Competition and Culture

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Geo: 39.9165, 116.391

The last few days have been very busy so I have not had time to update this blog. So here we go! Sunday and Monday were taken up with both morning and evening sessions. Some of the highlights were: The 100 metres final on Sunday. We were all on Usain Bolt's side. Justin Gatlin had been suspended twice for drug charges and I feel he should not be allowed to compete. The final was very exciting with Bolt winning by one hundredth of a second!! A win not only for Bolt but for the sport as well. On Monday I watched the women's Pole Vault qualifying and was happy that Alanna Boyd made it to the final. Ditto with Dani Samuels in the Discus. Fabrice La Pierre also qualified for the final in the Long Jump. That night we watched a very exciting Men's Pole Vault with three men tied for third and a young Canadian, Shawnacy Barber winning. The women's 100 metre final was won by Shelley-Ann Fraser-Price completing a double for Jamaica in the short sprint.

Socially, we enjoyed the hospitality at the track. After the morning session there is food provided so we have lunch and then at night there is another spread for dinner, this time with beer and Chinese wine. Everyone with accreditation gathers in the VIP lounge so we see many past athletes and officials there. We have spent much of our time with Peter Thompson, our friend from the UK who now lives in Eugene and John Velzian from Nairobi who is now 88 but is still going strong. We have also caught up with Debbie Strange from NZ and Peter and Penny Deane from Adelaide. I have also met one of my heroes, Koji Murofushi, the former Olympic Champion in the Hammer Throw who is such a lovely man.

On Tuesday there was no morning session so Fletcher and I had a day to do some sightseeing together. Fletcher wanted to return to the Hutong area so about 10-30am we walked to the nearest subway station, Olympic Green, and caught the train into the Hutongs . We walked to the Bell Tower and Drum Tower. These were built in the 15th Century and were used to ring out the time to Old Beijing. We had seen both of these on our last trip but this time we paid the huge sum of 20 Yuan each( about $5) and went into the Drum Tower. On the ground floor we saw the exhibition of various artefacts from the early times and then we ascended the very steep staircase to the first level of the tower. After I recovered from the climb we watched some drummers playing the huge drums. There were terrific views from the balcony and an exhibition of early clocks. It was certainly worth the climb.
From there we walked down to the small streets that run through this district. One, known as the street of the Tobacco Pipe sellers, has many great shops at very reasonable prices. We bought some presents to take home. We then came to the Yingdan Bridge over the junction of the two lakes. The last time we had been there the lake was frozen over. This time there were boats of various kinds conveying visitors to all parts of the lake.

We chose a Vietnamese restaurant, Nuage, for lunch. This proved to be an excellent choice. We had a table by the first floor window with a view over the lake. The restaurant itself was decorated with rickshaw chairs and water features. Our lunch was superb; Spring Rolls to start, six tightly packed and delicious morsels, then pepper chicken and a crispy fish. Wonderful. A nice Chilean white topped off a great meal.

From there we walked around the lake. We enjoyed the views and watching all the activities. We compared the summer use of this area to what we had seen in the winter. Instead of skating and sledding there was boating and fishing, A few souls had defied the signs and were even swimming. After we had circumnavigated the lake and stopped for a beer on the other side, we continued to walk along the Houhai Lake. This took us into the local community where we saw many groups playing dominoes, Go, and cards and the playgrounds where the children were enjoying the play equipment, We went to the house of Soon Ling Ching. We had seen this last time and wanted to visit. Again it only cost 20 Yuan to enter. Soon Ling Ching had been the wife of Sun-Yet Sin who was credited with starting the revolutionary movement in China. He died in 1925 but she continued to work for the overthrow of the Emperor and the establishment of the Republic and she was a great supporter of Mao. She lived in this house for 20 years until her death in 1981. The house once belonged to one of the princes and is set in a tranquil Chinese garden. It was a lovely spot to visit.

From there we tried to return to the subway station. We seemed to be walking for ages and asked a number of locals for directions. We kept getting various opinions. After 15 minutes or so of walking, not seeming to get anywhere, we hailed a taxi and showing him a map pointed to the National Stadium. He took us back to the hotel with our added directions and it only cost about $7.
We enjoyed the Long Jump competition on Tuesday night. Fabrice La Pierre jumped himself into the silver medal position on his last two jumps so we were all excited for an Aussie silver medal. The final event of the night saw a fast 800 metre final won by David Rudisha from Kenya. Kenya is having a fantastic championship and the USA is not doing so well, neither is Russia. Perhaps the drug testing is finally having an effect.

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