Nexus of All Worlds.
Finally succeeded in snagging some more tickets, so I'll be attending track & field tomorrow night at the Bird's Nest (hooray!). I plan on arriving early and staying late so as to snag lots of photos of it and the Water Cube nearby. During the day, I think I'll hit up the Forbidden City and Tiananmen Square. God knows I'm going to need all day, the place is simply massive. More to come tomorrow...
I'm pretty sure that nearly all of the non-natives in the audience were current or former wrestlers themselves. Never seen so much cauliflower ear in my life.
I've also gotten used to the ear-splitting screams and chants whenever a Chinese athlete comes out; it's only natural at events dominated by the home crowd. Still, I got pretty annoyed today when they kept chanting while the athletes were competing, which hadn't really happened before. Couldn't hear yourself think, and for some sports, it seems pretty disrespectful?
Finally had some real Chinese food; fast food, true, but at least it wasn't ramen. The place was called "Harmonious Valley", if I penetrated the Engrish correctly. Most WTF moment: the Thousand Island dressing that accompanied the salad was Kewpie branded.
So there are these Olympic mascots, whose colors match the ring colors. They're everywhere, on everything, merchandised even more heavily than the Olympic logos themselves. Anyway, after staring at them for the upteenth time on my placemat, I finally realized that they've interpreted the colors to represent the five elements of traditional Chinese medicine/feng shui/etc. Pretty clever, actually.
I don't think I've mentioned Charles before; he's my semi-host here in Beijing. He's a friend of my dad's, and he's been giving me pointers on where to go and what to do. In my hunt for gifts for friends back home (besides Olympic merchandising), he pointed me to a place called Silk Road.
Boy, was it a trip. The only way I can describe it is like a bazaar or flea market, except compressed and stacked five stories high. Like a department store, except with stalls, and you get accosted by pushy salespeople every few steps. Never encountered anything quite like it, even in Asia. Anyways, found some great stuff, but some of you readers will be the recipients, so no hints.
Charles also said that the place was a mandatory stop for foreign tourists, and boy, was he kidding. The place was jam-packed, and hardly a Chinese face in sight. Instead, I lost count of the number of athletes and coaches I spotted (they're all wearing credentials). Not to mention, I recognized a ton of people who'd been sitting near me at the various venues. In a city of seventeen million, the odds ought to be astronomical against, but this place was totally a Nexus of All Worlds.
Finally succeeded in snagging some more tickets, so I'll be attending track & field tomorrow night at the Bird's Nest (hooray!). I plan on arriving early and staying late so as to snag lots of photos of it and the Water Cube nearby. During the day, I think I'll hit up the Forbidden City and Tiananmen Square. God knows I'm going to need all day, the place is simply massive. More to come tomorrow...
Wednesday, August 13, 2008
Beijing Impressions, Day 2 continued
Today's event was weightlifting, and wouldn't you know: I got girls again. That's not what it was when I bought them, but they can and obviously did rearrange the schedule a bit in the intervening months. Better luck tomorrow, perhaps? Do women wrestle?
It was pretty interesting, even if it wasn't what I was expecting. The Chinese girl broke a bunch of world records and completely blew away everyone else. The local crowd, as you might imagine, just went bonkers. Jacques Rogge was in the audience. Also, it means that I finally got to see a medal ceremony!
I keep noticing more little details about the training and such. The kids who switched out the weights between competitors always stood in unison, and waited until everyone was back to sit down in unison. Have I mentioned that there are cheerleaders, too? Two squads, in fact: the girls in bikinis, and the normally dressed ones in the audience. At least they weren't playing insipid (and mostly American) pop music in between every single volley like they did yesterday.
Thoughts on the subway:
While wandering around Wangfujing looking for arts and crafts stuff, I stumbled upon the Olympics merchandise flagship store. It had tens of thousands of different things, as opposed to the few hundred at the venue stands. My dad has no idea how lucky he is; I wouldn't have been able to find half the crap he wants me to bring back for him. So far, his tab is up to RMB 1525 ($222) and he still wants more.
I think that's it for tonight. The air conditioner in my room seems to have died, which sucks more than you can imagine. It looks like it might just have frosted up, so hopefully it'll be better by tomorrow.
It was pretty interesting, even if it wasn't what I was expecting. The Chinese girl broke a bunch of world records and completely blew away everyone else. The local crowd, as you might imagine, just went bonkers. Jacques Rogge was in the audience. Also, it means that I finally got to see a medal ceremony!
I keep noticing more little details about the training and such. The kids who switched out the weights between competitors always stood in unison, and waited until everyone was back to sit down in unison. Have I mentioned that there are cheerleaders, too? Two squads, in fact: the girls in bikinis, and the normally dressed ones in the audience. At least they weren't playing insipid (and mostly American) pop music in between every single volley like they did yesterday.
Thoughts on the subway:
- Kappa is a very popular brand, and I have no idea why.
- I'm really quite tall, here. Why didn't I notice until today?
- When a beggar went through the train asking for cash, nearly everyone I saw (including me) gave him some. Conclude what you will.
- I may just have a biased sample, but Beijing seems like a very young city. How do you square that with the one child policy? Maybe it has to do with the urban migration patterns.
While wandering around Wangfujing looking for arts and crafts stuff, I stumbled upon the Olympics merchandise flagship store. It had tens of thousands of different things, as opposed to the few hundred at the venue stands. My dad has no idea how lucky he is; I wouldn't have been able to find half the crap he wants me to bring back for him. So far, his tab is up to RMB 1525 ($222) and he still wants more.
I think that's it for tonight. The air conditioner in my room seems to have died, which sucks more than you can imagine. It looks like it might just have frosted up, so hopefully it'll be better by tomorrow.
Beijing Impressions, Day 2
In the morning, I went to the Summer Palace, the emperors' little getaway outside of town. Supposedly it's only a square mile or so, much smaller than the Forbidden City, but it feels much larger. On the photos, it's going to look like a hillside dominated by one huge temple, but I counted at least a hundred named buildings on my little tourist map alone.
An indication of Beijing's smog: I wasn't able to get a very clear picture of anything I wasn't directly in front of. It looked like fog at first - except it never burned off, even at high noon on a hot day. In fact, there were a few photos I didn't manage to take at all - I just ended up with a frame of white haze.
I was there right at 8:30, when the place supposedly opens, and yet when I got inside it was already chock-full of people, including a few hundred doing tai chi to musical accompanyment. The locals must know something I don't.
I can't believe how much I've been sweating. I've had a half-liter of bottle of liquid every hour or so from dawn til dusk, yet I only had to piss once. My face feels sandy at the end of the day, it's so covered in salt crystals. The locals must either have had the sweat conditioned out of them, or they're operating at a Lance Armstrong level of fluid efficiency. Either way, I'm well on my way to joining them.
Chickened out of a real Chinese meal once again. There was this really nice restaurant inside the palace, and the menus were even in English. Trouble was, they were set menus, and all of the choices included several fish courses. Sorry, but I just can't take it. Nothing against Chinese cuisine - I don't like fish in Italian or Mexican, either.
Instead, my salvation has been steamed, pork-filled buns (baozi). They're omnipresent, hard to mess up, and you can get a dozen for the aforementioned $1.25. I did spot a McDonald's down the street from the campus, but I'm not going to sink to that level. Tonight's ramen: roast beef.
More thoughts to come on the remainder of the day...
An indication of Beijing's smog: I wasn't able to get a very clear picture of anything I wasn't directly in front of. It looked like fog at first - except it never burned off, even at high noon on a hot day. In fact, there were a few photos I didn't manage to take at all - I just ended up with a frame of white haze.
I was there right at 8:30, when the place supposedly opens, and yet when I got inside it was already chock-full of people, including a few hundred doing tai chi to musical accompanyment. The locals must know something I don't.
I can't believe how much I've been sweating. I've had a half-liter of bottle of liquid every hour or so from dawn til dusk, yet I only had to piss once. My face feels sandy at the end of the day, it's so covered in salt crystals. The locals must either have had the sweat conditioned out of them, or they're operating at a Lance Armstrong level of fluid efficiency. Either way, I'm well on my way to joining them.
Chickened out of a real Chinese meal once again. There was this really nice restaurant inside the palace, and the menus were even in English. Trouble was, they were set menus, and all of the choices included several fish courses. Sorry, but I just can't take it. Nothing against Chinese cuisine - I don't like fish in Italian or Mexican, either.
Instead, my salvation has been steamed, pork-filled buns (baozi). They're omnipresent, hard to mess up, and you can get a dozen for the aforementioned $1.25. I did spot a McDonald's down the street from the campus, but I'm not going to sink to that level. Tonight's ramen: roast beef.
More thoughts to come on the remainder of the day...
Tuesday, August 12, 2008
Clarification
Just to be clear, I'm not so paranoid that I think I'm actually being watched. It's just that China has so overwhelmingly many government employees, even compared to other communist or post-communist nations I've visited (e.g. Cuba). You're pretty much always in someone's line of sight, is what I'm trying to say.
Now it's off for breakfast to the one shop where (I'm hoping) translations won't be necessary: the bakery on the corner.
Now it's off for breakfast to the one shop where (I'm hoping) translations won't be necessary: the bakery on the corner.
Beijing Impressions, Day 1 continued
Well THAT was quick. I overlooked the fine print in the spectator's guide: the Olympic Green is not a commons. You have to have a ticket to an event at one of those venues for the day to get in. I guess I'll just have to wait to get those nighttime pictures of the Water Cube. There's hope; I'm hunting down some additional tickets as we speak.
Being here, you'd hardly recognize China for the totalitarian society it's made out to be, except for one little thing: it seems like there's always someone watching. Not electronically, but in person. Every single checkpoint of any kind, no matter how insignificant, is manned by a guard. They're standing on little boxes along fences, and at freeway off-ramps. You can't look lost for more than a few seconds without someone appearing from out of the blue to help you. It's... well, it's something else.
I'm convinced that at least 10% of Beijing's 17 million people volunteered for the games. The volunteers are EVERYWHERE. There's pretty much always one in sight from the moment I leave the campus. The venues are teeming with them. They've even got 24/7 information booths set up at every single subway stop.
Several of the Beijing subway lines are brand spanking new, and boy, can you see the seams. Almost none of the transfer stations actually involve two tracks crossing. Instead, most of the transfers will send you down a long tunnel to a new station - and that's if you're lucky. A few of them actually send you outside and around the block.
It's also... well, not slow exactly, but I get the impression that the stops are a lot farther apart than, say, the Washington D.C. or Paris metros. It's covering roughly the same geographic area, but with many fewer stations.
If it weren't for the dorm's convenience store downstairs, I would have long since starved to death. I'm far enough out from the major tourist areas that the nearby restaurants have zip-zilch-nada in the way of English. One of them even transliterated the menu into Pinyin without translating it, which strikes me as worse than useless.
Even this ramen I'm eating right now is more complex than anything you could find in the states: it has no less than three different flavor packets to add. Oh well; it may not be haute Chinese cuisine, but it is authentic Chinese cuisine...
Tomorrow morning I believe I'm headed to the Summer Palace, so that ought to provide some nice photo-taking opportunities.
Being here, you'd hardly recognize China for the totalitarian society it's made out to be, except for one little thing: it seems like there's always someone watching. Not electronically, but in person. Every single checkpoint of any kind, no matter how insignificant, is manned by a guard. They're standing on little boxes along fences, and at freeway off-ramps. You can't look lost for more than a few seconds without someone appearing from out of the blue to help you. It's... well, it's something else.
I'm convinced that at least 10% of Beijing's 17 million people volunteered for the games. The volunteers are EVERYWHERE. There's pretty much always one in sight from the moment I leave the campus. The venues are teeming with them. They've even got 24/7 information booths set up at every single subway stop.
Several of the Beijing subway lines are brand spanking new, and boy, can you see the seams. Almost none of the transfer stations actually involve two tracks crossing. Instead, most of the transfers will send you down a long tunnel to a new station - and that's if you're lucky. A few of them actually send you outside and around the block.
It's also... well, not slow exactly, but I get the impression that the stops are a lot farther apart than, say, the Washington D.C. or Paris metros. It's covering roughly the same geographic area, but with many fewer stations.
If it weren't for the dorm's convenience store downstairs, I would have long since starved to death. I'm far enough out from the major tourist areas that the nearby restaurants have zip-zilch-nada in the way of English. One of them even transliterated the menu into Pinyin without translating it, which strikes me as worse than useless.
Even this ramen I'm eating right now is more complex than anything you could find in the states: it has no less than three different flavor packets to add. Oh well; it may not be haute Chinese cuisine, but it is authentic Chinese cuisine...
Tomorrow morning I believe I'm headed to the Summer Palace, so that ought to provide some nice photo-taking opportunities.
Beijing Impressions, Day 1
Went to see Beach Volleyball this morning. Attending an outdoor event, any outdoor event, was a stupendously stupid idea. If there's a breeze and the sun's behind a cloud, it's not so bad, but otherwise this whole city is a sauna. Luckily, the rest of the things I'm going to are indoors.
The famous smog doesn't seem that bad... I can breathe fine, at least, and I used to be asthmatic. At worst, the haze is bad enough that buildings seem a lot more distant then they really are.
It's scary when there are entire sections dressed in identical shirts that read "CHEERING FROM BEIJING WORKERS"; it's worse when shifts of volunteers show up marching in formation.
You're not allowed to bring in outside food or drink, there's no re-entry to the venues once you leave, and the sessions can last for up to six hours. So basically, I'm going to be dining on a lot of concession stand food. There's not much variety, and it's nutritionally disastrous, but at least it's dirt cheap. Nothing's more than $1.50, and most of it is half that.
Oh, squat toilets, how I've missed you. Added bonus: the toilet paper is located communially, outside the stalls - if there's any at all. Best advice I've ever received: when travelling in Asia, carry some Kleenex travel packs with you at all times.
Wandered around Chaoyang Park, the area surrounding the beach volleyball venue - tennis courts, ping pong tables, hiking trails, a small amusement park, etc. Most WTF-y thing I've seen so far: "Battle Field of Happiness CS", which appeared to be some sort of outdoor paintball/lasertag arena, very loosely themed around Counter-Strike. They've also got some big signs depicting LAPD SWAT teams, which can't possibly be right.
Saw the Bird's Nest and the Water Cube as we drove by. They're beautiful, just unreal, even more striking in person than they seem on television.
Usually in Asia I can get find some BBC or CNN for English-speaking background noise while I'm in my room, but no such luck here. No matter - the Olympics are on twelve different channels at any given time.
I'm staying at this dorm for international students. On the one hand, it's pretty convenient: close to a subway stop, and the lodging is free. But since it's their summer holiday, I'm (practically) the only person here, and it's like staying in an abandoned hotel. Creepier, actually, as they don't seem fond of turning on the hallway lights. There's also not going to be much nightlife for me, since the doors lock at 11:00. :(
That's about it for now. I think I might head over to the Olympic Village once it gets dark and look around, snap some pictures, etc. Expect photos of everything I mention on the blog to be posted on Facebook sooner or later, probably after I get back.
The famous smog doesn't seem that bad... I can breathe fine, at least, and I used to be asthmatic. At worst, the haze is bad enough that buildings seem a lot more distant then they really are.
It's scary when there are entire sections dressed in identical shirts that read "CHEERING FROM BEIJING WORKERS"; it's worse when shifts of volunteers show up marching in formation.
You're not allowed to bring in outside food or drink, there's no re-entry to the venues once you leave, and the sessions can last for up to six hours. So basically, I'm going to be dining on a lot of concession stand food. There's not much variety, and it's nutritionally disastrous, but at least it's dirt cheap. Nothing's more than $1.50, and most of it is half that.
Oh, squat toilets, how I've missed you. Added bonus: the toilet paper is located communially, outside the stalls - if there's any at all. Best advice I've ever received: when travelling in Asia, carry some Kleenex travel packs with you at all times.
Wandered around Chaoyang Park, the area surrounding the beach volleyball venue - tennis courts, ping pong tables, hiking trails, a small amusement park, etc. Most WTF-y thing I've seen so far: "Battle Field of Happiness CS", which appeared to be some sort of outdoor paintball/lasertag arena, very loosely themed around Counter-Strike. They've also got some big signs depicting LAPD SWAT teams, which can't possibly be right.
Saw the Bird's Nest and the Water Cube as we drove by. They're beautiful, just unreal, even more striking in person than they seem on television.
Usually in Asia I can get find some BBC or CNN for English-speaking background noise while I'm in my room, but no such luck here. No matter - the Olympics are on twelve different channels at any given time.
I'm staying at this dorm for international students. On the one hand, it's pretty convenient: close to a subway stop, and the lodging is free. But since it's their summer holiday, I'm (practically) the only person here, and it's like staying in an abandoned hotel. Creepier, actually, as they don't seem fond of turning on the hallway lights. There's also not going to be much nightlife for me, since the doors lock at 11:00. :(
That's about it for now. I think I might head over to the Olympic Village once it gets dark and look around, snap some pictures, etc. Expect photos of everything I mention on the blog to be posted on Facebook sooner or later, probably after I get back.
It's back!
So I'm in Beijing right now, attending the Olympics. I think I might use this opportunity to revive my blog, at least for a while, so I can record my impressions while they're still fresh in my mind. More to come soon!
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