Baihai Park and The Bird's Nest

---

In August/September of this year, we hosted a Chinese University of Minnesota student named Vivi at our home while she waited for her campus housing to become available. Yesterday, we were honored to meet her father and her English tutor who is an English professor at the University of Beijing.

We visited Baihai Park where we enjoyed a scenic view of Beijing from the top of the White Dagoba and a relaxing stroll around Qiónghuá (琼华) Island. We then braved the Beijing traffic in a taxi during rush hour to visit The Beijing National Stadium (aka "The Bird's Nest".)

The Bird's Nest is an incredible structure and we were filled with awe when we remembered the Olympic history that was made there in 2008. The Nest is so massive that it could likely take an entire afternoon to properly tour it and the venues on the complex.

Grace made a very short video inside the Bird's Nest that doesn't catch the enormity of the stadium but give's you a glimpse of its size. We have some very nice pictures but due to our on-going technical difficulties with uploading pictures from our camera, are not available for viewing here = (

As we were leaving The Bird's Nest complex we learned that Vivi's father was an Olympic torch bearer when the torch passed through Xi'an, China.

Vivi's father traveled by overnight train from Xian (home of the Terracotta Warriors) to meet us. Both he and Peter spent the entire day with us and treated us to lunch and a wonderful dinner. At dinner we also had the pleasure of meeting Vivi's cousin and two aunts. We left the restaurant "stuffed" and humbled by the generosity of our new friends.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beihai_Park
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xian#Tourism
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beijing_National_Stadium

---