Beijing

9 August 2008
Beijing, China
                An attendant woke us up around 5 am so we could get ready to get off the train.  So far Beijing didn’t look too different from other big cities in China.  We were dropped off at the “Western Train Station.”  Thankfully we found a bus that would take us right to the main train station, right next to our hostel.  The bus stopped just after it passed our hostel which made finding it much easier.
                The hostel didn’t have our room ready yet, so they put us in a twin room so we could clean up and rest.  After a little clean up we then set out to get our Olympic tickets.  Soon arrived at the office and picked our tickets.  The tickets purchased were to rowing and two soccer/football matches.  One set of the soccer/football tickets was way out in Shenyang (7 hour train ride away).  We hadn’t figured out what to do with those yet.
                On the way back we stopped by the train station to buy tickets to Tianjin (the location of our other soccer/football event).  After waiting in line for about 10 minutes we got to the window.  The lady told us we needed to be in the next line.  We grudgingly switched to the other line.  Once we got to the front the guy wouldn’t let us buy tickets.  He wrote something on a piece of paper, but we couldn’t read it.  We gave up and left.
                With our soccer tickets in Shenyang we decided to look into possibly taking a plane to Shenyang.  We managed to understand that for both of us it was going to cost 1030 Yuan total for a roundtrip flight ($150 USD).  This was too good to be true.  We went across the street for and ATM.  Doug saw a travel place and poked in to find out what we were doing wrong trying to get our train tickets to Tianjin.  The guy told Doug we could only get them 3 days in advance, unlike the 10 day limit everywhere else.
                Back at the airline ticket place, we threw our money on the counter and the lady indicated that the 1030 was only good for one person.  We took our money back and walked away.
                After all the headaches with ticket people at the train station a McDonald’s milkshake was sounding pretty good.  Then we explored some of the nearby shops until we went back to our room.  We inquired about the cost of laundry, but they wanted about 3 dollars a kilo.  This much more than we were used to paying.  We decided not to do our laundry here.  The front desk was kind enough to give us directions to a “Carefour” (this is a French type of Walmart. 
The bus dropped us off in front of the store; we got some crackers, cheese, wine and a few other necessities.  One item we bought was a bar of soup for laundry.  When we got back to the room we started washing our own clothes right in the sink.  Doug strung a line up in the room for drying.  We spent the rest of the night relaxing and trying to get the computer back to being 100%.

10 August 2008
Beijing, China
                Today we set off to see a big shopping street just south of Tiananmen Square.  When we arrived it was packed with people.  We started walking where the majority of people were at.  They worked their way down a street with what looked like new shops.  When we got closer however, we noticed that 99% of these brand new shops were empty.  There were no stores, no people inside, just a big fake street.  We started to call it “façade” street.  Finally we found a way to get behind the fake store fronts to actual stores.  There wasn’t much of interest except a lot of people.
                Tiananmen Square was nearby so we went to have a look.  There was no easy access to the square.  We finally arrived at a place where should have been able to cross the street in the square however guards weren’t letting people through unless they had the correct credentials.  Soon we gave up and started towards the Forbidden City.  On the way we saw a couple Americans staring at a map.  We asked if they needed help and they said they had just had the same problem in Tiananmen Square.  There were 4 of them.  Two were the parents of a US Olympic swimmer.  The husband of the other couple was the swimmers coach.  They were headed off to the Forbidden City and so were we, so we joined up.
                The 6 of us enjoyed taking in the Forbidden City.  It was quite large and we probably only took in about a third of it.  While we were exploring our friends got a phone call from a friend.  They had two extra tickets to swimming the next day.  They, very kindly, offered them to us.  Before we split up we made plans to meet up with Mark and Jessica (the swimmer’s coach and wife) to watch the swimming event the next day.
                The first thing we had to eat today was a peanut butter and jelly sandwich around 9 am.  It was now close to 4 pm and we hadn’t had anything to eat since.  We made a beeline for a sushi place we saw the day before.  When we arrived we were the only ones there.  We ordered a couple simple rolls and a couple pieces of a Philadelphia roll.  All of it was pretty good, but a little expensive and we could see that in order to get enough to eat we would be spending a lot of money.  We ordered a couple extra pieces of the Philly roll and then left.  To fulfill the rest of our hunger we walked across the hallway to the KFC and got a thing of popcorn chicken to top us off.  Then it was back to the room.

11 August 2008
Beijing, China
                Our first chore of the day was to go down to a travel agent we had been coordinating with for a while.  When we arrived we picked up and paid for our Trans-Mongolian tickets.  These would get us from Beijing to Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia and then on to Moscow, Russia.
                On the way over we saw a sign for Subway sandwiches.  We hadn’t had one of these since we were in Auckland with food poisoning (contracted in Fiji).  We were excited to get some deli turkey slices (a first for us since we arrived in Asia back in May).  The Subway happened to be next to an ice skating rink that was on the bottom floor of a mall.  We got our sandwiches and watched people skate around at varying degrees of success.  The sandwiches were decent, but still not as good as home.
                After walking around for a long time we took the subway up to the Olympic Green.  Once we got off the subway and walked for a bit we finally came face to face with “The Bird’s Nest,” the Olympic stadium.  It was much bigger in real life than it looked on TV.  Unfortunately the whole Olympic Green area is restricted to ticket holders only.  The government has set up a big fence with a bunch of police and military personnel to watch it.  We have heard they have 1 police officer/military person for every 5 guests.  We worked our way over to where we said we would meet Jessica and Mark.  They arrived soon after and we all made it through security to get on to Olympic Green.
                The Water Cube was the building closest to us.  The building is quite interesting.  It was designed to look just like the name describes: a cube of water.  Supposedly it is the only building in the world cover in a membrane.  We continued to walk through the green and soon we up close to the “the bird’s nest,” the Olympic stadium.  As we walked around we finally got a nice view of the Olympic Flame. 
                After snapping a few photos and talking to some friends of Mark and Jessica, we headed to the entrance of the Water Cube.  Inside the building was interesting.  The design didn’t stop at the outside walls, it continued in the lobby as well.  The walls to our left were made to look like water bubbles.  The walls to the right were running water over glass into a shallow pool.  Upstairs there was a portion of the membrane that was exposed for people to touch.  Kids were pushing against it, laughing.
                After talking to more friends of Jessica and Mark’s, we headed into the pool area.  Directly in front of us was the diving pool.  To the left was the lap pool.  Our seats were probably some of the best you could get for diving…the view for swimming wasn’t too bad either.
                Our seats were next to a couple of 17 year old girls for the US.  Our first event was women’s 200M freestyle.  There were 6 heats and America had two swimmers competing.  Our first American was Allison Schmidt in heat 4 and the Katie Hoff was the second American in heat 6.  Both of them took second in their heat (Katie Hoff’s time was second to a World Record).   It wasn’t until later that we discovered the second American, Katie Hoff, had already won a silver and a bronze medal in other events.
                The second event was the Men’s 200M fly.  We had two Americans in this one as well, Gil Stovall, in the 5th heat (he took 2nd in his heat), and Michael Phelps in the 6th Heat.  We were quite excited to see Michael Phelps since he seems to be in every other news report about the Olympics.  Apparently he already held the World Record for this particular event, but during this try he broke the Olympic Record (but not his own World Record).  On his way out of the pool all the reporters perked up and people rushed up to the rail to get photos.  Our seats were positioned in a spot right over where every athlete exited at, so after Phelps got done talking to a handful of different reporters he passed right by us and Doug heard collective sighs from the two 17 year old girls and Anna.
                The last event of the night was the women’s 200M medley.  The first American was Natalie Coughlin, in the 3rd heat (she took first for her heat).  Then Katie Hoff swam again in the 4th heat (she took second for her heat).
                Back in the lobby we meet back up with Mark and Jessica.  Outside we said goodbye to Mark and Jessica.  They had been terrific hosts to us and we tried to set up plans to buy them lunch in a couple days.
                The Olympic Green was twice as impressive at night.  The Water Cube changed different colors and different patterns.  The Bird’s Nest was lit up with a red glow and the Olympic Flame was obviously much easier to see.  Jessica recommended going down to the Olympic super store.  We walked down that way and finally found the store.  We didn’t have a bunch of cash on us so we just got a couple items.  At this point we were starving.  Because the Olympics have specific sponsors, there are only specific services.  That being the case, the only food easily available was from McDonalds.
                After our meal we took a few more photos and then made our way to the subway, which had a stop right in the middle of the Olympic Green.  They handed us subway tickets as we entered and we took the first of three subway lines to get back to our room for the night.

12 August 2008
Beijing, China
                The day began a little later.  We didn’t really have anything to do until later in the afternoon.  Our rowing tickets were not until 4:00pm.  Doug wanted to try to find where the road cycling event was going on.  So we took the subway as close as we could to the event, got out, and began walking.  Arriving at where the event was supposed to take place there were no cyclists, or even anyone there.   There only thing we saw was an empty fenced off area, guarded by guards standing at attention.  We were not exactly sure what they were guarding, but alas they were attempting to be attentive.  Soon we realized there was nothing to see, so we began walking.
                We ended up walking back to where the subway was the day before.  There was a sushi restaurant nearby with a train.  For lunch we ordered a couple rolls from the menu, and took a couple dishes from the train.  The sushi was pretty good, not as good as the a couple days before, but Anna was satisfied.  She was really getting tired of McDonalds, and all the eating out.  The hostel we were staying at advertised a kitchen, but there wasn’t one. 
                After lunch we went back to the room for a short while before leaving again.  It took us about an hour to get up to the Olympic green bus station.  Here we had to catch a bus out to the rowing area.  We didn’t realize how far away the rowing area really was.  The bus arrived a little after 4:00; we had missed the start of the first event.  This turned out to be ok, being the event started 2km ahead of where our seats were, we could only see the ending.  During the event we sat next to some Aussie’s.  So we chatted with them.  While Doug was getting a beer he met a couple of guys from DC.  They ended up joining us.  It was nice to sit next to a couple more people from the US.  This way we didn’t have to shout “GO USA/AMERICA,” on our own.  Four voices definitely made a better sound than two.  During some events the Chinese were saying “CHINA, CHINA”, and in the middle we would say, “USA, USA.”  It ended up sounding like, “CHINA, USA, CHINA, MEIGUA!” (Meigua means, “USA” in Chinese…the locals loved that)  This worked out well, the Chinese were laughing at us.  Also during the match a guy with a Botswana shirt on asked if he could hold our little hand flag, he said he forgot his.  This was cool, we had supporters from everywhere.
                After the match we stood in line for at least 30 minutes to get on the bus.  The bus took us back to the subway, and then took the subway to one stop short of the one we needed to get off.  We had decided to go to Pizza Hut for dinner.  Anna ordered a chicken salad, which was not the best, it had a weird dressing.  And Doug ordered a pepperoni pizza, Anna assisted with this.  Once we finished dinner, we walked back to the room for the night.

13 August 2008
Beijing, China
                Today Anna had her dentist appointment.  She had neglected her teeth too long, and now it was time to visit the dentist in China of all places.  We had emailed the US embassy back in Chengdu, and this was a dentist they highly recommended.  The appointment was at 9:00.  We got ourselves ready and walked to it.
                Anna ended up needing a couple of small fillings.  The dentist also recommended a cleaning.  He made an appointment for her for Thursday afternoon.  After the dentist Doug wanted to go back to the cycling event.  It turned out he had misread the schedule, and the event was going on today.  We took the subway close to the event once again, and walked to where the start should have been.  Arriving at the start we met some people from Holland.  They informed us the cycling had been moved to the Great Wall, and no spectators were allowed.  This was odd, and disturbing all at the same time.  No spectators were allowed… this was ridiculous.  It was strange the event was moved, and no one really knew about it (or at least we didn’t).  After chatting for a few minutes they told us about the Heineken Holland house.  This was a venue rented out by people from Holland.  They said they had Heineken beer for sale, food, and big screen TV’s to watch the events on.  This sounded great.  We said our goodbyes, said we would most likely see them there later on.
                Since we were not going to see cycling we began walking back to the room.  Walking wasted time, and gave us some exercise.  Arriving back at the room, we hung out for a while before heading out to the Heineken House.  It was pretty easy to get to.  We just had to change subways a couple times.  Arriving at the house we got a couple beers, and sat down.  Doug saw the people who told us about the House, and bought one of them a beer.  While sitting down we met some Aussie’s from Melbourne.  We were in Melbourne back in April on our way to Tasmania.  It was nice to have something to talk to them about.  Anna soon went to get some French fries, grease is always good with beer.  When she came back it turned out one of the guys Doug was chatting with had tickets to soccer/football, the US vs Nigeria (which just started about 5 blocks away).  He offered the tickets to Doug.  Doug told Anna about the tickets, she then went and got the guys a couple beers.  We said our thanks, goodbyes, and then caught a taxi. 
                The taxi took us most of the way.  Luckily earlier in the day we had come across a sports store with USA shirts for sale.  We bought one for each of us, knowing we would want to wear it later in the week.  In the taxi we changed our shirts.  The taxi driver must have thought we were nuts.  Traffic ended up being so bad; we got out early and ran the rest of the way to the match.  We arrived at half time.  The US ended up losing their match, but they did well.  The second match was Argentina vs. Serbia.  This was also an excellent match.  The day ended really well. 
                After the match we ended up walking back towards our hostel.  On the way we stopped at a Mexican restaurant for dinner.  The food wasn’t too bad.  Doug decided the Mexican restaurant in Chengdu was better.  The cheese is just not the same.  We were not even sure if it was cheese, or just some powder mixed with water.  Once dinner was over we walked back to the room for the night.

14 August 2008
Beijing, China
                After sleeping in we went to Carefour to get food for our Trans-Mongolian train ride.  Once we came back we headed right back out to the post office to mail some packages.  We had purchased a toy for our nephew, but the people at the post office refused to ship it.  We couldn’t figure out wy.  We ended up not sending any packages and went back to the room.
                While we rested a torrential downpour started outside.  This just kept us inside even longer.  Soon it was getting close to Anna’s cleaning apt. and we had to brave the storm.  Thankfully it had let up, but we would be drenched if walked the whole way.  We decided to bite the bullet and get a taxi. 
                After the cleaning we started towards the subway.  We passed a place called, “Texas BBQ” and decided to give it shot.  The first thing we noticed when the menus came out was a list of US made microbrews.  Doug picked out the “Red Seal Ale” brewed in Mendocino County, California.  It was by far the best beer he has had on the trip so far (Doug is still convinced that America makes the best beer in the world). 
                We ordered some nachos which weren’t too bad and a BBQ chicken dish that came with potato salad and baked beans.  The meal was very good.  With full bellies we headed to the Holland House. 
On the way Anna stopped at a tea store.  She picked out some tea and the owner insisted that we stay and do some tasting.  We tried a couple different types and ended up buying some little tea cups before leaving.
The Holland House was much busier than the day before.  This time there didn’t seem to meet many other nationalities but people from Holland.  Everyone was really focused on a Judo match that was going on.  Soon a guy from the Netherlands came out to compete for the bronze medal.  He ended up winning his match but left upset because of some mistake he made in the match before that would have had him competing for the gold.
After the Judo match the place cleared out.  The channel switched back and forth between the US Men’s basketball and an equestrian event that the Netherlands ended up winning.  Not much later we decided to call it a night.

15 August 2008
Beijing, China
                Our train for Tianjin was scheduled to leave at 9:30 am.  We arrived about 45 minutes early and went through security.  Then we asked an information person which waiting room we were in.  She shook her head and said we were at the wrong station.  Our train was now leaving in almost 30 minutes and short of a helicopter…we weren’t going to make.  We went back to the window we purchased the tickets at but they told us to go to ticket booth number 1.  Once we found window#1 we jumped in line.  In front of us was a Chinese girl who was crying talking to the two guys in the window.  Doug stole a peak at her ticket, it was for the day before.  She kept crying and crying, but the guys didn’t (or couldn’t) help her.  When it was our time to talk, the crying girl was still there.  We showed our tickets and explained we were going to miss our train and asked if they could change it.  One guy left and the other guy found a timetable and issued us new tickets for 10:30 am.  While we were waiting we decided to try and help the crying girl.  Her ticket was about $11 USD, so we offered her the money to get a new ticket.  She stopped crying, shook her head and stormed out.  She might have been insulted, we weren’t sure.
                Outside we found an information booth and asked which bus would take us to the train station.  While we were there a couple guys from Australia were also getting directions.  We ended up talking with them way too long and soon ran off to find our bus.  Once on the bus we started looking at the time and number of stops to go.  We soon realized we would miss this train too if we didn’t get off and get a taxi. 
                The taxi took us the rest of the way and we arrived in line just a moment before they started boarding.  The station was brand new and really nice.  Down stairs we saw our “bullet train.”  Tianjin is about 120 km away, but the bullet train does it in 26 minutes.  When we arrived out our seats we saw that we got the 1st class tickets.  The seats were wide and comfortable. 
                Beijing is flooded with information people to help point you in the right direction for the Olympics, but very few speak English.  Unfortunately Tianjin isn’t.  We were trying to find a post office to send the packages we couldn’t send yesterday.  We also wanted to buy some official Olympic souvenirs and send them off as well (which are usually in stores next or inside the post office).  The post office by the station didn’t have any souvenirs at all, so we headed into town.  After wandering around a bit we finally found a post office and souvenirs.  We bought a couple things and tried to send off three packages.  In one of the packages was a tea set.  The people at the post office refused to ship it because it was “fragile” (or “crispy” as their electronic translator said).  We told them we didn’t care and Doug even went to go buy a newspaper for packing material.  The asked one of their bosses and came back refusing to ship the tea set.  This seemed a little insane.  Does nothing fragile get shipped in China, or are they just afraid that a foreigner’s package might get damaged?
                We decided to head down to the stadium and kill time around there.  Doug asked a bus driver lady if her bus went to the stadium.  She thought about it…talked with one of the other passengers…and then waved us on.   A few minutes later we arrived at a bus stop and the driver came back to us and started signaling.  We were utterly confused, but thankfully a woman came up and said that the driver was telling us to get out here and catch the number 8 bus the rest of the way.
                Outside we waited for an about 15 minutes and the 8 bus finally arrived.  It was packed to the gills.  Doug squeezed in the front, Anna squeezed in the back.  The bus ride lasted about 30 claustrophobic minutes.  It seemed that all the volunteers for the game were on the same bus with us.
                At the stadium we headed to a nearby shopping center.  There was a big screen showing swimming.  We watched Michael Phelps break another world record before we headed off to find some food.
                Around the corner was a place called, “Paris Baguette.”  We both picked out sandwiches that turned out to be quite good.  Then we went to a convenience store for a couple refreshments before heading into the stadium.  A guy walked by selling little flags for Norway and Brazil (the two teams competing tonight).  Anna went and bought a little flag for both countries.
                We entered the stadium about 1 hour and 45 minutes before the event started.  The stadium appeared to be brand new.  It was very modern and even surrounded by a river/lake/moat.  One of the best things about the Olympics in Beijing is the beer prices.  A 12 ounce beer costs less than a dollar.  Doug went to vendor and tried to buy a Budweiser (not his favorite but Chinese beer isn’t that good and the US economy needs the help) but they said they were sold out.  Doug was very surprised because we were probably two of the twenty guests in the entire stadium.  As we walked around the stadium we saw a bunch of security guys just sitting around doing nothing.  Anna joked that they drank all of the Bud.
                Our seats were right in the sun.  Thankfully it was going down fast, but we weren’t about to get fried.  We went back inside the concession area and walked around.  We found a souvenir shop that had some ok items.  We wanted to get a little something for our friends Urs and Bronwyn in Australia.  After we made the purchase we walked around the corner and saw another souvenir shop selling the one item we had been searching for, for them.  After trying to exchange it there, we were directed back to the other shop who thankfully gave us a refund.  Then we went back and got our things.
                Back outside in the seating area, we decided to walk over to the shade.  We saw some people taking photos and we decided to do the same.  Soon we were joined by a couple Chinese guys who wanted to get photos with the Americans. 
                The match between Brazil and Norway was quite good.  Brazil was the favorite and played excellent.  Norway, despite be overmatched, played a very strong game and kept it very exciting.  Next to us on our right were a couple guys from Minnesota who arrived at halftime.  On our left was a guy from France who was living in San Francisco, a girl from China who lived in Beijing and a guy from Iran who was living in Beijing.  After the match we took a group photo and headed to a pizza place outside the stadium.  The other 5 all had the same train later in the evening, but ours left in an hour and a half.  We shared an appetizer with them and ran off to catch our train.
                While we waited for the bullet train, the waiting room was showing US vs China women’s volleyball.  The US was done but making a great comeback.  We left the waiting area just as the US evened up the score 2 set to 2 sets.
                Back in Beijing we took a bus to a bus depot.  We waited for the bus that would take us the rest of the way but it never came.  Eventually we decided to take a cab.
                Back at the hostel we wanted to confirm that our train to Mongolia was in fact leaving from the train station next to us.  That was one train we couldn’t afford to miss.  After the lady at the front desk confirmed it we packed our bags and fell asleep.

16 August 2008
Beijing, China
                The alarm went off at 5:30am.  We really did not want to miss this train.  Once all our stuff was together we woke up the lady sleeping in a cot behind the front desk and got our deposit back.  Thankfully the train station was about a quarter of a mile away.
                Security didn’t bother us during our check in.  We found the waiting room for the K23 train and relaxed.  While we waited we meet three ladies from Switzerland.  We made small talk with them before boarding.
                Once we were allowed to board we found that the train was nearly brand new.  Our cabin was really quite nice.  It was a four person berth that we shared with two Chinese guys.  Nearly everyone else in our carriage was a western tourist.  The only real drawback was there was less storage available in the car than the average Chinese train.
                Soon the train pulled out and we were on our way to Mongolia.  Our little guide book said that the train would pass by the Great Wall.  We were both quite tired from our late night and early morning, but Doug really wanted to see the Great Wall.  While Anna took a nap, Doug talked to a guy that said this train now used a different set of tracks and we no longer get to see the Great Wall.  Doug went to ask the attendant.  Doug had to point to a picture of the wall and the lady nodded.
                Doug looked out the window.  Then Doug sat on the bed and looked out the window.  Then Doug lay on the bed and looked out the window and then Doug woke up and hour later.
                Our Swiss friends happened to be the berth next to us.  Verena came over to talk for a while and she and Anna really hit it off.  While they were chatting Doug heard one passenger say they did see the Great wall go by but it was quite far away.
                In the evening we went do to the food carriage which was 11 carriages away.  We decided to get a bottle of vodka and mix it with some fruit juice we had.  When we opened the bottle we quickly realized we didn’t buy vodka.  It smelt and tasted more like Lao Lao (rice wine).  We dumped out the concoction and left the bottle behind.
                Around 8 pm we pulled up to the Chinese/Mongolian border.  There was a lot of confusion as to whether we had to get off or not, and if we had to take our luggage with us or not.  The border officials came and board and collected all of our passports and we were told we could get off, with or without our luggage.  Our roommates stayed behind, but just about everybody else got off (half with luggage, the other half left it behind).  There was duty free store with alcohol, cigarettes, food, and soft drinks.  We got a couple things and went to go sit outside.
                While we sat outside we were joined by a couple Israeli guys and one guy from Mongolia.  Soon we had some beers and toasted entering Mongolia.  Soon our train came back with a different set of wheel because the track size is different in Mongolia.  We all got back on board and waited to get our passports back.  Once the official dropped them off the train headed a couple miles down the track to Mongolia.  We had officially left China!!

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