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.