Aug 2008

Well, it has been a few days since I last provided you with an update, so there is quite a bit to cover.

There are quite a few videos included in this update, so for those of you on tight timelines, you may have to pick and choose (I think the McDonald's video is a must see just to see how that experience is a bit more crowded in China).

The past few days, I have been to several events, including boxing, slalom kayak, swimming and basketball. I have also continued to travel into Beijing to see the city outside of the designated Olympic areas.

The first event we attended yesterday was swimming. This is where the Americans and Australians are really doing well. We saw the men's 4 by 100 relay final which was very exciting, as the Americans won the race by mere one hundredths of a second. That is the race that no doubt has been played repeatedly back home as Michael Phleps, the US swimming superstar, was quite excited after they won the gold. Below are videos of the swimming venue and of the medal presentation for the women's 400 metre freestyle final won by Rebecca Adlington of Great Britain.

Also, President Bush was at the swimming venue at the same time to support the American athletes, and let me tell you, the security around the facility was intense. We were exiting the same door as him to enter our vehicle as he was preparing to leave in his motorcade. The Secret Service guys were in full force. Below is a very brief video of the presidential limo.

After swimming, we headed to the athletes village to visit with the Canadian athletes and staff. While we were visiting there, I took the opportunity to film the outside of the residence. Canada is beside the Mexican team and directly opposite the Chinese team. It is traditional for each country to hang its national flag outside of the residence windows. I think you will agree with me that it is not difficult to tell which residence is hosting the Canadian team. I can attest to the fact that no other country in the village has as large a flag displayed outside of their residence building.

After attending the village, we headed up to the slalom kayak venue to cheer on Canadian athlete David Ford (41) who is competing in his fifth Olympic Games. Below is a video of the end of his race in the semi-finals. It also shows the venue. The slalom venue is very impressive.

David competed in the finals today and finished sixth overall.

This afternoon I went out to explore a bit of Beijing, and one thing I did was to go to McDonald's to see what that experience is like in Beijing. One thing that is certainly different about Beijing than back home in Ottawa is that everywhere you go, it is more crowded. That may seem self-evident due to the size of Beijing, but it is something that requires getting used to, as almost every conceivable interaction is on a much larger scale in terms of fellow human beings in close proximity. This is true of crossing the street, going to the bank or as evidenced below, going to McDonald's on a Tuesday afternoon at 2pm.

As for the food, well, McDonald's prides itself on proving the customer with same tasting food no matter where in the world it is ordered, and by and large, it is the same in Beijing. There were some menu items that I was not familiar with, but other than that, it was pretty similar to back home.

Today I also walked around some of the walled off parks adjacent to the Forbidden City. They were quite nice and frequented by the local people of Beijing. I did not come across a single other foreign tourist during my visit in this area. Below are two brief videos of the park: (1) where a man was practicing playing his traditional Chinese flute; and (2) one of the nicer gardens I came across in the park.

I also took these photos during my visit in and around Beijing and the state gardens.

After the park, I headed back to the hotel and decided to head off to the basketball game between the USA and Angola. I can tell you from having watched the game, Angola is fortunate that the quarters are only 10 minutes long as opposed to 15 minutes in the NBA. At times, it looked like a game between the Harlem Globetrotters and the hapless Washington Generals. To be fair to Angola's team, they were playing against a team comprised of some of the best basketball players in the world. Below is a video of the shoot around before the game.

As I have previously indicated, the architectural design on some of the buildings here in Beijing is pretty surreal. Below are two very brief videos of two of the more impressive structures here in Beijing. One is of the Dragon Building that I previously posted a photo of, and the other, is the new headquarters of CCTV (the state controlled television network). Both these videos were taken as we drove by in the car, so the quality is not the best.

As a final bonus for those of you still reading and that have the time, this is a video I shot when we attended boxing. One of the fighters is from Ireland, and his name is Johnny Joyce. As the video illustrates, Johnny has quite the fan support here in Beijing from his fellow countrymen. As a person from Irish ancestry, I was secretly cheering for Johnny Joyce as well. You won't get quite the same experience seeing this on video, but I thought that his boisterous fan support was quite amusing.

Well, that was a good update of most of what has transpired during my visit in the past 48 hours. Hope you enjoyed the update.