Beijing in a Whirlwind

Arriving in Bejing on a Sunday afternoon, we dropped off our stuff at our friend Nicole's apartment and spent the rest of the afternoon registering with her building management and the local police. Nothing like visiting a communist country! Kicking off Beijing in style, we later feasted on a traditional Beijing meal of Peking Duck, dumplings, caramelized lotus root, bok choy, and various other sauteed vegetables.

Monday morning was an adventure! We had signed up to take a tour to the Great Wall through a local hostel, but when we tried to find the hostel for our 7am departure..... we realized that neither one of us remembered where it was. We panicked, we ran, we unsuccessfully asked for directions (from people who didn't speak a word of English), .... and then at 7:15am we somehow managed to find the hostel. As we ran into the lobby, I think both Larry and I had our fingers crossed that they had held the bus for us. Sweaty and out of breath we approached the front desk only to find that it was currently 6:15am... and not 7:15am as our Japanese watches were telling us!! Minor details!

Forty-five minutes later we were finally on our way to the Great Wall. The Badaling Section of the Great Wall is really breathtaking! Walking on such a wall it is impossible to imagine all of the hardships it would take to build something of such immense size and stability. Our tour guide Cathy told us that the Great Wall is sometimes considered one of the largest graveyards in China because many times when people were killed during its construction, they would just continue to build over the bodies in order to avoid the time and costs of providing a proper burial. Crazy!

After making the trek up to Badaling's 8th tower amongst hundreds of people, we were absolutely exhausted on Monday night, and decided to stay in for a relaxing evening.

As always, Tuesday was another eventful day - we visited Tiananmien Square and the Forbidden City in the morning, and wandered the expansive grounds of the Summer Palace in the afternoon. Comparing Tiananmien Square now with the Tiananmien Square I visited 5 years ago, it is soooo different! It is now clean, with Olympic displays in every corner and packed with more tourists than usual. It was actually quite pretty with all of the flower arrangements adorning it..... I guess that is one way of distracting the Olympic visitors from remembering the horrible massacre that took place (and every other unreasonable injustice government leaders such as Mao may have ordered). Such an experience!

For our last day in Beijing, Larry and I decided to tour the Olympic venues. We woke up bright and early (yet again) and headed out to the semi-final men's beach volleyball match. Hoping to purchase from scalpers, we stood outside the gates and looked for anyone who might be selling. Just as we were losing hope a man came up to us and offered us his extra ticket ... for face value!! Pure generosity! As we stood wondering if only one person should go in, another man walked by and after hearing that we needed another ticket, he just gave us one!! Someone was definitely smiling down on us.... 2 men's semi-final tickets.... one free and another at regular price!! We couldn't stop smiling all morning!

Watching the matches was very exciting! USA beat Georgia in the first game, and Fabio Cruz and his partner beat out the other Brazilian men's doubles to move to the finals. Besides the obvious excitement of the games, I was quite entertained as I watched the informative big screens which told us when to clap, stand up, do the wave, or make "noise". Although I am by no means an expert on Olympic games, I am quite sure that these 'crowd signs' were yet another way of China controlling the people to ensure their "flawless" hosting of the 2008 events.

Later that afternoon, after an oversized lunch at the HardRock Cafe (home to "the best hamburger" Larry had ever eaten), we headed to the Temple of Heaven and strolled the wonderful grounds for a quick hour or so before heading back to Nicole's for showers and dinner before our night train to Xian.

My overall impression of today's Beijing is that it has become a beautiful city which has successfully managed to mix its ancient past with its thriving present. There was such a good vibe in the city (unlike my previous visit), and I cannot remember a single moment in the entire three days that I felt even slightly threatened. Before my arrival I had mixed thoughts on all of the security and changes for the Olympics, but after walking the streets and experiencing it first hand, I think most would agree with me that China has successfully hosted the games they had promised!

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Part of trip: The cushion between Japan and Canada

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