Jason in China

Wednesday, August 13, 2008

Olympic Green and Slalom Kayak Competition

http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5i9MP60OmxLT-nQgsa-bhH8PiNJCwD92GP1V00
http://www.travelchinaguide.com/beijing-olympic/venues.htm
http://welcome2olympics.blogspot.com/2008/08/model-of-olympic-green.html

The "One Dream, One World" decal on the Fencing Hall, which is housed in the IBC.

The IBC is a monstrous building. I had to stand faraway to capture the entire thing! This will be the Beijing Convention Center after the Olympics are completed. The Fencing Hall is on the left side of the building. This river runs the length of the Olympic Green. It has fountain jets and music, sort of like the Bellagio in Las Vegas, but the poor man's version.

This is a shot of the Water Cube to the left, the Pangu Hotel is the tall building on the left, and the Indoor Stadium on the right which hosts Gymnastics. Bill Gates and his family are staying in the top three floors!

You can see the water jets along the river as you can look over the (L to R) Water Cube, Pangu Hotel, Indoor Stadium, and the IBC.

Luckily this water is too far away from the flame to extinguish it!! The flame is on top of the stadium.

Included in this picture is the Olympic Tower that lights up at night in dazzling colors (see previous post).

This is as close as I will get to the flame.

I went into some sponsor buildings and luckily for Brian I found a model train set! This is in the GE building where I learned about how they are making cleaner, better products to lessen the carbon imprint. This was part of a demonstration on their new hybrid train engine.

Ron- Is this Fred Drew in Beijing??? I swore he was at the JP Igloo!!!

http://en.beijing2008.cn/sports/canoekayakslalom/

After a 136 RMB cab ride, I arrived to by a 300 RMB scalped ticket to see the Semifinals and Finals of the Men's Canoe/Kayak Slaloms. The venue was a great layout, but it seemed to be missing some finishing touches such as weeding and the grass being cut.

Great view of both the right and left arms of the course. It was in a U shape, so I was at the bottom of the U looking out.

Off in the distance is the flat water venue where they are holding the rowing competition, and flat water canoe/kayak.

I had to get at least one picture of me in the post!

Here is the only American I saw in competition. I think he finished 6th in the Canoe!

Sunday, August 10, 2008

The Games Have Begun!

Volkswagen is the official car! This very sharp looking!

With no ticket to get in, and having to work after the ceremony, I settled for the best alternative... watching on the huge Panasonic tv inside. It was like I was almost there, except there was no sound! The Chinese watching with us cheered the US team, although China received the most cheers several times!

No one cheered.

Outside the Fencing Hall. Our vantage point for the fireworks was where the people are standing.

The Bird's Nest is in the center of the picture behind the buildings. You can see the Olympic Tower glowing. Each diamond changes colors and it has sparkle lights on it.

This is a better picture of the tower with the Olympic colors.

The fireworks end the Opening Ceremony. All my other pictures didn't come out that well!

This is my friend Geoff that I work with. He is actually my boss as well.

The fireworks continue to the North of us! This is my friend Nick that works at another venue.

I am glad to get the games started, but my night didn't end there. I had to work the graveyard shift over night!!

Monday, July 28, 2008

Tiananman Square

http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/environment/2008-07-28-china_N.htm?csp=34
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/29/sports/olympics/29china.html

We are 10 days away from the the Games!! I have switched to 12 hour shifts out of necessity to cover for the lack of help that I have at work.

I took the day off to eat with my translator's parent's whom were visiting Beijing. We ate at a restaurant that served food from their hometown in the southern part of China. It had many chili peppers, making me sweat at a high rate, and also making my stomach complete a floor gymnastics routine later in the day! It was good, and I am not sure I will be able to to ever eat fake Chinese food again in the States (Broccoli and Beef, Sweet and Sour Chicken, Orange Chicken, etc.).
Today's weather was again foul, which followed 3 unfavorable days. Things will really need to clear up fast here.

http://www.travelchinaguide.com/attraction/beijing/tianan.htm

I took the time to walk my lunch off at Tiananman Square. The viewing of Chairman Mao was over, but I will see him before I leave. The Square is getting decked out in tens of thousands of flowers.

These official clocks are all around the city counting down until the time of the Opening Ceremonies. This one is located in from of the Chinese National Museum to the East of the Square.

Looking to the North at the Forbidden City entrance.

Preparations continue with nice flowers being placed all over the city!

National Congress building to the West of the Square.

Chairman Mao's body lays at rest in his Memorial Hall to the South of the Square. I plan to visit him during the hours of 8 am-12 pm one of these days!

http://www.beijing-visitor.com/index.php?cID=416&pID=1110

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Centre_for_the_Performing_Arts_(China) (not the Shoe in Columbus, but the Egg in Beijing!)

The beautiful National Grand Theater comprises actually three performance theaters on the inside.

You have to walk under this water to get into the building. They had to be creative when this was built because it could not be taller than the Congress building, so they had to go down!

http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/breakingnews/world/view/20080728-151222/Olympics-Curious-Beijing-folk-given-dont-ask-list
This is a very interesting article. I think my students have asked me all the questions already, so I guess they didn't get the handout. They also want to know about the NBA!

Monday, July 21, 2008

Special for Ron!

Located only a short 5 minute cab ride from my hotel!!!!
It's the one venue that will be packed with sell outs the entire Olympics!!!

Drum roll.........

That's right! It's Ping Pong, I mean Table Tennis at the Peking University Gymnasium!!

http://en.beijing2008.cn/cptvenues/venues/pkg/n214073913.shtml

http://en.beijing2008.cn/cptvenues/venues/pkg/headlines/n214208251.shtml

http://en.beijing2008.cn/cptvenues/venues/pkg/headlines/pkg0712/index.shtml

Ron- Thanks for taking interest in Ping Pong... I mean Table Tennis! The section in the stores that are usually for footballs, and baseball equipment is taken up by ping pong and badminton!

Street Vendors at Wangfuging

www.thebeijingguide.com/wangfujing/wangfujing_night.html

www.youtube.com/watch?v=T_qlGBmk8hw- I don't know what this will show because it is blocked here in China. It is supposed to be of the street vendors.

If unidentifiable aromas, and mystery meat is not your thing, you should probably avoid the street vendors at Wangfuging!
Here is a short list of items to choose from:

Baby sharks, iguana tails, dung beetles, cicadas, snake, sea urchins, starfish, scorpions, silkworms, grasshoppers, seahorses, squid-- all on a stick!

Dog liver with vegetables

Goat lungs with red peppers

Mixed cow and horse stew

Lizard legs

Dog brain soup

This is the actual shopping mall street. It is a very street where people come to hang out night and day. It sort of reminded me of Las Vegas a little bit with all its lights and people strolling about.

Sunday, July 20, 2008

Old Summer Palace

http://www.travelchinaguide.com/attraction/beijing/yuanmingyuan.htm

http://www.kinabaloo.com/yuanmingyuan.html

http://www.thebeijingguide.com/old_summer_palace/index.html

The onslaught of the umbrella's never ends here!!! It was around 90 degrees today with the sun!! It is surprising to note that some of the governments steps to cut pollution (albeit temporary) seem to be working. It only took shutting down 200 factories in and around the city, ban over 1.5 million cars from driving everyday, and shut down all construction sites. I finally battled through the umbrellas to get a ticket to get into the Old Summer Palace grounds.

This is home to an enormous amount of Lotus. The Lotus is very important to the Chinese. Lotus covered all the lakes/ponds on the grounds.

You can actually see the mountains to the West. This week was the first week I realized that mountains actually exist! I guess when you are constantly shrouded in smog you can't see the mountains!

I didn't have time for a boat ride through the lotus, but this sure looks like fun!

This was a 1:150 scale model of what the whole place used to look like before it was destroyed in 1860 by the French and Brits. My buddy Moose would've spent all day in here trying to figure out where to set up his train set to service all the buildings!

These are the only remains from the destruction in 1860. All other buildings were made of wood, so they were burned down. The marble still stands, but I was shocked by the amount of climbing on all these pieces by the public. We could never imagine climbing on relics that are 250 years old in the US. We would be kept 20 feet away!!

Here is the foundation of an amazing building. Too bad we can only imagine what it had been like.

To end the day I couldn't tried this maze around the gazebo, unfortunately the burrito from the night before was calling my name, so I had to high tail it back to the Somerset!