Saturday 1st August 2009 Beijing

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Saturday 1st August 2009 Beijing
Today’s priority again was shopping, we had been saying for months that we were going to buy loads of things in China and send them home, that was before we knew the things that they sold in China and how much more expensive it was than SE Asia but we still wanted a few little things as reminders. Also there was the task of buying a suit for Mary as we probably wouldn’t have a lot of time when we got to Sydney with her interview the next day. We looked up where there might be a Zara or H&M where hopefully we’d be able to grab one straight of a rack and they didn’t just stock clothes for 10 year old 4 foot tall girls like some of the shops. We found a big department store after a little bother and walking up and down roads but there weren’t any suits to be had. We had found another area on the internet and decided we would have to go there. We headed for the bottom of Tiananmen square and headed south, there were lots of touristy shops selling the usual useless tack, we even found some better ones where I bought a little tea pot and we were giving up hope of finding the larger stores when a bit of luck stumbled us onto a brand new 1920s street, We found the Zara which looked like it only opened that day and amazingly we got a suit.

The night time activity was to head to the Olympic area to see the new prides of Beijing, the Birdsnet Stadium and the Water cube. After about 45 minutes, 4 subway transfer, and being jammed in carriages with about 10,000 people in each we finally made it to the Olympic area. But during a sojourn in the subterranean the skies had decided to erupt and it was lashing rain. We sat down for a while hoping it would abate as we really wanted to see the area and weren’t keen on repeating all those train journeys again. We weren’t as upset as loads of the kids around who were balling their eyes out because their mothers weren’t letting them out in the rain. Eventually it turned into more of a drizzle so we recycled some ponchos that someone had left down and headed out. The first thing you notice is the space; it’s a massive patioed boulevard with the stadium on one side and the pool on the other. But it’s huge, I always wonder what was here before, surely there can’t have been this 20 hectare sight with nothing on it. We walked down for about 15 minutes before we got to the stadium. It was 7.20 and I got out of the non English speaking tourist information desk (even here of all places hardly even an English sign) that the light go on at 7.45 so we decided to wait amongst all the locals who were taking advantage of the wait to tuck into some more pots of noodles. Some bunch of girls came over and gave us a big umbrella though which was very handy and completely unexpected as now 3 of them were huddled under one.

Glad we did, the WaterCube really is mesmerizing when it’s alight, during daylight it looks like a factory with an asbestos sheet over it but when they flick the ship the extraterrestrial show begins. The Stadium itself is quite the feat also but the pool stole the show for me. We didn’t bother entering either, not sure if they were even open that late. The constant drizzle was getting annoying so we proceeded down the rest of the vast boulevard to the metro station and headed home. It had stopped raining but we still opted for dinner across the road again, think we are nearly done with the ordering Chinese food thing. It was a fabulous dinner though.

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