At the Beijing Olympics!

  Beijing, China
Monday, August 18, 2008

Blue skies greet our plane at Beijing

Friday 15th August
 
Alison: We were up at 6.00 to get ready and walk up to the waiting taxi which took us to the airport. We were able to check in our luggage all the way to Beijing which was good as we went via Kunming and waited there for an hour or so before our next plane. We were most impressed with the beautiful new Beijing airport when we arrived in the early afternoon and also pleased to see the blue sky which the West had been cynically predicting we would never see in Beijing! Clearly the government's plan to close all the nearby factories and keep half the cars off the road through an odd/even roster had worked very well. From there we caught a taxi to the apartment, although because we had no printer we had to wait until the laptop booted up in order to show the screen to the driver with the address and directions!

Our living room

 
Finally we arrived at the entrance to the apartment block where Darmen, our landlord, was waiting. He was a delightful young man in his early 30s and he showed us our roomy and very comfortably furnished apartment which we were delighted by.

Kitchen & dining area

With a separate bedroom for us, kitchen, bathroom with washing machine, and a huge living area with dining table, 2 couches, a double bed for the kids, large TV and nice little balcony looking out over Chaoyang Park, it was great to know this would be our home for the next 10 days, the longest time spent in one place on our whole trip.
 
Mike went off with Darmen to register our temporary accommodation with the Police as required and to collect our Olympic tickets from the Cosport office. Meanwhile I wandered out with the kids to buy some food from the excellent nearby Jenny Lou's supermarket which was stocked with plenty of Western food - the big advantage of staying in an expat area! It was great to get the chance to make our own breakfasts and drink coffee etc. I also revelled in the chance to unpack into wardrobes and do a couple of loads of washing which dried well on the balcony.

Our bedroom

 
Mike eventually got home with the tickets after a slight problem of getting a bum steer from a woman on how to get here, and I got the computer connected to the Internet which was great. Then we went out to dinner with Darmen to the nearby King Roast Duck restaurant which served the traditional Peking Duck we felt we had to have on our first night in Beijing! The food was delicious but it ended up being a very late dinner and after our early start everyone was exhausted, so as soon as we could we headed home to collapse into our beds.
 
 

Tom contemplating the duck

Saturday 16th August
 
Alison: We had a lovely sleep-in and spent the day relaxing at the apartment. I made French Toast and Rachel cooked her classic pasta with cherry tomatoes for breakfast, although the limited cooking utensils made this challenging. All we had in the kitchen was an electric kettle, a chopping board, a huge cleaver, a frying pan, 4 glasses, 4 small rice bowls with Chinese style ceramic spoons and 4 sets of chopsticks. It's amazing what you can do with that if you try! Basically I think Darmen wanted to discourage cooking in the apartment, but we weren't to be put off...
 
We walked out into the bright sunshine and went across the road to a very nice upmarket restaurant that Darmen had recommended to us where we ate a lovely meal, but Mike has decided that he prefers the Peking Duck they serve in Adelaide over the ones they serve here in Beijing. I think it's because here they serve it very young, presumably so that it is more tender, but it has less meat on it than we are used to at home.
 

Mike kissing his Olympics memento

After our late lunch we caught up with Darmen again who took us to a huge nearby silk market where we bought binoculars for Michael, a new DS Lite for Tom and new runners for Rachel. Then we got ready to head off for our first night of the Olympics. Our nearest subway station, Tuanjiehu, was about a 20 minute walk or short taxi ride away, so we naturally decided on the taxi, but it promptly got stuck in the busy rush hour traffic so it took longer than we'd imagined. Eventually we got to the metro station which was very beautiful, being the brand new Line 10 just finished in time for the Olympics. We had to have our bags scanned every time we entered the subway, but that was a quick enough procedure, and when we flashed our Olympic tickets we got free tickets for the subway which was nice. It was all very well sign posted with smiling volunteers everywhere telling us where to go next. Beijing mobilised a million volunteers to help out for the Olympics and it was really impressive, although not all of them spoke much English!

Walking up to the Birdsnest Stadium

 
It became quite squashy on the subway trains, but we had lovely chats to all the other people who were heading to the Olympics, many from overseas, but also many Chinese who were equally excited to be there. We transferred to the Olympic Subway Line at Beitucheng, which was an interesting procedure involving walking out of the station, around the block and queuing up to show our tickets and go through a big security screening (bags scanned with no water bottles to be taken in and us politely frisked or wanded front and back) before re-entering the station to catch the subway to the Stadium. Although this sounds like a big deal, it actually happened very efficiently and with minimal fuss, the whole procedure only adding about 15 - 20 minutes to the whole procedure, which considering the massive amount of people they were dealing with, was really impressive.

Tom in front of the Water Cube

Finally we emerged from the station to excitedly contemplate the beautiful Olympic Park and the 15 minute walk south towards the Birdsnest Stadium and Water Cube which both looked fabulous! It was very exciting walking up to the stadium with the huge crowds and looking at the flame burning so brightly on the side of the stunning building. We were fascinated to see what our B class tickets would be like and we had great ones in Sector A which is directly in front of the straight and finish line, on the 3rd tier so we could look straight down on it, and Row 35, so fairly high up, but not right up at the roof. We had different tickets for each night - mostly B class, a few A class and one C class, but really anywhere in the stadium was good!
 

Ursain Bolt about to start the 100 m

Anyway, we settled ourselves in, bought the ridiculously cheap food and beer (the government actually acknowledged that the locals could not afford to buy it if it were grossly inflated as most countries do in this sort of event, so they kept it reasonable) and watched some incredible athletics.

Ursain Bolt celebrating

Especially exciting was watching the Jamaican Ursain Bolt winning the 100 metres in World Record time of 9.69 seconds, with him slowing on the line to wave at the crowd. We could only wonder how much more he could have won by if he'd tried! We were also excited to watch and cheer the New Zealand girl Valerie Vili who won gold in the Shot-put, being more than happy to claim our brethren across the Tasman as our own!
 

Entering the subway to go home

Eventually it all ended and we joined the crowds in streaming back to the Subway station to find our way home. Although the crowds were enormous, the subway worked so efficiently with a new one arriving every few minutes, that we were soon enough on our way and found ourselves back at the apartment by a bit after midnight where we happily fell into bed.
 
 

At the weightlifting

Sunday 17th August
 
Alison: We had a nice sleep-in and after making French Toast for brekky, watching some of the games in Chinese on telly and generally farting around, we eventually got going. This time we decided to walk to the subway, and on the way there stopped for lunch at a little restaurant which served very nice and remarkably cheap food. Really, if you want to eat well for a reasonable price, China is the place to be!
 
We caught the subway to the Beijing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics where the weightlifting was on. It was actually quite a walk from the subway station up to the venue so we arrived half an hour late, but we had a good view and thoroughly enjoyed watching the rest of the session.

Outside the weightlifting venue

 
Then we caught the subway back to the Olympic Stadium and made our way to our seats. This time we were on the other side of the stadium in Sector F, in the second tier and Row 18 so a bit closer to the front - again great seats. We had discovered from Darman that China has no minimum drinking age so to test this we sent off Rachel to buy beers for us, and sure enough, back she came with them! As Rachel loves all forms of shopping this turned out to be a bonus, with her more than willing to queue up and get all sorts of supplies, especially as she kept quite a bit of the change...
 
A standout in terms of the actual athletics was Jamaica coming 1st, 2nd and 3rd in the Women's 100 metres - boy those Jamaicans can run! We also watched the Ethiopian Bekele winning the 10,000 metres, beating his own Olympic Record, but not his World Record. After another great night we headed home for bed.
 
 

At the Forbidden City

Monday 18th August
 
After a nice sleep-in and Rachel making pasta for breakfast we headed off to the Forbidden City with Darmen. It was another hot day so wandering around the huge expanse of the Forbidden City was quite exhausting, but it certainly was spectacular. We paused in the shade and chatted to many other tourists and as usual Rachel and Tom were constantly stopped by Chinese Tourists to have their photo taken with them, a constant happening throughout our time in China.

At the Forbidden City

 
After wandering around and viewing a small portion of what was on offer, we headed out of the South Gate into Tiananmen Square, guarded by lots of soldiers standing stiffly to attention and overlooked by the huge portrait of Mao on the Palace wall.

Mao overlooking Tiananmen Square

Like Moscow's Red Square, Tiananmen Square is absolutely enormous and we tramped around it for a bit, the kids continuing to be ambushed for photos, before heading onto the subway and getting out at So Ho, a shopping area where we had a late lunch / early dinner at a Korean Restaurant. We decided not to order the dog on the menu, but had a very nice meal before waving goodbye to Darmen and heading off to the Olympic Park.

The kids being photographed with others

 
This time we had more great tickets, back in Section A on the 3rd tier but in Row 22 so a bit further down than our first night. We had a great time cheering the Aussie runner Youcef Abdi who came 6th in the 3000 metre steeplechase and watching America come 1, 2, 3 in the 400 metre hurdles. Rachel really got into buying us beers and encouraged the drinking of them no end! The most exciting part of the evening though was watching the Women's Pole Vault where the Russian Elena Isinbaeva got a new World Record on her last attempt at 5.05 metres - quite spectacular stuff! Rachel even managed to video record the jump on her digital camera so she was very pleased with herself.

Tom holding the Olympic torch

As Tom commented on the way home: 'Another great night at the Olympics!'


Tuesday 19th August
 
Alison: After the usual sleep-in and lazy breakfast, I did a load of washing to hang out on the balcony and a bit of shopping. Then we met up with Darman who took the boys off to play 8-ball while Rachel and I had massages - very blissful and much needed. Rachel is rather getting into the whole massage thing here in China, but it's a bit more expensive at home, so I hope she doesn't expect to keep getting them!
 
Afterwards we caught a taxi to the subway and then went on to the Olympic Park where we decided we had to face the horrors of the Superstore in order to buy some Aussie flags etc. The Olympic Superstore is an enormous building chock full of Olympic products and people queue for up to an hour just to get into it! When we arrived in the late afternoon the queue was around the building and I very generously offered to let Mike and the kids go in and buy what they wanted while I got MacDonald's for dinner. The MacDonald's building was equally huge with a dozen or so lines for ordering food, and not being a great one for fast food, it was line ball which of the two options I disliked more, but I certainly got out of there first...

All dressed up in our flags

Anyway, the kids and Mike eventually emerged, triumphant with 4 huge flags to wrap ourselves in, 4 smaller ones to wave and body paint and tattoos to plaster all over ourselves. We sat in the gutter with hundreds of others, ate our plastic food and then covered ourselves in all our patriotic gear and began the walk up to the stadium, about half an hour's walk away. It was great entering the stadium all decked up and many photos of us were taken by other spectators as we walked, no doubt attracted by Michael's sporadic war-cries of 'Aussie, Aussie, Aussie, Oi, Oi, Oi!' every now and then.
 

With other Aussies in the subway

We were back on the other side of the stadium in G Sector, but in Tier 2, Row 7, so nice and close to the front and with great views of the Men's High Jump and Discus. We were gobsmacked when the Aussie girl, Sally McLellan won silver in the 110 metres Hurdles. It was an incredibly close race for the placings, but luckily she really thrust herself forward on the line and did us all proud! We were very excited to see the Aussie flag up there during the medal ceremony, even if we didn't hear our anthem...
 
 
Wednesday 20th August

Craig Mottram before his race

Alison: We had another very late start, so late in fact that we decided to put off our excursion to the Great Wall till Saturday. Instead we made brunch and had a quiet day with the kids and Mike competing for access to the computer most of the time. We ate an early meal at home and headed off for the stadium.
 
Tonight we were only one row back from the very front, in Sector H, Tier 1, Row 2. They were fabulous seats, with an incredible up-close view of the athletes as they warmed up. We watched Aussie Craig Mottram come 5th in his 5000 m heat and thus miss out on getting to run in the final which was a pity.

Ursain Bolt starting the 200 m

More excitingly, we watched the incredible Ursain Bolt leap out of the blocks directly in front of us as he blew the field away to win the 200 metres, once again in a World Record time (19.30 secs).

Bolt with another World Record

Another piece of excitement for the evening was watching the Men's Qualifying Pole Vault competition. We had 2 Australians competing and Steve Hooker managed to just get into the Final on his 3rd jump at 5.65m to qualify. It was nerve-wracking stuff, but we were ecstatic to have an Aussie in the final and our seats were really close to where they were jumping so it was great to watch.

Bolt doing his Victory lap

They had some problems with the machine that lifts the bar to the appropriate height which delayed the competition quite a bit, meaning that the stadium had mostly emptied by the time the final placings were decided (basically, once the Chinese competitors were eliminated most of the crowd went home!) but we stayed till the end to cheer him on! We finally got home to bed at 1.00 but then I worked on the blog till 2.00 a.m. as we're so far behind I was feeling increasingly desperate!

Us all dressed up in our flags