Blogs from Olympic Park, Beijing, China, Asia - page 6

20th August Today we were back at the rowing venue to watch flatwater canoeing and kayaking. It's not as interesting as rowing (maninly because there were'nt any brits competing). Spent the evening at a Beijing crispy duck restaurant that was recommended by our hostel. Incredibly unhealthy, but very tasty! 21st August Taekwondo in the afternoon today. It's a really strange sport where both fighters jump on the spot for about 30 seconds and then they try to kick each other. It's another one of these subjective sports where the final result seems to come down to the judges' abilty to judge rather than the athletes' ability to fight. An American woman sitting near us in the crowd kept shouting "kick 'im in the head" every minute or so - sound advice as that's the aim of ... read more

We got thru opening ceremonies and we decided it was time to go out and eat something other than the food in the compound, many people said to go out for a Peking Duck Dinner so we decided to give it a go. I did a little research and found out there was what we consider in the states a chain restaurant called "Da Dong" which specializes in Peking Duck Meals. It was suggested to go there because it follows the western tradition of cleanliness. Before we left I asked the attendants at the desk where the nearest one was, they wrote down the name and address on a special card that has English and a Chinese translation on it. The idea of the cards was anyone would be able to get directions from a local ... read more

I am working at The National Stadium in the Olympic Park. The events being held here are the Opening Ceremonies, Track and Field, Mens & Womens Marathons, Soccer Finals and the Closing Ceremonies. It is a pretty interesting facility as far as large stadiums go. There is not a truck bay as we are used to, this is the area where we park the TV mobile units and have access to the internal wiring of the stadium. As far as I can see there is no pre-installed wires, which to me is kind of weird since that means any TV shows will have to run cables to each position. That is a big job at a stadium as large as this one. The stadium is very attractive, at night the lighting makes it glow red and ... read more

Left home on July 29th and got to Beijing 15 hours ahead of time on July 30th. That was weird. went thru all the necessary checks, got my luggage, went to my Media Village and settled in for the long haul. I found out quickly most people are very friendly and inquisitive. They want to talk about where we are from and how do we like china. The overall security situation is great. They are taking very good care of us. See the pictures of our building and my room. More to come ...... read more

12th August Went to Beijing zoo this morning specifically to see the pandas. They are smaller than I expected. The pandas live the life of luxury which is probably to the detriment of the other animals in the zoo. They are entertaining animals to watch and certainly have a lot of character. In the afternoon we went to watch Greco-Roman Wrestling (I'll try anything once!). It's a very bizairre sport and even after watching it for 3 hours I couldn't tell who was winning or even whether the match had finished. Probably the most entertaining thing about this sport is the crowd - it looked like a scene out of the Borat movie. It appears that to qualify for Greco-Roman wrestling you have to come from a country that was previously part of the USSR. ... read more