90% of the volunteers have disappeared
90% of the Olympic flags and banners have been replaced with Paralympic flags and banners
Staff are out testing all the chairlifts that have been installed at the subway stations
It is a new century; one with a strong China, a proud China and a satisfied China. But, everyone wonders, how will the demands of Chinese people be met to keep them satisfied?
How much say will they want in decision making?
How much corruption will they put up with?
How will their demands for a high-consumption lifestyle be fulfilled with such high prices for food and other resources?
How much pollution will they put up with? How will their needs for water, housing and transportation be met?
How will the movement of 250 million or more people to cities be dealt with to keep as many of them (and those already in cities) happy and fulfilled?
How will the aging population's needs be fulfilled?
How much nationalism will need to be generated to keep everyone happy and the country together?
How will this nationalism, increasing domestic terrorism, the drive for resources from around the Globe, the expulsion of waste, the shifting of political and economic power from West to East and so many other pending challenges be dealt with by the rest of the World?
An interesting future awaits. Monday is my first day at BSR; trying to set the World to rights by helping businesses in China and Chinese businesses in particular work out the solutions to some of these problems; or at the very least, helping them become part of the solution rather than part of the problem!
Saturday, August 30, 2008
Reflection on Olympics
Now the Olympics has finished some reflection reveals my Chinese to have improved (as none of the other Olympic related foreigners could speak Chinese, so mine received plenty of warranted praise!). It also reveals that only the Chinese can make an Olympics so boring with nothing happening outside of the sporting stadia. The no-fun Olympics is an understatement with so little cultural, music, street or other festivities taking place. There were very few protests (though a few did happen for half an hour or so each, before being spotted and curtailed) and very few special events.
I also wonder what the stadiums will be used for afterwards. Though several were University gymnasiums, there were specialist softball, baseball, rowing, fencing, hockey, archery and other stadiums built especially. Since the Chinese are not particularly sporty (though when there are so many of them, really only a small % need to be sporty to use the stadiums!), i wonder what will happen to those minority sports. Anyway, there will always be plenty of tourists wanting to look at the stadiums, so that might keep them busy!
There really was an incredible attention to detail with regards to the environmental features of the Olympic venues; global best practise, fancy new technology and plenty of money was thrown together to do some magnificent things. Now, if that could be expanded across Beijing and across China, that would be fantastic. In fact many were wondering that if Beijing could function perfectly well for 2 months with half of the cars of the road, why not make that temporary restriction a permanent one and improve the traffic and atmosphere for everyone...forever? Not possible was the reply, unfortunately. But at least the public have seen what is possible and have seen the blue sky and might demand more of it, and that would be a good start.
I am sure London will be different; well i hope so. Though we might also be security-obsessed, one hopes there will be more fun, more diversity, a better atmosphere, plenty of protests, much more open stadiums and, probably much more traffic!
Whether we can match Beijing for size is definitely not possible. Beijing created an extra 50 bus lines to transport the hundreds of thousands of volunteers, hundreds of thousands of spectators, tens of thousands of media, tens of thousands of athletes, tens of thousands of VIPs and support crew, tens of thousands of security personnel and who-knows-what-else. This kind of organisational ability and planning is incredible. Such incredible planning. Such excellent execution; A shame about the atmosphere and the legacy!
I also wonder what the stadiums will be used for afterwards. Though several were University gymnasiums, there were specialist softball, baseball, rowing, fencing, hockey, archery and other stadiums built especially. Since the Chinese are not particularly sporty (though when there are so many of them, really only a small % need to be sporty to use the stadiums!), i wonder what will happen to those minority sports. Anyway, there will always be plenty of tourists wanting to look at the stadiums, so that might keep them busy!
There really was an incredible attention to detail with regards to the environmental features of the Olympic venues; global best practise, fancy new technology and plenty of money was thrown together to do some magnificent things. Now, if that could be expanded across Beijing and across China, that would be fantastic. In fact many were wondering that if Beijing could function perfectly well for 2 months with half of the cars of the road, why not make that temporary restriction a permanent one and improve the traffic and atmosphere for everyone...forever? Not possible was the reply, unfortunately. But at least the public have seen what is possible and have seen the blue sky and might demand more of it, and that would be a good start.
I am sure London will be different; well i hope so. Though we might also be security-obsessed, one hopes there will be more fun, more diversity, a better atmosphere, plenty of protests, much more open stadiums and, probably much more traffic!
Whether we can match Beijing for size is definitely not possible. Beijing created an extra 50 bus lines to transport the hundreds of thousands of volunteers, hundreds of thousands of spectators, tens of thousands of media, tens of thousands of athletes, tens of thousands of VIPs and support crew, tens of thousands of security personnel and who-knows-what-else. This kind of organisational ability and planning is incredible. Such incredible planning. Such excellent execution; A shame about the atmosphere and the legacy!
Last events of the Olympics
Arriving off the train from Xi'an we wondered over to the mountain bike course to scalp some tickets to the Women's mountain bike race. No Brits involved but it was an enjoyable couple of hours sitting in the woods. Later that evening we went to the Hockey final. The Germans were out in force and created an amazing atmosphere -so much so that the paid 'cheerers' (volunteers paid to cheer for both sides) had nothing to do! We saw the medal ceremony, which was a great demonstration in 'white man' -ness as all the 6 people giving out the medals and flowers were old white men who had some important jobs in the International Olympic Committee or other National Olympic Committees. I do find it rather embarrassing.
Another early morning start for the men's marathon (wow, how do they run so fast after 25 miles of running so fast?) and then it was time to prepare for the evening. Rather disappointing compared to the opening ceremony, and somewhat embarrassing as a Brit (i received several messages from Chinese friends wondering what our 8 minutes was all about). I have to say, when there is a huge stadium, why do we bring 1 bus and about 15 people and 2 unknown singers? Why does the only person anyone recognised (Beckham) only have a 15 second role and how is anyone expected to actually see the tiny little lit-up landscape of London on the side of the bus, or supposed to get the whole umbrella-and-rain thing?
One hopes that in 4 years time LOCOG have done some research about what people know or think about Britain and do not confuse people even more than the Chinese confuse people (since most people know little about Chinese history or culture). If they focus on comedy and rain and sports, they might just be laughed at so much, no-one will care about the sports! I know we cannot spend 100m USD (well, times 7 since we are at least 7 times more expensive than the Chinese) on an opening ceremony, but surely we can do better than the whole bus thing! Anyway, at least people might remember what we did (even if for bad reasons)!
The medal ceremonies (luck marathon runners with theirs in the closing ceremony!) are quite interesting to watch in person. Even during the athletics the whole stadium comes to a standstill; all the other events stop, all the judges, security and spectators (of course) turn to watch the flag raising and listen to the anthem. To be honest it was only watching that, that i finally actually believed that there is some purpose to the Olympics. That, despite the competition between nations, it really is about individuals working incredibly hard to do things others just cannot do.
It is a triumph of the human spirit and ability. It is a celebration and recognition of this. It is about co-operation and friendship amongst the competition. And that is something worth continuing, and something that will be great in London!
Another early morning start for the men's marathon (wow, how do they run so fast after 25 miles of running so fast?) and then it was time to prepare for the evening. Rather disappointing compared to the opening ceremony, and somewhat embarrassing as a Brit (i received several messages from Chinese friends wondering what our 8 minutes was all about). I have to say, when there is a huge stadium, why do we bring 1 bus and about 15 people and 2 unknown singers? Why does the only person anyone recognised (Beckham) only have a 15 second role and how is anyone expected to actually see the tiny little lit-up landscape of London on the side of the bus, or supposed to get the whole umbrella-and-rain thing?
One hopes that in 4 years time LOCOG have done some research about what people know or think about Britain and do not confuse people even more than the Chinese confuse people (since most people know little about Chinese history or culture). If they focus on comedy and rain and sports, they might just be laughed at so much, no-one will care about the sports! I know we cannot spend 100m USD (well, times 7 since we are at least 7 times more expensive than the Chinese) on an opening ceremony, but surely we can do better than the whole bus thing! Anyway, at least people might remember what we did (even if for bad reasons)!
The medal ceremonies (luck marathon runners with theirs in the closing ceremony!) are quite interesting to watch in person. Even during the athletics the whole stadium comes to a standstill; all the other events stop, all the judges, security and spectators (of course) turn to watch the flag raising and listen to the anthem. To be honest it was only watching that, that i finally actually believed that there is some purpose to the Olympics. That, despite the competition between nations, it really is about individuals working incredibly hard to do things others just cannot do.
It is a triumph of the human spirit and ability. It is a celebration and recognition of this. It is about co-operation and friendship amongst the competition. And that is something worth continuing, and something that will be great in London!
Saturday, August 23, 2008
Olympics (well what else is going on?)
Almost 2 weeks after I watched the cycling on the streets of Beijing, I am now preparing to watch the men’s marathon, taking place on the last day of the Olympics. A last day that also includes the handover of the torch to the Mayor of London, so the closing ceremony should not be missed, even if it will not be anything like the opening ceremony.
A number of events have come and been, mostly observed through the BBC live update site online (and accessible by mobile phone, thankfully)! Chinese TV only actually has 3 channels providing live footage of the Olympics and they are always showing the Chinese (understandably) in weightlifting, volleyball, shooting, diving or some of the other sports the Chinese are good at. Though desperate to watch the Brits in some cycling, sailing, rowing or other events, we have been unable to.
We have sometimes wandered to bars in the evenings to watch some of the athletics, when it is on; however most bars are nothing like they would be for the World Cup or European Championship. The atmosphere in Beijing is well, not very atmospheric, without too many big screens anywhere, without any special activities (apart from the sports themselves) and without much to distinguish Olympic Beijing from usual Beijing; the Olympic signs and slogans have been up for years, though I admit that there are many more freshly cut and planted shrubs and trees that green everything up.
A week or so ago we went to the athletics stadium and marveled at the stadium and the entire Olympic complex in terms of size, greenery and, well, size. It is huge. A good 2-3km to walk from one end to the other (i.e. from the Bird’s nest to McDonalds), though with only 1 shop selling souvenirs (and a massive queue to get in), the Chinese have missed a trick there. Plenty of places to buy Coca-cola though; some lessons from the sponsors to the organizers on commercial sales might be needed. I am sure London will have plenty of souvenir shops!
Apart from the pleasure of walking around the complex and scoping out the generally unimpressive sponsors’ exhibition stands, we did, of course, watch some sports on the track. There is nothing too amazing to mention sports-wise, though it was definitely a fun experience and incredibly well organized; not just the security and the front-house organization, but the back-house and the sports themselves. Run to a tight schedule with teams of judges, volunteers, media and others all involved in preparing events, athletes, scores and more.
The atmosphere was half decent, but did get more exciting when Chinese athletes ran past our section of the stadium, cleared the pole vault or was being introduced over the tanoy system. For most of the other athletes there was not much cheering, though some long-jumpers tried. For most Chinese sports is not really something they participate in or even care much about, apart from for the nationalistic pride of their country doing well they would not even watch on TV (as we found in Xi’an, where most Chinese did not really care too much actually).
After a late night being impressed by Mr Bolt’s 100m jaunt, we got up early to watch the women’s marathon in 3 places (plenty of practice watching marathons from Dad running the London) and there were more spectators than I expected. There were a few polite claps sometimes, plenty of oohs and aahs at the 4 (yes, 4) helicopters flying overhead and some frustration from us when it started raining and a million umbrellas came out to block our view (temporarily, thankfully).
There was an attempt to get tickets to watch the track cycling that was unsuccessful, since the velodrome’s capacity is so limited –one hopes that in London they are redrawing the plans for the velodrome to allow 3million or more in to watch British success! Instead we hit some boxing for an hour or two where there were plenty of tickets available.
The highlight of another night at the athletics was being right by the front near the pole vault for the Russian woman’s new World Record which was pretty cool; decent atmosphere and all that. At the stadium we found the volunteers with the best job of the games (compared to those directing cars in car-parks or directing people through security barriers, or hauling hurdles all day long) –they had remote controlled cars (actually looking more like rocket ships) which they were driving all day long to and fro to collect the discus and bring it back to the throwers.
Another early morning start to watch the triathlon turned out to be well worth it, with the venue set in the countryside by a reservoir and mountains. Apart from the threat of the sun ruining everything (2 hours in 35 degree heat with no shade or sun-tan lotion at 11am) we really enjoyed watching the swimmers in front of us and then the runners and cyclists coming past as they did their laps. The added bonus of having a Brit in the top 4 for most of the race helped keep our spirits up, though he faded in the last lap of the run, unfortunately. With seats in front of the giant TV screen we watched the whole thing and had English commentary too (something missing from watching on regular TV)!
3 days in Xi’an tidying some things up in my penultimate week at Plan gave Dad more opportunities to try to be a tourist in China alone; though having me on the end of a mobile phone made his life somewhat easier! He did, though manage to get to, climb and get back from, a Mountain twice the size of the highest mountain in England in one piece (though having gone through two 70 pence backpacks!).
We’re now back in Beijing for the final weekend, and then everyone will start having to get used to a life after the Olympics; dread the thought!
A number of events have come and been, mostly observed through the BBC live update site online (and accessible by mobile phone, thankfully)! Chinese TV only actually has 3 channels providing live footage of the Olympics and they are always showing the Chinese (understandably) in weightlifting, volleyball, shooting, diving or some of the other sports the Chinese are good at. Though desperate to watch the Brits in some cycling, sailing, rowing or other events, we have been unable to.
We have sometimes wandered to bars in the evenings to watch some of the athletics, when it is on; however most bars are nothing like they would be for the World Cup or European Championship. The atmosphere in Beijing is well, not very atmospheric, without too many big screens anywhere, without any special activities (apart from the sports themselves) and without much to distinguish Olympic Beijing from usual Beijing; the Olympic signs and slogans have been up for years, though I admit that there are many more freshly cut and planted shrubs and trees that green everything up.
A week or so ago we went to the athletics stadium and marveled at the stadium and the entire Olympic complex in terms of size, greenery and, well, size. It is huge. A good 2-3km to walk from one end to the other (i.e. from the Bird’s nest to McDonalds), though with only 1 shop selling souvenirs (and a massive queue to get in), the Chinese have missed a trick there. Plenty of places to buy Coca-cola though; some lessons from the sponsors to the organizers on commercial sales might be needed. I am sure London will have plenty of souvenir shops!
Apart from the pleasure of walking around the complex and scoping out the generally unimpressive sponsors’ exhibition stands, we did, of course, watch some sports on the track. There is nothing too amazing to mention sports-wise, though it was definitely a fun experience and incredibly well organized; not just the security and the front-house organization, but the back-house and the sports themselves. Run to a tight schedule with teams of judges, volunteers, media and others all involved in preparing events, athletes, scores and more.
The atmosphere was half decent, but did get more exciting when Chinese athletes ran past our section of the stadium, cleared the pole vault or was being introduced over the tanoy system. For most of the other athletes there was not much cheering, though some long-jumpers tried. For most Chinese sports is not really something they participate in or even care much about, apart from for the nationalistic pride of their country doing well they would not even watch on TV (as we found in Xi’an, where most Chinese did not really care too much actually).
After a late night being impressed by Mr Bolt’s 100m jaunt, we got up early to watch the women’s marathon in 3 places (plenty of practice watching marathons from Dad running the London) and there were more spectators than I expected. There were a few polite claps sometimes, plenty of oohs and aahs at the 4 (yes, 4) helicopters flying overhead and some frustration from us when it started raining and a million umbrellas came out to block our view (temporarily, thankfully).
There was an attempt to get tickets to watch the track cycling that was unsuccessful, since the velodrome’s capacity is so limited –one hopes that in London they are redrawing the plans for the velodrome to allow 3million or more in to watch British success! Instead we hit some boxing for an hour or two where there were plenty of tickets available.
The highlight of another night at the athletics was being right by the front near the pole vault for the Russian woman’s new World Record which was pretty cool; decent atmosphere and all that. At the stadium we found the volunteers with the best job of the games (compared to those directing cars in car-parks or directing people through security barriers, or hauling hurdles all day long) –they had remote controlled cars (actually looking more like rocket ships) which they were driving all day long to and fro to collect the discus and bring it back to the throwers.
Another early morning start to watch the triathlon turned out to be well worth it, with the venue set in the countryside by a reservoir and mountains. Apart from the threat of the sun ruining everything (2 hours in 35 degree heat with no shade or sun-tan lotion at 11am) we really enjoyed watching the swimmers in front of us and then the runners and cyclists coming past as they did their laps. The added bonus of having a Brit in the top 4 for most of the race helped keep our spirits up, though he faded in the last lap of the run, unfortunately. With seats in front of the giant TV screen we watched the whole thing and had English commentary too (something missing from watching on regular TV)!
3 days in Xi’an tidying some things up in my penultimate week at Plan gave Dad more opportunities to try to be a tourist in China alone; though having me on the end of a mobile phone made his life somewhat easier! He did, though manage to get to, climb and get back from, a Mountain twice the size of the highest mountain in England in one piece (though having gone through two 70 pence backpacks!).
We’re now back in Beijing for the final weekend, and then everyone will start having to get used to a life after the Olympics; dread the thought!
Tuesday, August 12, 2008
The customer is never right
The Olympics have shown, yet again, that China want what is best for anyone apart the 'customer'; be it making life easy for customers, giving them useful products or anything else - what is convenient for customers is not important. Instead what is important is what is convenient for the other party, a couple of recent examples:
The government who does not think about the impact of visa policies on business, tourism or even the Olympics. Instead it created policies that are supposed to ensure security but as we have seen with at least 3 protests by foreigners so far, this has not worked. Keeping it relatively easy to get tourist visas but hard to get work visas does not stop potential trouble makers
The subway, who told me that, because my subway card stopped working, I had to get (and pay for) a new one or go to a special station to complain. So the deposit and value stored on my card can only be recovered at the cost of who knows how much time!
And what makes all this worse than other countries is the attitude that accompanies these decisions; which make it seem like the customer's fault (even if it is no-one's fault); wondering why the system is as it is, is to act/be stupid. This reflects Chinese society where no-one is allowed to question authority. This is an ancient cultural trait as well as the consequence of an authoritarian government.
There is never anything to be gained from arguing with, or questioning, a Chinese person or the Chinese system. You will never win and rarely feel better -even after slogging insults!
In a box
Yesterday I had a chance to walk around the Olympic Green (you need a ticket to get in), where the main stadiums are and the 12 main sponsors have built pavillions. The area is very park-like and the stadiums look impressive. Each of the pavillions was specific to the sponsor with different themes and all intended to be better than the others -some even had queues to get in they were so popular.
We only went inside 1 of them, the Coca-Cola one, though as VIPs we did not have to queue. I commented I must be the least important VIP of the entire games. After drinking lots of soft drinks and eating a meal at McDonalds (sponsor) that was somewhat unrecognisable from the usual salads they serve, we headed to the basketball stadium.
It's another brand new stadium that looks spectacular from both in and out. We had great views from the Coke box alongside the half-way line and felt suitably special :) The stadium was not full with 10% or so of the regular seats empty and many more of the media, reserved and other special seats empty too. So, the atmosphere was not incredible, even though it was
The second game, Aus vs
There seems to be the need for a
Good news that 'Team GB' have 2 golds. I guess I saw the women's cyclist somewhere in the pack of women that rode by on sunday but I'll have to check my video recording in slow-mo!
Saturday, August 09, 2008
The cycling -how close can the people get to the Olympics?
After an hour of indecision of where to watch the cycling -downtown might be crowded, foot bridges with good views might be closed, could i use the subway to watch in 2 places etc, i finally headed out into the suburbs. At the station exit, the volunteers did not know where the cyclists would pass exactly, even though i found the route 20m away. Most of the volunteers really only know such general information as to be rather useless it seems. My friend could not get answer to when the trains from nearby Tianjin would end as he has tickets to some football there and they did not know if they would be extended to help people get back to Beijing
Apart from the rather useless volunteers wasting their time all over the city either having no-one to help or not being able to help, but satisfied with the addition to their CV; the other interesting group are the security.
I found some white barriers, all 4 different kinds of volunteers mingling nearby and 5 different types of security too. There was the regular police, the regular 'public security', special Olympic security, special
Despite several loud protests (the Chinese love a good loud argument) we scuffled back and wondered when the cyclists would turn up. Until 15 min before they arrived the road was still open with plenty of regular traffic and the odd cyclist practicing for their later events to keep us on our toes and confuse us.
Fear not, when the lead 2 came through it was after at least 12 other cars (mostly typical black Audis with tinted windows and occasionally the odd flashing light) had actually stopped to inspect us and another 8 vehicles in the lead cavalcade including police coaches, police vans and other weird contraptions.
We got all excited for the 10 seconds from when we saw them till they had past and then looked for the 'pack'. 16 minutes later they turned up incredibly close together and then they were gone. It was all rather quick. Could only do 1 of a) watch, b) take photo, c) take video. I sort of managed b) and c) and ended up not really doing a)!!
Memories of 1st ever live Olympics event? Well it was a shame we could not just watch wherever we wanted to and string out along the road; it was cool to sort of feel in the spirit and since the race was not on tv, there's not much else to do!
Looking forward to the women's basketball Monday night though- It should last a bit longer than the cycling :) ....and the good news is that there has been a bit of wind and the pollution has cleared. woo hoo
It's started
We hired a room in a restaurant for the day and from 2pm started playing board games and mah jiang (traditional chinese game) whilst flicking between Toy Story and Olympic stuff on TV. After dinner we gradually got nearer 8pm and all kinds of friends of friends turned up to pack out little room.
During the ceremony itself we would sometimes dash to the window to see the fireworks (we were about a mile or two away from the stadium) and other times go 'ooh' or 'aah' especially when there were hundreds of incredibly well co-ordinated people doing fancy things with oars, drums, lights or (memorably) block letters of a printing press. We all liked the cute children that seemed to pop up every now and again though we weren't always sure why they were there.
Everyone else translated occasionally for me -not really the language parts but the meaning of the cultural relevance and we all generally thought it was very good. Then came the painful 2 hours of athlete/country introductions only punctuated by some cries of 'hao shuai' or 'mei nv' ='so handsome' or 'very beautiful girl'.
The mystery over the translation of Great Britain was solved (Chinese translation was 'England' rather than UK or GB, so I wonder what the non-English parts of GB think about that) and finally the huge Chinese team turned up, the speeches could me made, the athlete's vow taken (in Chinese only strangely -maybe its only the Chinese who might cheat, desperate as they are to be a national hero!) and the flame lit.
After midnight we wondered outside but the fireworks did not go on that long, so we all headed home. Finally IT has started. It really is impossible to understate the importance of IT for China domestically or Internationally; yet at the end of the day most events can only be watched on TV and it will be over in a couple of weeks.
None-the-less, I'll try to make the most of it, lookout for things to do and just read the numerous media stories that try desperately to find a new angle on the event or on China and wonder what will go wrong... be it pollution (absolutely awful today for the cycling) or security (already been 4 people kicked out the country for scaling a pole and hanging a 'free tibet' flag earlier in the week and some others kicked out for unfurling something similar in Tiananmen; though none reported in Chinese media of course).
More reports to come, but feel free to read or delete as you wish!
Friday, August 08, 2008
A special morning
After a few days in Xi'an (where i handed in my resignation effective end of August) me and John returned to Beijing this morning and took the bus from the West Station all through town to where we live in the East, through Tiananmen etc.
We actually came on the train from Tibet (though we got on at Xi'an) and it was not a particularly exciting journey, except the guy next to me had got 1 ticket to the opening ceremony from booking online last year and was traveling from Xi Ning (30 hours away) to Beijing for it. As we got closer to Beijing and light dawned we saw mist over the fields, but as we got into Beijing it was still 'misty' and even now, at 9.30am visibility is absolutely awful, which is a shame.
All the Olympic street signs had been up for months, even the scaffolding that was up around most key buildings making them look beautiful for the big day had been taken down last week. The first signs of the 'special day' was on the bus as the conductor was selling special tickets (just for today) and although most people had already used their card to swipe on, they still (me included) bought an extra 'special' ticket. Indeed, during the journey it became clear people were riding buses just to collect the special tickets (several different versions, only available today).
Next, from the bus, we noticed long lines outside all the post offices -of course today is the only day you can get special stamps commemorating the Olympics (unless there are more special ones on the closing plenary day too). John got a call from his friend -he had been queuing all night at a bank to get a special 10 Yuan note, only available today.
As we went through Tiananmen, it was closed for hundreds of cheer leaders who were practicing, it seems, for the cavalcades of important leaders who will be coming through for lunch with President Hu and the others. The TV on the bus informed everyone some roads will be closed for this lunch, as well as the torch relay as the torch makes its way to the stadium tonight.
The streets are very bare (apart from the legions of volunteers, police, army and all kinds of other 'groups') for a 9am rush hour -partly because everyone in Beijing gets the day off work today; a consequence of having the opening ceremony on a friday i suppose, but it had to be on the 8th -the special number that it is!
We actually came on the train from Tibet (though we got on at Xi'an) and it was not a particularly exciting journey, except the guy next to me had got 1 ticket to the opening ceremony from booking online last year and was traveling from Xi Ning (30 hours away) to Beijing for it. As we got closer to Beijing and light dawned we saw mist over the fields, but as we got into Beijing it was still 'misty' and even now, at 9.30am visibility is absolutely awful, which is a shame.
All the Olympic street signs had been up for months, even the scaffolding that was up around most key buildings making them look beautiful for the big day had been taken down last week. The first signs of the 'special day' was on the bus as the conductor was selling special tickets (just for today) and although most people had already used their card to swipe on, they still (me included) bought an extra 'special' ticket. Indeed, during the journey it became clear people were riding buses just to collect the special tickets (several different versions, only available today).
Next, from the bus, we noticed long lines outside all the post offices -of course today is the only day you can get special stamps commemorating the Olympics (unless there are more special ones on the closing plenary day too). John got a call from his friend -he had been queuing all night at a bank to get a special 10 Yuan note, only available today.
As we went through Tiananmen, it was closed for hundreds of cheer leaders who were practicing, it seems, for the cavalcades of important leaders who will be coming through for lunch with President Hu and the others. The TV on the bus informed everyone some roads will be closed for this lunch, as well as the torch relay as the torch makes its way to the stadium tonight.
The streets are very bare (apart from the legions of volunteers, police, army and all kinds of other 'groups') for a 9am rush hour -partly because everyone in Beijing gets the day off work today; a consequence of having the opening ceremony on a friday i suppose, but it had to be on the 8th -the special number that it is!
Saturday, August 02, 2008
The week before...
In the mornings, many of the subway riders are wearing some kind of BOCOG (Beijing Organising Committee of the Olympic Games) badge; the armies of volunteers are out in force (rather bored it seems but enjoying their free kit from Adidas); the air has cleaned up (some well-timed rain maybe?); 2/3rds of all advertising in the central part of the city is Olympic related (either the City's adverts, or the many Olympic sponsors).
The traffic restrictions are still in force; the newspapers and websites around the world have established their subsites with hundreds of stories published daily; everyone is asking who has or has not got tickets; the athletes have mostly arrived; the country villages for athletes and journalists to hang out in are up and running (my flat mate works in the Italian one); companies are desperately wondering how to get their VIPs into the country because of the tightened visa restrictions (and rumours abound as to the potential to get into some of these special events at the last minute if you know the right people, because they might be half-empty!)
6 days to go...
The traffic restrictions are still in force; the newspapers and websites around the world have established their subsites with hundreds of stories published daily; everyone is asking who has or has not got tickets; the athletes have mostly arrived; the country villages for athletes and journalists to hang out in are up and running (my flat mate works in the Italian one); companies are desperately wondering how to get their VIPs into the country because of the tightened visa restrictions (and rumours abound as to the potential to get into some of these special events at the last minute if you know the right people, because they might be half-empty!)
6 days to go...
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)