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Public Zone 公開區 => Travelogues 遊記相薄 => Topic started by: chin on 06 February 2009, 19:15:50
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In July, my good friend Gary offered us tickets and hotel rooms to see the Beijing Olympics.
Although not much of a sports fan myself, I accepted the offer right away. How could I miss the chance to see the Olympics in persons!?
So Beijing, here we come!
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Gary's company was a sponsor of the Beijing Olympics, and had tickets to a range of different events.
One of our goals for the trip was to see the different Olympic venues, specially the Bird's Nest and the Water Cube. So I asked for tickets for events take place in the various venues.
The first thing was to look at the rules and regulations at the back of the tickets, to find out if I can bring cameras to the event.
And I was happy to see that I can bring my camera as long as they are not professional gears & not for commercial use.
Well, they are not "professional gears", aren't they? :-)
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In the years leading up to 2008, there were lots of hopes, hypes & expectations about what business the Olympic Games may bring to Beijing and China in general.
One of the highest expectations had to be in the hotel industry. I was told that there were 800,000 rooms in Beijing competing for the Olympic business.
But with the chaos caused by the pro-Tibet independent groups during the torch relay, the mainland authority substantially tightened the visa policy thus the number of overseas visitors was much lower than hoped.
The terror attacks in Xinjiang didn't help either, and may have caused lower than expected domestic visitors.
However, none of this mattered to the higher end hotels.
A friend of mine who works in Beijing and lives in the Grant Hyatt serviced apartment told me that Grant Hyatt was all sold out at more than 10 times the normal rate, and you cannot book the room for a few nights - you have to book for the whole 16-day Olympics period. With conditions like these, I imagine most bookings are made by companies entertaining their customers or executives.
Our hotel was the News Plaza Hotel, in the same building where Beijing Daily is located. All the rooms in this hotel were fully booked by 3 groups - my friend's company, UPS & the Beijing government.
The hotel is in a very nice location, across the street from Oriental Plaza, and very near Wang Fu Jing. The rooms are very spacious, but the carpets are stained in both rooms.
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18-Aug-2008, our first day in Beijing.
We decided to take the short trip from our hotel to Tian An Men Square in the morning.
Unlike our previous trips to the Tian An Men Square, when the square was truly a huge open space and visitors could enter from any point, the Square now has only a handful of entry points completed with scanning machines and metal detectors.
My first visit to the Tian An Men Square was in 1986. At that time, not only visitors can enter the square from any direction, the Monument of the People's Heroes was freely standing and anyone can go up the 3 levels of stairs, to the base of the Monument and touch the stones.
Perhaps due to the Monument's central location in the Square, it has been the focal point of many "people's movement", such as the student protest in Jun 1989. Now the Monument is completely off limit.
The guards in this picture are guarding some special Olympic related displays.
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Tian An Men (Heavenly Peace Gate) seen from the Square.
Behind the gate is the Forbidden City.
I learned later that we can now pay to go up to the Gate and see the Tian An Men Square from there. The next time I would definitely like to go up there, to check out the view Chairman Mao may had in 1949 when he declared the formation of the People's Republic of China
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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.
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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.
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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?
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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.
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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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In the first picture is He Chong of China preparing for the jump. The second picture is his very hight score after the jump. I believe he went on to win the gold medal for men's 3-meter springboard driving.
The last picture is the Water Cube before the competition. On the left you can see the plastic bubble wall.
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It was quite late when the diving qualifying rounds were finished. By then, all the lights were on, and the Olympic Greens became a giant light show.
I am very glad that we took some time to wander around and enjoyed the light shows. From what I read, these light shows will not be turned on again once the Para-Olympics are finished. In fact the Water Cube will be transformed into a water amusement park and a mall, without the color changing lights due to high maintenance cost.
The Water Cube and the Bird's Nest sounded almost like a one-use buildings to me.
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More light shows.
Behind this T transmission tower, next to the Bird's Nest, was a series of giant power generating trucks. They were the standby emergency power supplies.
I read that there was a special para-military force of 6000 who spent their days and nights in the rural area around Beijing to protect the power transmission towers.
In Beijing, not only the Olympics venues were all lit up, many major roads and parks and the greens in front of commercial buildings were all decorated with special light effects. There was no expenses spared!
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At the entrance of the Olympic Greens was a large court yard displaying or decorated with Chinese musical instruments with traditional style buildings.
Inside this "drums" is the elevator to the subway stations.
We generally enjoy the Olympics events very much. The biggest complaint was the lack of choice for and low quality food inside all the venues.
Many times our dinner or lunch inside the Olympic venues consisted of plain buns, cold sausage, and occasionally Yili yogurt (probably laced with Melamine!!!)
The McDonald's is the fanciest food outlet inside the Olympic Greens, but the line was just too long!
Why couldn't they serve some traditional Beijing food? Like noodles and soupy dumplings?!
One of the more interesting Olympic food was the self-heating rice box. We actually bought one to see how the self-heating mechanism works. We did not eat the food after the experiment though.
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19-Aug-2008.
Tonight we would be seeing the 1/4 final of women's basketball in the new basketball stadium.
In the morning, we wandered around in the busy Wang Fu Jiang trying to find a local Beijng style noodle and dumpling shop. But we ended up in a tourist trap selling some pretty bad food.
The only highlight of our lunch was that we got to try fried scorpion. It actually did not really have any taste. The texture was similar to fried shrimp shells.
My young daughter was thrilled at the notion of eating scorpions. This was her bragging right, in addition to eating fried grubs and fried grass hoppers in Thailand earlier this summer.
These two pictures were taken with my camera phone. The colors seem off...
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Beijing Olympic Basketball Gymnasium, or the Wu Ke Song (Five Pine Tree) Gymnasium.
After coming out of the subway station, we had to walk a few hundred meters of urban streets to the venue.
And along the way we got to see the "finest" of the Socialism with Chinese Characteristics - ticket scalpers offering all kinds of Olympics tickets, sellers of stickers & flags, and even guys offering us a umbrella for a used ticket.
In the later sections, I will have a bit more of my observations and speculations about the ticketing arrangement.
Once we passed the security check and got inside the Wu Ke Song compound, the atmosphere was a lot more relaxed.
Time to get more tasteless food for dinner.
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The 1st picture is the court before the match.
As in any Olympics event, a large portion of the venue is reserved for media with monitor and other hi-tech gears. Since this was only the 1/4 final, not much media attention here.
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The matches were US vs S. Korea, then Russia vs Spain. With my not-so-professional gear, I was not able to take too many good action pictures.
There were a few groups of very loud Russian fans yelling and waving flags.
In the background of the last picture is the ring of corporate boxes. I wonder what it takes to have a box here...
The audience, predominately mainland Chinese, mainly cheered for S. Korea and Russia. Should not be a surprise to anyone.
But if it were men's basketball match, I suspect many would cheer for the NBA stars from US. See the next set of picture.
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First I noticed an entire section was blocked-off, with staff sitting at the entrance to the row of seats.
Then they all standing up during the intervals, while young guys eagerly taking picture between the shoulders.
The focus of their attention was the guys sitting there. Must be the NBA stars.
The NBA must have been a very successful American cultural export.
I remember perhaps 10 years ago, clothing and sports stores in Hong Kong were suddenly awashed with NBA merchandise. I was wondering why the youth in HK, who are generally not very sporty, would be fascinated about NBA.
In the mainland China, the popularity of NBA is a lot more understandable - I was told that basketball is a popular activity for young people, and Yao Ming's has been an iconic figure.
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Whoever they were, must be popular figures. I saw people waved to them and and take picture of them.
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Even though I had spent a few years studying in the US, I confess I had never watched a game of NBA, NFL or MLB. Not even the Super Bowl.
So this is the first time I see NBA style cheerleading. It was quite entertaining.
From my own observation and reading other people's comment, the Beijing Olympics injected lots of entertainment elements into the competitive events.
Almost every time out was filled with upbeat music. Even fencing, so I heard.
And many intervals were filled with cheerleader shows, even in sports without such tradition, such as volleyball.
I guess the Beijing Olympics Organizing Committee has learned a bit from NBA and beach volleyball.
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More pictures of cheerleading and side shows.
I was kind of surprised to see the large number of non-Chinese looking people working the "front" - the blond cheerleaders, the American looking guys who did the basket stunts, and the large number of westerners manning the TV cameras. (See pictures in the later athletics events.)
And I read later that a large number of Chinese cheerleaders were coached by a Korean cheerleading school in Beijing.
I was surprised because a few years ago, the use of non-Chinese in front line would be seen as lost face, because as if Chinese could not perform the job.
In fact, people critical of the Beijing Olympics, or critical of China in general, frequently point out that the Chinese government bought the Olympics, that the landmark venues were designed and project managed by foreigners, etc.
I, on the other hand, think it's a good sign. A sign that the country and its government is gaining confident in itself, thus "small thing" like whether using foreign talents are judged on merit basis, instead of on face or political basis.
I don't think anyone who has attended the Beijing Olympics in person could argue that Beijing had put on a very good show.
We came away very impressed (besides the lack of food choice). More on this later.
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20-Aug-2008. Today we watched two volleyball matches.
I was kind of tired for the day, and knew we would be sitting at the far back, so I decided not to bring my camera gears. Big mistake! Luckily my kids brought theirs.
The venue is an old stadium in the middle of the city. As we got off the taxi, we had to push through a thick wall of ticket scalpers.
The stadium was jam packed, because the first match was China vs Brazil. This was the first of the 2 or 3 full houses I saw in this trip. After the Chinese team was defeated, the stadium was half emptied.
This phenomenon may help explain one of the most commonly raised complaints by TV audience about empty seats. Try to put the following together and see if it makes any sense.
- The face values of the Olympic tickets were generally very cheap. The tickets to 1/4 finals and qualifying round were sold for RMB40 to 60 each, or US$5 to $8. The final, gold medal producing events are a bit more expensive at RMB200 - 400 each, or US$25 to $50.
- Organized ticket scalpers can easily afford to purchase most the tickets at the initial offer price, hoping the Chinese team will be in many of these 1/4 or 1/2 finals.
- The mainland audience is mainly interested in events where the Chinese team is present, or the finals of popular sports. These are event where the ticket scalpers can sell the tickets at good multiples of the face value. Profit from these events would cover the cost of holding unsold tickets to events where the Chinese team was not present.
- Given the wealth gap in the mainland is quite big, it's also very possible that people would purchase multiple tickets, even with conflicting time. So they will choose which event to go depending on which teams are competing.
I don't know if the above are true, but for sure the secondary market for tickets were very active, judging from the amount of people offering to sell or buy tickets.
BTW my friend who works in Beijing told me that all his friends applied for the lottery for the RMB4000 closing ceremony tickets, because they could easily re-sell the ticket for RMB8000 to 26k depending on timing!
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The Chinese team was not even close to match the Brazilians.
But that did not stop the fans from loud cheers. It was loud. Very loud. Thundering shaking kind of loud that cannot be experienced on TV. I guess this is the fun of participating in live sport events.
In western culture, you boo a team usually because it has done something wrong, such as behaving unfairly. You don't usually boo a team just because it's against the home team.
But not in China. The boos to the Brazilians were equally thundering and shaking, kind of. Do you call this cultural difference, or lack of sophistication (from western point of view?)
At the end, the Brazilians got the last laugh, plus the last dance and party, in the stadium during the break. They were loud and colorful. Many local audiences were fascinated by their very outward unrestrained display of joy.
I did not detect any hostility from the Chinese audience. So I guess the boos were just a (wrong) way to support the home team.
2nd picture is the cheerleading in volleyball. With some loud music. Almost like beach volleyball? I have never seen this before.
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22-Aug-2008.
We got up very early in the morning to see Taekwondo. We requested tickets for this event because one of my kids is practicing the sport.
Whatever happened to these women, it was very emotional. I have no idea what they were talking. From the uniform, they seem to be from Greece and Germany.
Another ticketing related story.
In the second picture, the venue did not look too full. But apparently all tickets were gone.
As we were leaving the venue, we overheard a central Asian looking man outside the gate saying that he was waiting for his wife. His wife was competing inside, but he had no ticket to go in!!!
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The earlier sessions were all girls' fights. By the time for the men's competitions, my kids had lost interest in the fights already. So my pictures are all girls' fights.
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If it was fun to watch two women fight, wouldn't it be more fun to watch a princess fight?
That's right!
The woman in red gear was Princess Sheikha Maitha al-Maktoum from the United Arab Emirates. Her father is the ruler of Dubai and owner of the biggest race horse stable in the world.
Her Highness fought aggressively, perhaps including some unusual moves in the second picture
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Princess al-Maktoum was definitely not a push over, although she eventually lost to the Korean
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Looked like a whole clan was cheering for Yoriko.
Let's see how she fought...
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There is an old Chinese saying "先禮後兵". And I believe the similar philosophy in this expression was widely adopted by the nearby Asian cultures.
This expression can be roughly translated as:
1. First negotiation then war. OR
2. First rituals then war.
Yoriko was definitely taken the second meaning to heart.
Every time after she got on the stage, the first thing would be to turn around and bow to the coach, as if a general bowing to the lord before leaving for war.
The second bow was a bit of a puzzle to me. I am not sure she was bowing to the opponent out of politeness, or bowing to the arena.
A friend of mine who is highly ranked in Japanese martial arts told me that bowing to and respecting the arena is a deep rooted tradition in Japanese martial arts. Although Taekwondo is Korean, she could be acting out simply being Japanese.
Nonetheless, once the bows were done, the fight was as fierce as it can be.
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Some pictures of Taekwondo fans.
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The Taekwondo competitions were held in the University of Science & Technology Beijing. The gymnasium was specially built for the Olympics and will remain useful to the University and its students.
Inside the campus is this metal structure. The Chinese character in the middle is "hammer".
The idea was that when the tree in the middle of the hole grow fully, it would fill the hole and eventually big enough to push the metal hammer up. The tree would then become the handle for this giant hammer.
I am not sure I can see the result with my own eyes, as it will take 200 years for the tree to grow fully, according to the sign board.
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In the afternoon of 22-Aug, we went back to the Olympic Greens to see some of the athletics gold medal events.
Right outside the Bird's Nest, a couple was taking bridal pictures. I am not sure they were newly wed or models posing for commercial shots.
Anyway, the photographer wasn't very happy that I was taking pictures of the scene. Otherwise, I may have walked up and ask the couple to look at my lens...
hehe..
Notice the street lamps were also "Bird's Nests"?
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We were warned by our friends that the inside the Bird's Nest is very hot and stuffy. It was a feature by design to minimize the effect of wind on the athletes' performance.
Sure enough, when sitting at the 3rd level, it was very hot even though it was late evening.
And tomorrow we would be sitting here again in the mid-day for the men's football final. Yikes!
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Among the things that caught my eyes first were the fun or hi-tech gadgets.
Do you know what that little red remote controlled car was for?
Or why is the big red box in the middle of the sand pit?
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Well, the red car was the javelin carrier, and the big red box flattens the sand.
BTW see the rows of cameras lining up next to the sand pit? If only I could put my camera there...
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Brazilian Maurren Maggi won the gold medal for Women's Long Jump, beating the Russian by 1cm. (See official result (http://results.beijing2008.cn/WRM/ENG/INF/AT/C73P/ATW061101.shtml#ATW061101))
Right after she got the Brazilian flags from her friends, she asked a Chinese spectator for a small Chinese flag, and did her victory lap carrying both flags.
Even with other final event going on at the same time, she managed to capture lots of attention, and received lots of cheers wherever she went.
A small gesture that brought lots of goodwill!
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I think this was the Women's 4x400m relay.
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One of the medals award ceremonies.
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Competitors for the Women's 5000m run enter the stadium.
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One of the "iconic" features of the Beijing Olympics has to be the ever present volunteers.
I couldn't say enough good things about these volunteers. It was a very successful decision by the organizer to mobilize the youth.
We interacted with them daily. We got maps from them in the airport, we got directions from them in the help desk in the hotel lobby, we talked to them in their Wang Fu Jing booth, we saw them in the security checks, and they took us to our seats.
Most of them are young college age kids, all very keen to help, always smiling, yet playful just like any kids of their age. I believe all these smiles and helpfulness are genuine from their belief in the cause.
I strongly speculate that the anti-Chinese sentiment in the West during the torch relay, and the devastating earthquake in Sichuan actually fuelled the young people's resolve to put on a good show, and not letting anyone to spoil their moment of pride and glory.
Hopefully these experiences will help this generation grow up with confidence about their own place in the world, with a broader world view.
Back to the Bird's Nest.
A team of volunteers marched into the field. What's in the blue box?
Well, turned out they are the keepers of the athletes' personal items.
Then they march off with the goodies.
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The Olympics is as much a big media show as a competitive event.
Rationally I knew that there has to be a very heavy media presence, given that hundreds of millions people in the world can only watch the Olympics through the TV camera lenses.
However not until I saw it up close with my own eyes before I can visualize the vast amount of space and resources reserved for the media, and that the schedule work around TV camera but not just the athletes' readiness.
Before the 5000 meter run, the athletes were introduced one by one. As expected, when the lone Chinese runner was introduced, there was thundering applause and cheers. I think the audience did not really expect her to be in the top finishing order, given the long distance runs are almost always dominated by African runners in recently years.
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A few pictures of fans.
The German fans in front of us were really enjoying themselves with boxes of beers brought in.
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Glories & Tragedies in Women's 4x100m relay.
The very hopeful Jamaican girls had their dreams shattered, because of failure to pass the baton. The British also failed in the same spot.
A minute later, the Russian golden girls did their victory lap.
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Bolting to gold in Men's 4x100m relay.
One of the star athletes in the Beijing Olympics had to be Usain Bolt, the Jamaican who broke the 100m world record with ease.
I was happy to found out that he was the third leg in the relay and right in front of me. All eyes were on him, especially he dropped the baton in the previous day.
He received the baton well this time, and it was amazing to see him run. Jamaica was perhaps 3rd or 4th before Usain Bolt's run and after he got the baton, he passed them all easily in 50 or 70 meters.
And of course the customary victory bolt afterward.
BTW from my observation, the Japanese team, who got the bronze medal, was the one who reach out to shake hands with the other two winning teams. Then have the victory laps together.
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The last event for the evening was Men's Pole Vault.
Pictured here is the eventual gold medalist Australian Steve Hooker.
To be honest, at the stadium I did not think he would win eventually, because he each time he tried a new height, he would fail on the first two attempts and only succeed on the third trial. (See Official result (http://results.beijing2008.cn/WRM/ENG/INF/AT/C73M/ATM072101.shtml#ATM072101))
After he was confirmed to win the gold medal at 5.90m, his friend or coach threw him an Australian flag, for his victory lap around the arena.
But in 5 seconds or so, he put the flag down, and announced that he would try a new height to break the Olympic record.
He did it on the third trial. Big applause for the true sportsman.
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23-Aug-2008.
This was our last day in Beijing. We would be leaving tomorrow before the closing ceremony. All the flights leaving Beijing were full until the 27th.
This was the final match between Argentina and Nigeria.
Right outside the Olympic Greens, there were lots of people holding stacks of cash asking to buy our tickets. We later learned that there were over 89000 people attended the football final.
We had very good seats in the bottom section. At the back of our seat is an opening to the outside ground thus we had some breeze from time to time. (What happened to the "design for no wind"? Perhaps it was just another urban legend.)
We went to the football final with another couple who came to Beijing just to see this. They had a very troubled journey to the football final, all because of a small personal over-sight. That's a side story to be told somewhere else, and I hope my kids would learn a lesson from other people's misadventure. :-)
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A causal survey could tell that Argentina was the favorited team. There were much more white & blue than green & yellow.
The blue & white cheering team in the second picture was probably organized - well equiped in uniform and sit together.
The opposite side of the stadium had another group with similar setup except the colors were green & yellow.
The security was probably the heaviest for all events we attended. Poor guys who had to sit under the hot sun for the entire time, and can only facing the audience. They seem to be well disciplined. Eye sore to some, force of stability to the other.
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What kind of sports party can do without cheerleaders?!
This group came before the match.
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And then the kick off for the first half.
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Then switch side.
I suspect the mass migration of photographers to our side was because Argentina will be attacking this side.
A photo of the Argentina on offense or scoring would probably worth a lot more than the Nigerians doing the same.
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Then more cheerleaders and Fuwa parade.
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Finally the parade came to our side, and I could take some close up pictures.
What happened to her belly?
And finally, even the soldier couldn't help to take a peek at the girls.
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Eventually Argentina won the final match 1:0.
The first picture was the one where the ball was lobbed over the goalie and gave Argentina the winning score.
The Nigerian actually had more offenses, but somehow they just couldn't get the ball into the net.
In the last picture is perhaps the biggest star in the Argentina team - Lionel Messi. From the official web page, he normally plays for the very high profile Barcelona, which probably explained his popularity among the audience in Beijing.
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In the evening of 23-Aug, we were invited to a dinner at the Purple Jade Villa.
I was too lazy to bring my cameras, and again a big regret. The photos were taken with my phone.
The place is a playground for the rich and powerful in Beijing.
As our driver dropped us off at the wooden hut where we would have our dinner, the first thing we saw was a peacock roaming around in the surrounding lawn.
The kids had a great time chasing the peacock, geese and other birds kept at the ground.
We had a little walk around the compound, watching grandmums pushing little kiddies in strollers, young girls walking their dogs, and security guards in neat formation perhaps change shifts.
I was told that the Chinese Taipei Olympic team would be having a dinner party the same evening at the lake side house in the second picture.
Our party is having dinner in our own little wooden hut. What a perfect place to have a little drink and relax. A perfect ending to our Beijing Olympics trip.
Hasta la vista, Beijing.