Public Zone 公開區 > Travelogues 遊記相薄
Beijing 2008 Olympics 到北京看奧運 (Aug 2008)
chin:
After exited Tian An Men Square, we decided to take a little walk along the wall of the Forbidden City.
The sign in the first picture says this is the remains of the imperial city wall. Right behind this wall is a small park with a small river and lots of willow trees.
The narrow streets behind the wall were very busy with metal railings and dividers.
About 10 years ago, we could take a rickshaw trip on the same streets. At that time both side were old residential area with small stores and noodle shops nested inside the old Beijing style courtyard houses. Now these courtyards are transformed into restaurants, clubs or luxury villas value at millions.
The last two pictures were taken by my 12-year old daughter. She had a school trip to Beijing 3 years ago, and at that time her teacher told her to pay attention and take picture of patterns and motifs.
The "auspicious cloud" pattern in the 3rd picture was everywhere in Beijing and widely used as part of the Beijing Olympic branding.
Our little walk turned out to be a very long walk back to the hotel, with stopping for lunch in Wang Fu Jing. We had a very nice hot pot lunch at Dong Lai Shun.
chin:
In the late afternoon, we started our first journey to the Olympic events. The first competition we would see was the men's 3-meter springboard diving qualifying rounds in the Water Cube.
As soon as we exited the subway station and enter Olympic Greens, we can feel the carnival like air in the park.
The first two pictures were taken by my 12-year old, capturing the parade in the park and spectators relaxing before the events.
Before reaching the Bird's Nest and the Water Cube, we passed a series of sponsors pavilions. Each and every one of them had long line and we did not bother to see what's inside.
In the Omega pavilion, people were gathering around to see Michael Phelps being interviewed on the 2nd floor.
chin:
More pictures from inside the Olympic Greens.
The main building in the second picture is the National Indoor Stadium.
Can you guess what the yellow and black "speed bump" is in the second picture for?
chin:
The "speed bumps" were actually trunking for network cables.
Right next to the National Indoor Stadium was a very big featureless building with no name. I read later that the no-name building was the network and control center for the entire Olympic Games. Once the Olympics is done, the building will be turned into Beijing Government's emergency respond center. Sort of like the New York City back up government site in the World Trade Center that came down in 911.
No wonder the building is black and has no-name. Very eye catching in a low-profile way. Too bad I did not have a good picture of that building.
Finally the Bird's Nest is in sigth, with the Olympic Flame burning day and night for 16 days.
But today we came for the Water Cube.
chin:
I knew the National Aquatics Center, or the Watch Cube, is covered with special plastics. But I did not know the plastic was not just the outside cover - the entire wall was made of plastic bubbles supported by metal structures.
There must had been too many curious hands trying to touch the wall, aka the plastic bubbles, the management blocked off all places where people can touch the wall.
This sort of reminded me of the new Bangkok airport, where the passenger terminal is also covered by two layers of special plastics, and on the second floor the management also block-off areas where people can touch the plastics.
Once inside, everyone was take "I was here" pictures.
In the second picture, the interesting part is not the diver on the springboard, but the guy warming up in the background. He can jump so high without any help!
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