Below are some of the photos I have taken in and around Beijing in the past few days. The first photo is one where I am overlooking the Forbidden City from a lookout that is across the street from the north gate. The second photo is of an interesting garden arrangement of a dragon shaped to represent the year 2008. I have also included a video I took from the lookout which shows you the view of the Imperial City from this spot. This is the highest point in this part of Beijing. Again, in this video you can really see the level of smog/haze that often encompasses Beijing.

The photos below are of the moat and the walls that surround the Forbidden City.

While here in Beijing, I wanted to try and see part of the City that is outside of the Olympic bubble. While in Beijing, it is of course possible to only visit the areas around the Olympic hotels and the venues, but these areas are certainly not representative of all of Beijing. While on my way back from the Forbidden City, I walked through some of the areas of Beijing that are not as frequently traveled by visitors. Below is a video I took of one of the more common streets here in Beijing which will provide you with a view of a regular area of the city that is not a main thoroughfare for Olympic visitors.

As for the Olympics, two days ago we attended at the swimming and saw Phelps continue his dominance in the pool. It truly is remarkable what he has accomplished by winning 8 gold medals at a single Games. Below is a photo of the start for one of the women's races.

After swimming, my brother (he arrived a few days ago) and I decided to wait around for a bit before we headed back to the hotel. We decided to wait around to watch the athletes board the buses to head back to the athletes village. I took this video to show you that process, but also to show you that at these Games, the Chinese military is always close by. In addition, in this video you can see the outside of the swimming venue.

We returned to the swimming venue to print off a schedule of the afternoon events. To our surprise, after the venue cleared out, the divers entered the stadium for their practice session. Below is a clip of that session which we thought was pretty interesting.

Yesterday we attended at the rowing venue, and we were there when Canada won its first medal of the Beijing Games. The silver medal was won by the Canadian rowing pair of Dave Calder and Scott Frandsen. Below is a video of the medal presentation ceremony.

This is a video I took at Canada Olympic House (COH). COH is a place that the Canadian Olympic Committee funds which acts as a meeting point for Canadian athletes and their families attending the Games. It is meant to be a place where athletes and their families can have a place to escape the sometimes chaotic atmosphere of the Games. There is small internet cafe, a dining room, a lounge to watch the games and chefs from Canada to cook meals for the visitors to COH. The video is of an impromptu reception held last night for the silver medal winning Canadian rowing pair of Dave Calder and Scott Frandsen. Only Dave is in this video because his rowing partner was delayed in arriving at COH. My father says a few opening words, and then Dave says a few words. It is nice that Dave's mother was able to join him at this reception, as you will see at the end of the video. I was at the back of the room, near the kitchen area, so unfortunately the audio for this video is not great. You will have to listen to the audio over the sound of the staff cleaning cutlery. This is a longer video, so it may take a while to load on your screen but I think it is worth it. While I would like to take credit for this, the Budweiser in the video is of the guy standing next to me. I have not yet mastered the art of simultaneously filming over a crowd and drinking a beer.

Later last night we headed over to the Bird's Nest to see track & field. As usual, we had to go through security prior to entering the venue. I decided to shoot this video to give you an idea of how thoroughly they search every vehicle prior to entering a venue. While the vehicle is being searched, all visitors have to go through screening similar to that at airports.

Last night was the 100 metre final, and while I don't have any usable video from that race to share with you (it was too crowded to film anything), I did shoot this video which embodies the ideals of the Olympic movement. It is of all the female participants in the decathlon who decided to do a ceremonial lap of the stadium after their event had finished, and they all gave a bow to the crowd. I thought that this was a classy move by the athletes.

Today was the final for the men's 8 in rowing, where Canada won gold. It was quite something to be at the venue, as there was a lot of anticipation in the crowd for this event. Canada's men's 8 crew had not lost a race in 2 years, and were the favourites for gold heading into the race. Below are three videos: (1) the last 500 metres of the race; (2) the medal celebration followed by the raising of the Canadian flag and the playing of our national anthem; and (3) the removal of the flag which is quite the show in itself.

After rowing, we went back to Canada Olympic House where a reception was being held for Ryan Cochrane who won Canada's first Olympic swimming medal since 2000, taking bronze in the 1,500-metre freestyle. As is often the case at these Games, you never know who you are going to have the opportunity to meet. Outside of COH, I met Mark Critch and Shaun Majumder from This Hour Has 22 Minutes. I am a big fan of that show, and I think these guys are hilarious, so it was neat to meet them half way around the world. They were friendly and as you would expect, quite funny. Here is a photo I got to take with them outside of COH.

Tomorrow we are off to do some sightseeing, and are heading out to the Great Wall of China.

Hope you all enjoyed the post and enjoy the rest of your weekend.

Days 6, 7, 8 & 9 in China remains copyright of the author JChambers, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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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.

Day 4 and 5 in China remains copyright of the author JChambers, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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I arrived at the T3 Terminal in Beijing which is a very impressive structure. It recently opened in March of this year. I am told that it is the largest terminal by volume space. Below are some photos taken at the airport.

My father picked me up at the airport, and we travelled to the NOC (National Olympic Committee) hotel. One thing that is quite apparent is that the security in and around Beijing in general, and at the hotel in particular, is omnipresent. The Chinese government has ensured that the security is quite visible. One certainly feels safe travelling around the City.

Below is a photo of my accreditation that allows me to access the hotal and the venues.

After I dropped my stuff off at the hotel, we went out to three receptions held last night. One was hosted by the City of Lausanne where IOC President Jacques Rogge delivered a speech. We then travelled to a reception hosted by Premier Gordon Campbell to promote Vancouver's hosting of the Winter Games in 2010. Former gold medalist Becky Scott delivered a speech describing her work with the program Right to Play which is an organization that promotes athletics in impoverished parts of the world through the travel and participation of Olympic Athletes.

On route to these events, we drove by Tiananmen Square. Below are two photos that I took as we drove by. I hope to have some better photos in the coming days.

As for today, we are travelling to Canada Olympic House in preparation for the Opening Ceremonies tonight. We are loading on the bus at 4 p.m. to head to the Olympic Stadium (referred to as the Bird's Nest). The ceremonies start at 8 p.m.

One thing that is quite accurate as described by the media back in Canada is the effect of the humidity and the presence of smog, or haze, depending on who you speak with. It is quite humid, with the present temperature being about 35 degrees Celsius with the humidity. There are still lots of cars on the road, even with the even/odd licence plate prohibition imposed during the Games. That prohibition is that one day, only even numbered licence plate cars are allowed on the road, alternating with odd cars the next day.

The people of China are certainly very proud of their country (as they should be), and practically the entire city of Beijing is closed down for the Opening of the Games. The architecture of Beijing is incredible. Many of the newer buildings are very impressive.

Well, that's it for now. Hope you all have enjoyed my first substantive post.

Arrived in Beijing remains copyright of the author JChambers, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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I hope you enjoy the posts!

-Josh

Introduction remains copyright of the author JChambers, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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