Running In Chaoyang Park and Taxi Fun

So I decided to run to Chaoyang Park today, as I've spent the last few days lazying around and not getting much exercise. Besides, it'll give me a good gauge for distances in Beijing, especially things like, "How far apart are the subway stations?" which is impossible to tell on most Chinese maps since they never put in a scale.

On the way there, I took a busy road full of cars, buses, etc, but ran amongst the bicycles in their bike lane. Surprisingly, I found myself to be just as swift (or swifter) than many of the other travelers. It's an odd feeling first of all to even "run" in the bike lane (I was the only one), and even odder to be running fast enough to pass other cyclists.

Unfortunately, the air quality was not great in the bike lane. Beijing's air pollution, while noticeably better than in the past, is still not well suited for this kind of long distancce, self-propelled mechanism. My throat was feeling rather funny by the time I finally got to Chaoyang Park, about 3 km away.

Once there, I ran around the park, but to my disappointment, many parts of it were closed due to the Olympics still. I was hoping they'd open things up between the Olympics and the Paralympics, but such was not the case.

On the way back, I did not feel like running through the smog anymore. I could take a bus, but I'd have to figure out where the bus stop was and what lines to take and so on. I decided instead to take a taxi, but I only brought 10 RMB with me, which was just enough to cover the starting fare. Regardless, I got in cab, and asked him to drive me home.

My driver was a man in his 30's; he looked like a nice guy, but maybe not nice enough. I told him that I only had 10 RMB (and paid him upfront), and requested that he drive me as far as he possibly could, given my situation. He can then drop me off and I can run the rest of the way. Hoping for some sympathy, I secretly wished he would take pity on me and take me all the way, which would have only cost him (opportunity-wise) an additional 8 RMB. The driver understood, but made no hint of what he planned...

And thus, after a couple kilometers, he dumped me on the side of the road after the interchange, pointing in the general direction I should run in, and leaving me to cover the remaining kilometer by myself. Oh well. Like I said, he seemed nice, but just not nice enough. At least he had the heart to pass through the interchange first, so I didn't have to deal with trying to pass through that concrete mess on foot.

Maybe it was that guy in particular, maybe it's how Beijingers are. I think the only thing to conclude for now is that I ought to try this experiement a few more times, or in other cities and see how it turns out...

Denouncing China

While the Chinese government is far from perfect, and has many areas of improvement, Western media bias against China seems to be way overboard.

For example, a story on the hardships endured by the Opening Ceremony performers:
http://sports.espn.go.com/oly/summer08/news/story?id=3543618

One comment reads, "...Of course you can accomplish more with slaves than free people, but what's the point? It's the same insane justification that people who run sweatshops use. Why worry about human rights when you can ship more units at a lower price, right?"

Note the last paragraph: "All the tears, the sweat, and sometimes even blood that we shed, I now think it was quite worth it," said Ren Yang, 17, also of the Tagou school. "When we performed that night, all that I could feel in my heart was joy. Pure joy."

Anther comment reads, "...I am an volunteer in Beijing, and am a normal Chinese. This days, I and other volunteers work ed very hard in the Olympics village. Sometimes, we did not have time to eat also. But we were so happy to do this, for the people around the world coming my hometown. When I read the article, I feel so sad. I think the writer did not admire our hard work. I think the performers just like me, they do that becasue they are pursuing happiness. By the way, we can quit the job as we like if we can not endure the so called bad condition."

It seems to me that those who endured the hardships did so on a voluntary basis. If this was an article about the hardships endured by Olympic athletes, then they would be praised - no one would criticize the IOC for setting up competitions that would increase the likelihood of injury and hardship.

An editorial on the Olympics:
http://sports.espn.go.com/oly/summer08/columns/story?columnist=caple_jim&id=3551321

The unfortunate tone of sarcasm seems to run throughout the article:

"Re-education through labor" means, I suppose, that they were performers in the Closing Ceremony.

Not to say that what China did with regards to the protest zones was correct, but the reference to the Opening/Closing Ceremony performers was out of line.

In China... You also have a country where many people still use squat toilets.

And what's wrong with squat toilets? There are actually many advantages over Western toilets, including the fact it lends itself to a more natural position, and is also easiser to clean. I might not mind owning a squat toilet instead of a Western toilet, as one is not inherently superior to the other.

China spent the last 8 years preparing for a spectacular event, putting it's best foot forward. The Olympics were a well-organized and well run event, and China should be applauded for it. It has tried to make itself more open to the world, and while by Western standards it has fallen short, it has come a long way already. Further criticism is not constructive and is a vicious distortion of what China has accomplished thus far.

Athletics & Field Hockey

I got a free ticket to see Athletics in the Bird's Nest this morning as one of my friend's friends did not feel like going. Supposedly it the event was "shotput," but it was actually 3 events, and none of them were shotput:


Women's Javelin Throw
Women's Long Jump
Women's 200M


A view of the Bird's Nest during the day:




And the Water Cube:

A few shots inside the stadium:

Women's 200M Preliminaries:

The Olympic Flame still going strong:

Unfortunately, Athletics was also a difficult event to follow, as all three events tend to go on simultaneously. The long jump in particular was difficult due to the fact differences were measured in centimeters, and the stadium is huge.


One of the surprises for me was seeing the woman from Bahrain, Ruqaya Al Ghasara, win her heat. Unlike the other competitors, she was completely wrapped from head to toe in a Hijood as per the traditions of her culture, and when the race started, she was not the fleetest of the group. Nonetheless, by the end, she had jumped out ahead to the astonishment (and perhaps even delight) of everyone in the stadium.

Ruqaya Al Ghasara:


Results: Too many to track



At night, I went to see Field Hockey with another friend of a friend. This was one of those events for which I was able to get very cheap tickets (about $11 USD), and since I had never seen it, I was quite curious as to how the sport is played. My impression was that resembled soccer more than ice hockey.

Field Hockey is located up in the northeast corner of the Olympic Green, near Archery and Tennis. We had bad seats initially:


But soon afterwards we switched to much better ones after eluding one of the volunteers guarding the doors of a different section:


One interesting practice is this formation of the defense stuffing the goal with players before penalties:

While the offense looks ready to pounce:

Fans cheering for China:

China got out to an early lead but would never score again as the Belgiums took control after the withstanding the crowd-driven opening fervor. In the other match, Spain outlasted South Korea, who scored in the final minutes but was unable to equalize in the final minute.

Jerry at the Field Hockey Stadium:

Results:
Spain def. South Korea, 2-1
Belgium def. China, 3-1

Ping Pong

Tickets to Ping Pong were not cheap, as it was one of those high demand events - the Chinese loved ping pong. However, I got them online from a ticket reseller, and they actually turned out to be really good seats for what turned out to be the most entertaining, best event thus far. Ping Pong was housed in the Beijing University Gymnasium:



The match was one of the Men's Team Ping Pong Bronze Medal Rounds, and it featured HK vs. Korea as well as Japan vs. Austria.





The home crowd naturally cheered for Hong Kong against Austria, but perhaps interestingly enough, they were also cheering for Austria against Japan. There was an old guy from the Austria contingent who learned to use the Chinese historic hatred of the Japanese to his advantage, and he would often stand up and scream "Au-Di-Li!" (Chinese for Austria), and the Chinese chorus would respond with "Jia-you!" (Let's go!):

The rallies were awesome:

And the players looked so intense. The expressions on their faces were priceless - they could kill in cold blood.

Result: HK lost against Korea, but Austria beat Japan in team play.

First Events

The first event on my schedule was Beach Volleyball, which happened to be in the morning immediately after my arrival. Naturally with jetlag, I got up nice and early at 5am, plenty of time.

As I took a cab to Chaoyang Park (朝阳公园), I noticed it was a surprisingly beautiful day in Beijing. I can't believe I could see the blue sky! I mean, I'm in Beijing! It's absolutely amazing!






Chaoyang Park has a huge statue of Shaquille O'Neal in front of one of its gates:

There is a security checkpoint to pass through in order to get in. Everything was quite orderly, as there were tons of volunteers in blue shirts directing everything:

I got into the stadium a few minutes late, but it looks like the crowd was fairly laid back - in fact,
there were large sections of empty seats in the upper levels. Given that today's events were still in the Round of 16 matches for the Men's Beach Volleyball, I suppose it is somewhat understandable.

Here are some shots of the stadium:

China's crowd getting into the China vs. Germany match:

Some German fans there too:

My seat was not too far from the match, and I sat behind this row of Americans (circled in yellow):

Once they realized I was from the US (due to the fact I joined into their incessant chanting of "U-S-A!" during the US-Swiss match), we got to chatting. It was obvious they thought I looked very Chinese:

American: "So where are you from?"
Me: "New York."
American: "Ah, I see. Do people often mistakenly believe you speak Chinese?"
Me: "Actually, I do speak Chinese."
American: "Oh..."

As mentioned, the first match was USA vs. Switzerland, and the Americans ended up pulling out a tough match. However, one of the Swiss players was so incensed at the loss that he threw his cap violently into the sand upon losing match point.

Of course, the highlight of the entire outing is watching China play. Suddenly, the stadium was completely filled, and the crowd really got into every point. China ended up losing 2-0 to Germany, but it was thrilling to be caught up in the whole nationalistic fervor. The Chinese are really proud of what their country has accomplished, of their Olympics, and of their common heritage.

The other very entertaining match was Georgia against Austria. One of the Georgian players, Gia, really knew how to work a crowd. He seemed positively Brazillian.

Besides matches, the other part of the entertainment happens to be the beach girls that seem to come on the court to perform every 5 minutes - opportunities presented themselves during gaps between matches, gaps between sets, timeouts, and even "technical" timeouts, which usually seemed to be an excuse to bring them out again when the natural gaps were too far apart. Another interesting aspect seems to be there is a "domestic" beach girls team and an "international" beach girls team. After China had lost, it seems the "domestic" team had retired for the day.

"Domestic" Team:

"International" Team:

After the China match, I got bored with being in the same place and started sitting in different parts of the stadium:




There were also beach volleyball courts outside the stadium for people who just can't sit still and watch:

Beach Volleyball Results:
US def. Switz, 2-1
Germany def. China, 2-0
Georgia def. Austria, 2-1
Netherlands def. Australia, 2-0


After the events in the morning, my friends wen to Ritan Park (日壇公園), which roughly translates to "Sun Temple" Park in English. Once again, you see evidence of the amazing preparations the government has undertaken for the Olympics. According to my friends, the park did not look anywhere this nice only a month ago or so:

At night, my friends and I headed out to my second event: Diving, which was located in The Water Cube:

On the way, we also passed by the Bird's Nest:


There was also a building with a huge LCD screen:

As well as the indoor stadium:

Not sure what this building was for but it added nicely to the atmosphere:

The pedestrian road in the Olympic Green is wide and grand. It seems to stretch on endlessly, and is probably wide enough to be at least a 12 lane highway:

Some exhibitions in the Olympic Green on Chinese culture:

The new media tower setup in the Olympic Green:

The moon was bright that night, and it's light peaked thru the clouds:

We had tickets to the semi-finals, and had expected a real treat. However, diving itself was somewhat difficult to follow given our seats, as we sat more towards the swimming pool end of the venue rather than the diving part. They did have two large LCD screens showing the action, but it became quite obvious that the sport was made not really made for large spectator audiences. In fact, it was easiest to follow by watching the giant LCD screens, except there was no commentary like there usually is on TV. As the sport requires judges, it was fairly uninteresting to watch - the women just did their dives and got their scores. There was no direct competition, and thus it was not nearly as entertaining as beach volleyball.

Inside The Water Cube:

Diving Results: Not too unexpectedly, Guo Jingjing (郭晶晶), the celebrated Chinese diver, topped all competitors at the end of the semifinal rounds.