Beijing, Day 4 and 5

well, it's finally over.  the closing ceremonies just ended a few hours ago.  No i didn't get a
tix, although someone was selling it for $700 on beijing craigslist which I totally would've
bought if I hadn't spent so much money already ^^;  I will be eating Top Ramen for the next 2
months.
 
i dare to say that this is absolutely the BEST olympics in modern times.  the organization was
spectacular and everything was planned just right - so meticulous and intricate.  i don't think
another city would spend $47 billion like china did to transform beijing to welcome the world and
they really pulled it off big time.  having seen atlanta olympics, well let's just say that
atlanta doesn't even come close.  i seriously believe london will not be able to measure up to
the magnitude of the presentation from china.
 
one thing china doesn't have shortage of is people.  there are just swarms of workers keeping
everything in order, whether they are a group of men that ensure taxis keep moving along to
volunteers holding signs to your entry gate, or bunch of middle-aged ladies making sure ppl line
up correctly for entering the subway trains.  the flip side is they just have too many workers
doing nothing also b/c well, there's just too many of them or you feel like they're always
watching you and will come and say "no no, you can do that" or "you can't go there".  i call some
of these folks the "arm bandit" - they have red fabric safety pinned around their arm that say
anything from "traffic control volunteer" or "public safety whatever".  it's like straight out of
all those movies about the cultural revolution where they'd bust into your house and arrest you

 
the part i don't look forward to is after a very long day, trying to plan for the next day.
usually i just fall asleep and it's the next morning.  either way, without some type of planning,
the whole day would go to waste.  the tough part is not having any event tickets to begin with so
i'd have to rely on what i could get from the scalpers to pan out the day's activities.  actually
finding tickets isn't the problem.  It all depends on how much you want to spend.
 
8/23 sat day 4
i woke up and decided that i should go watch the mens football final of argentina vs nigeria. so
i headed to the area right outside the beitucheng stations (where the olympic green is) where you
can find tons and tons of scaplers selling all kinds of events.  the match was from noon and it
was already past that, meaning the game had begun so the scaplers *should* be desperate to unload
the tix, but man, they're stubborn!  they wanted 1000rmb ($140) for a match already in progress! 
NO SENSE!! finally, an hour into the game I found a guy who dumped the tix for 500rmb.  The kid
in my facebook album was there getting the tix from the same guy so we saw what's remaining of
the match together.  It was pretty exciting to be at a soccers final match.  My friend Lefak at
work is Nigerian so I kept rooting for them but I guess it was not there day.
 
i had been wanting to catch tae kwon do (me being korean and all) for the last few days, and this
being the last day of it, I made myself over to the gymnasium and again bought a tix right
outside the venue.  Man, watching tae kwon do is very exciting! i'm kinda fueled up.  Might
resume my tae kwon do when i get back to the states.  what, you don't believe me? ;-P  This
heavyweight Korean guy, Cha won the semis, being supported by a few korean fans including myself.
 I didn't stay for the whole thing (could've but was getting late) but he later went on to win
the gold.  DAE HAN MIN GUK PILSEUNG!!!
 
So I saw 5 events in all:
- w beach volleyball gold medal match
- boxing
- track and field (incl 4x100 relay finals)
- soccer gold medal match
- tae kwon do (included medal matches)
I'm totally satisfied now and thankful that i got to see all those matches.
 
8/24 sun day 5
today's the last day of the olympics.  as much as i've been enjoying the games it's actually nice
not to have to plan for an event.  The only thing remaining was the mens marathon and a few gold
medal matches including the US-Spain basketball match.  I spent most of the day at Tian 'an Men,
Forbidden City, wandering around those areas occasioanally stepping into hutongs (old chinese
cluster of homes in alleyways) and just trying to soak it in as much as possible.  I got to this
area in the early morning, did some sightseeing, went to church*, then returned later in the afternoon. 
It's really interesting that I saw blue skies in the morning but by the late afternoon, the sky
was thick with gray haze.  you can not see buildings down a few miles.  Yup, that's the much
discussed beijing air for ya.  *i went to an international church called bicf; religion is not permitted in china and only foreigners can attend.  i had to show my passport at the entrance!
 
One frustrating aspect in travelling alone is getting in your own photos.  Over the last few
days, I've painfully discovered that the Chinese in general have no idea how to take photos, even
the ones with very expensive SLRs.  as the composition is just horrid.  hence i've pretty much
given up on asking ppl for photos.  But I guess the good thing about travelling alone is the
freedom you have to roam about anywhere, making spontaneous decisions to go into this alley or
that.  The language barrier tho is extremely painful here - it's not like Europe where you can
manage to get by w/ English).  I taught my self a few phrases.  "Duo shao qian?" or "how much is
this?" which is great in asking but when they answer back in rapid fire chinese, i have no clue,
thereby negating the fact i asked in chinese in the first place. 

what's really great here is the non-stop olympic coverage.  cctv, china's main broadcasting
station has 12 main channels with a third of them showing olympic coverage at any one time.  and
they show ALL the events.  no crappy, one-sided nbc coverage here!

getting around town is quite easy.  the new subway lines are totally useful and take you to where
you want to go.  they are only 2 yuan or 30 cents!!! incredible. and the subway stations are
spotless.  SPOTLESS.  but more and more, i've been taking the taxi.  the traffic isn't bad at all
(odd and even numbered cars are allowed on alternating days during the games) and the fare is
dirt cheap.  the beginning fare is 10 yuan, which is not even $1.50.  how can you go wrong at
these prices?  The most i've paided thus far is 34 yuan or almost 5 bucks and that's considered
alot.

I thought I'd take a tour to the Great Wall on Mon, the day before I leave, but I could not find
a suitable tour option in time - plus, after all the things I've been doing this week, I'm really
exhausted.  So I decided to save it for the next trip when I'm not travelling alone and have a
better camera on my to capture all the breathtaking views.  I've only scraped the surface of
Beijing so I definitely want to come back here.  Hopefully with a bit of Mandarin next time.  It
really is an amazing city. 

Beijing, Day 2 and 3

it's been a very exhausting few days in beijing.  i'm pretty much out and about all day, only
able to sleep a little, but the experiences are so worth it.
 
yesterday (thu), i went to see womens beach volleyball gold medal match at chaoyang park!  yup,
the one with misty may and keri walsh vs the chinese duo.  my atlanta friend albert is also here and was able to secure us 2 tix to this rowdy match.  i'm not a huge fan of
beach volleyball (i like indoor) but i did enjoy the experience of having "bagged" a gold medal
match at the olympics, albeit it was a miserable time rooting for them in the drenching rain! 
but the toxic beijing air felt very clean afterwards :)  actually, the air quality's been quite
good.  1/2 the cars are off the street, as well as halt to all construction.  i can't imagine
things returning back to normal when this is all over.
 
today (fri) i went to a boxing match during the day.  i had found a ticket for track & field on
beijing craigslist (yes, it's int'l, ain't it cool?).  it was the evening events that included
lots of finals - w 4x400 relay, m 4x100 relay, decatholon, and pole vault to name a few.  it was
super exciting being inside bird's nest!
 
contrary to what you might think (certainly what i thought), i have not eaten too much chinese
food.  i was so looking forward to gorging myself w/ authentic chinese meal for every meal but
the reality is that i wake up, head to the hotel breakfast (not good), then go do the olympic
events.  there's rarely much time to go eat my fill.  i did have authentic peking duck at a very
famous place called Dadong Roast Duck Restaurant.  It was very big, elegant, and looked
expensive.  yet we ate till we couldn't move and it was only $20!  i suppose $20 is big money in
china but it's a steal for us US people.  anyway, i really need you here joann!!!
 
the highlight of this trip was just being able to experience the olympic green, where the bird's
nest and the water cube are.  you can only enter this area if you have a ticket to an event at a venue
in this area.  it's an absolutely gigantic area, yet extremely well designed.  i was just in awe
the whole time looking at the two structures - they are masterpieces of not just architecture but art as
well.  really, i was just speechless to their beauty.
 
youtube video of me in the olympic green:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pEPA1_tT1nk

sat, i'm hoping to catch the last day of tae kwon do.  go korea!

In Beijing!

well i am here!
 
it was quite a trip.  a 15 hour flight from atl to shanghai, a few hours of layover, and then 1.5 more hours from shanghai to beijing!  it's really hot and muggy here and i suppose the air is bad, but it doens't feel any worse than say seoul on a dirty day... but we'll see.
 
my hotel is actually where all the olympic buildings are... as i was walking from the train station earlier to get to the hotel, i saw the birds nest from a distance.  it's really cool.
 
this part of beijing that i saw (around the olympic park) feels like berlin.  very large, flat, and spread out and looks very "communist".  i have yet to see the other areas.
 
i'm already feeling the pains of not speaking a lick of chinese.  what's strange is that i feel as if i'm in japan or korea when walking around, but then as soon as i have a question, the language barrier is painfully apparent.  if i were able to speak in rudimentary amounts, then it'd be much easier.  that aspect has been discouraging but i'm keeping my head up with a positive attitude.
 
i thought about hitting some of the evening street stalls today for dinner but i was way too tired.  after doing some surfing on what i should do tomorrow, i'm gonna crash.  i don't have any event tickets yet but will try to get them.  so far no plans but i hope to reach a good balance between doing olympic related activities and touring beijing in general.
 
i'm also hoping to come back w/ a custom tailored suit.  we'll see how that goes.  apparantly you can get it for $100-200 for some quality ones. that's super cheap when you consider the cheapest custom tailored suits will cost you a good $1000 in the US.

i still can't believe i'm here!