China Olympics Trip

In the past few days, we have seen many interesting things here in China.

Yesterday, we drove about an hour outside of Beijing to visit the Great Wall of China. This is a truly magnificent structure, that one really has to see in person to believe. I was advised by my father's assistant here, Yujia Zhang, that the Emperor of China had this wall built to keep out the "barbarians". Below is a video of my brother at the Great Wall for those of you following the travel blog from Port Burwell Provincial Park.

As you saw in the video, we brought a Canadian flag up with us. At the great wall, individuals are only permitted to display the official flag of one of the 205 countries participating in the Games. I can tell you that pulling out the Canadian flag created a scene I was not expecting. Many people that walked by us from China wanted to have their photo taken with the Canadian flag. Many people were familiar with Canada, and were quite excited about us being there. We have several videos and photos of this truly unique experience. Below are several of the photos that the local people asked to take with us and one of me leaning out at Great Wall displaying our flag.

Below is a video of Michael Phelps getting ready for one of his races a few days ago where he won one of his eight gold medals.

Yesterday, we traveled to the triathlon venue and saw Simon Whitfield win his silver medal. It was a very close race and he was in the pack of four competitors at the end in a position to win a medal. He was in the lead with about 40 yards remaining, when he was passed by his German counterpart. Below is a video of the final moments of the races.

Today we visited the Temple of Heaven. This is a park area in Beijing where the Emperor would travel to speak directly with God. It was not open to the public during the Emperor's reign. It is now a beautiful park in Beijing, and most of the important structures are still in place and open to visitors. Below is a brief video of part of the Temple of Heaven.

While traveling through the Temple of Heaven, we observed many locals from Beijing playing their traditional instruments and performing traditional music. Below is a video of one of these performances where locals performed a song about Chairman Mao (one of the locals was kind enough to explain to us what the song was about).

As for tomorrow, Adam van Koeverden goes for his first attempt at a medal here in Beijing. At 3:30 p.m. Beijing time, he will compete in the 1000m K1 final. This is the event in which he won a bronze medal in Athens. Let's hope for the best. His 500m K1 final is on Saturday 3:30 p.m. Beijing time.

Hope you all enjoyed the latest update.