Olympic Fever

Just thought I'd do a quick post before Nikki arrives tomorrow.

I've been saving most of the big sights until Nikki got here, but visited a few parks. Jinshang park is a large hill behind the Forbidden city that was made from the material dug out to make the Forbidden City's moat. From the top you get great views of the city and there's a giant Buddha (although you aren't allowed photos). In the hunt for beach volleyball tickets I went out to Chaoyang park, but was too late, so had a wander round the park. It's pretty immense and has lots of areas, right in the middle was a tacky amusement park. On my way out I was invited into the Haier House of tomorrow. Haier sponsor the games and make household appliances. Their house of tomorrow involves putting internet and TV into anything and everything, including bathrooms, air conditioning units and picture frames.

Whilst waiting for the volleyball final I went for a wander round Beijing Zoo, after being promised a dolphin show I rushed round to see it and it turned out it was actually a sea lion! The zoo is ok, some of the cages look quite small, and it smells a bit funny.

Since the baseball i've also been to see quarter-finals of the water polo, had a full day in the Bird's nest where i saw womens and mens 4x100m finals, 4x400 womens qualifying, women's long jump final, second half of the decathlon, 5000m womens final, 50k walk and a few others, saw the Brazil vs. USA womens volleyball final and the women's 10k swim. Its been a really enjoyable experience slightly tainted by the touts ridiculously overcharging and the Chinese government being a bit overzealous on the security. I tried to go watch the closing ceremonies with someone from the hostel as we were told it would be shown on the big screen just outside the stadium, but when we got there the closest you were allowed without a ticket was about 1.5 miles away where you could only just make out the stadium.

Beijing is a great city and the scale of it is unbelievable, although it doesn't bring to mind what i thought a chinese city would be like, it seems more like a cross between a Chinese, american and spanish city!