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.