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Published: October 3rd 2012
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I managed to hand wash my clothes last night and they were dry by this morning, an indication of how warm my room really is. I had a bad experience in a laundarette in Buenos Aires once. I dropped my clothes off for the laundry service and on my return I was served by an old woman who resembled my grandma, who duly handed over the perfectly wrapped clean bundle of clothes to me. When I returned to my hotel I discovered five pairs of M & S pants had been stolen! Since then I have had a policy of never using a foreign laundrette.
Clean undies aside let's get on with today's blog.
Having missed out at the London Olympics I thought I would drop by the Beijing Olympic village to see if I could get a ticket to visit this stadium, I was in luck. I managed to negotiate about eight changes on the subway and emerged at the specially built Olympic stadium subway station. As I left the station I could see the 'birds nest' a tangled web of steel and concrete just across the road. I should have read the clues and took better notice
of the buses all neatly queued outside the station. Nevertheless off I went walking a parallel route to the eight lane dual carriage way. Initially I had a great view of the stadium but before long I was having to turn my head and look behind me as the structure gradually got smaller and smaller. Undetered I stopped an old man pushing a moped with a cat sitting in the front basket to ask for directions. Before long we were speaking fluent Chinese to one another and I even found myself filling in the gaps and agreeing with his directions. Parting from my friend I found the flyover that he was describing and dropped down into the underpass and made it to the other side to begin the long walk back. Finally I arrived at the stadium, desperate for a bottle of water I went to a street vender. She tried to charge me 2Y for the half litre but I had noticed that the locals were only paying 1Y and walked off disgusted and quite thirsty.
The stadium is huge and the outer shell is made entirely from steel. There are staircases on the outside of
the building cleverly woven into the structure I walked to the very top and sat in the highest row and looked down to the track. Unfortunately the arena is being used as a concert venue for the not very well advertised Chinese holidays, I could still just see the running track and appreciate the scale of the building.
From the village I could see the similarities with the London version, in fact it is a near copy. The park is open to the public with food stalls and phot opportunities all about. The swimming pool is the largest free standing 'bubble' structure in the world. I considered going for a swim but soon changed my mind when I saw the thousands of people heading in. Time to head back into the city I started to look for the exit. The sighnage was somewhat lacking and I had a momentary panic as I found that I was trapped inside the stadium. I ended up walking inside of the parameter fence until I located the exit. I headed to the subway and back to the hotel.
Beijing Pete commented that it was unusual for an independent traveller to be staying in a hotel mainly frequented by the Chinese. What he actually meant was why are you in a two star dump when your fellow country men and woman stay in the five star Marriott up the road. Good point Pete! Tomorrow we are off to the Great Wall.
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Mum and Dad
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Expensive water
You sound like your mother, rather go without than spend 2Y on a bottle of water. How many Y to the pound? Can you get yourself in one of the photos.