If you watched any of the outdoor events today you will know that the rain hasn’t let up. A lot of events were postponed but some went ahead. At least it was not too hot, about 70 degrees. I woulda got outa Dodge except I had a pass for the women’s water polo this evening and the USA was playing Netherlands for the gold medal.

The Yingdong Natatorium is another great looking building. It’s considerably smaller than the Water Cube and only holds around 4 or 5 thousand people but it’s a really intimate setting and the spectators get a fantastic view of the action.

Netherlands was new to the finals so nobody knew how the match would go. If you’ve never watched water polo then you probably aren’t aware how rough a sport it is. There’s a lot of rough action that goes on underwater and when the players are digging for the ball they can really get bashed up. It’s amazing to me that nobody drowns! It was great to watch. In the end Netherlands won a hard fought match 9 to 8 for the gold. This is the first Olympic medal ever for their water polo team. In the bronze medal match Australia beat Hungary 12 to 11 in another close game.

I took advantage of dry weather this week to see the Summer Palace. It’s an amazing place on a hill overlooking a lake. I’m attaching some photos of the traditional village People are dressed in traditional dress and playing music. Everyone was really friendly and the prices of the artwork was amazingly inexpensive. I’m also including some photos of the palace with some of the intricate detail. More later. Enjoy.

There was more rain Sunday night but the weather cleared up on Monday and was fantastic. I guess the Chinese army had the cloud seeding mortars in action again to prevent it raining during the day!

I saw some of the basketball last night. This sport is really popular with the Chinese and is one of the few venues that fills up. And it’s a beautiful complex. USA played Germany and Argentina played Russia.  The USA game was a bit lopsided, USA winning 106 to 57, but it was great to see the players up close. The Argentina / Russia game was closer, with Argentina winning 91 to 79. It’s fun to see people from so many different countries loving the game.

I’m attaching some photos from the Forbidden City that I saw recently. This is where the Chinese Emperor lived so it’s built like a fortress. Hope you like ‘em.

Yes, there is a sun! It’s been a warm and humid day today. This will be a short note with just a few photos from my day around Beijing.

I’m constantly amazed at the number of Chinese tourists here. I understand that with the new economy many people are now able to afford to travel and see a lot of their own country that they could never have imagined seeing even a few years ago. I find that tourists are tourists no matter what their origin. And you know what? The local tourists buy all the same tourist junk as the rest of us!

I’ve added some more pictures to today’s post to try to give you a different view of Beijing than you might see on television at home. It has stayed humid and smoggy, as you can see in the photo from my hotel window.  I can see about three blocks and after that everything is lost in the smog.  And this is a good day.

In that same photo you can see some of the old ‘courtyard houses’. In the close-up of one of the houses you can see a chicken coop on the roof. There are a number of these in the neighborhood. I read about lots of people dying in Egypt from avian flu because the birds they kept on their roof got infected and the feces drop down into their food – yuck! It sounds gross but it could happen here. No chicken for dinner for me.

The big story in Beijing right now is how all those people got bogus tickets online – and now all of the empty seats at every event. Many of the people only figured out that they had bum tickets after they arrived. Now lots of them are taking the risk to buy tickets on the black market (ticket re-selling is illegal here) and paying through the nose for them. In the meantime the Chinese Olympic officials are getting Chinese volunteers to sit in empty seats to try to make the venues look full.  Sheesh.

There was no way they could fill up the softball stadium today. The China-Australia game was completed, but by the time I arrived for the US-Canada game the clouds had come in and it had started to rain. They completed the first inning but then there was a rain delay for over an hour. A bunch of us huddled out of the rain to wait it out. The stadium is so far from anything else that it wasn’t worth going anywhere else to wait. It looked like some of people weren’t so patient, though, because when they came back the stands were almost empty. Too bad. They completed two more innings and then there was a real downpour so at that point I called it a game and sloshed my way to find a taxi.

Good thing there is lots of shopping to do inside in Beijing.

The first thing I need to tell you is the universal feelings of sympathy that are being expressed here for the death of Todd Bachman and the injury to his wife Barbara and their Chinese guide. Everyone is talking about it and everyone is being affected by it. Most people don’t feel threatened, but all the visitors I talked to feel a connection to the Bachmans, being strangers together in a foreign country. People are being more cautious and more aware of their surroundings. The Chinese people are obviously uncomfortable with the event and trying even harder to make us feel at home. Nobody expects this to happen again, but it has had a profound effect on us all and will be one of the enduring memories of the Olympic experience.

I had a day to tour around Beijing on Monday. It was a better day weather wise than Sunday so I took advantage of the opportunity to explore by taxi and on foot.  One very obvious impression that I have is that the city is incredibly clean. You don’t see people throwing things out car windows and you don’t see paper cups or other garbage on the streets. This doesn’t look like an Olympic job clean-up either.

In spite of the Olympic hoopla many of the local people are still just carrying on their daily lives. There are a lot less cars on the roads than usual, but the bicycles are out in strength. And these guys use bicycles for all kinds of things, like delivering furniture and bottled water, even moving a bed!

I saw some of the second round tennis today. Again, the tennis center is amazing. I had tickets for center court. The seats are really steep so you feel close to the action and everyone has a great view. I also checked out some of the games at the two show courts and the smaller courts. They’re all beautiful facilities. I’ve never been to a major tennis tournament so I have to say that it was exciting to experience the whole vibe. I think that the finals will be more exciting than the early rounds but it was still a lot of fun.

The tennis center is at the northern part of the Olympic Green. From the northern gate it must be over a mile walk to center court. Jet lag still has a hold on me so the walk back to where I could get a taxi back to the hotel just about did me in. I am getting more used to the time change so in a few days I should be adjusted.

My next event is the softball on Thursday.

This was my first full day in China. What an overwhelming experience! First of all, the Chinese people are really nice. They fall over themselves trying to help, even if they don’t know English, and they are immensely proud to be holding the Olympics here.

I went to my first Olympic event today, the morning swimming session.  Before I say anything about the swimming, though, I’ve got to tell you about the facility, the Water Cube as it’s known here.  I’m sure you’ve all heard about it and seen the pictures, but I have to say that it is an absolutely amazing piece of architecture and engineering. It started out really hot and humid this morning but inside it’s cool and comfortable.  The place doesn’t echo like the places we all knew as kids, it’s well lit and I would bet that the views from the seats are even better than your wide-screen television. Of course, dignitaries like Presidents Bush and Bush senior had the choice seats, but even common folk like me had a fantastic view from the upper part of row A.

It was fantastic to be there to see Michael Phelps win his gold medal in his first event, the 400m individual medley. Too bad I won’t be there to see any of his other 7 events. If you saw the morning swimming you saw the incredible competition in the men’s 400m freestyle.  There was a great field of swimmers and the excitement in the building was the greatest of all the events I saw, especially since the Chinese swimmer got the silver medal. Jensen did a great job for the USA team with the bronze.

The women’s 400m individual medley had the crowd really talking it up with Kristy Coventry’s big performance for Zimbabwe. What a great atmosphere for all of the events and there was real support in the bleachers for all of the swimmers.

A big proportion of the spectators were Chinese and then a good mix of other nations. I understand that the swimmers’ families have been trying hard to get extra tickets to be at more events so that they could see their kids compete. It looked like there was an active trading system going on in the bleachers among the athletes’ families after each of the semifinal events to make sure that the families of those athletes going on would be able to see the next events. It was a really good cooperative spirit among the different countries.

It was a rude shock to go outside into the noon heat after the events were done, but a load of fun to mingle with the other spectators and look around the Olympic green. I saw the Bird’s Nest nearby, of course, and the National Indoor Stadium where they do the artistic gymnastics, but a lot of the other venues are a long walk. After a couple of hours I was dead on my feet. Major jet lag had something to do with that! So I headed back to my hotel for a little siesta and later in the afternoon I was recharged for a look around the neighborhood. Like I said yesterday, it’s amazing that the streets aren’t really that busy. My hotel is only about five minutes from the Forbidden City and Tiananmen Square, two of the major tourist sites, but the neighborhood is a mix of hotels, shops, offices, apartments and restaurants. In the evening people walk around, sit on chairs on the sidewalk or gather on the street to talk, just like you would find in a small town. It’s a really social atmosphere.

After it cooled down I met up with some other people staying at the hotel and we tried one of the local restaurants. Nobody there spoke English so who knows what we ate, but it tasted great and the Chinese beer hit the spot after a long and hot day.

It’s around 7:00 pm on Saturday in Beijing and I just got to my hotel. The flight was long but comfortable. I met some nice people on the plane from England and an Australian guy who works in Manhattan. I started reading my book and couldn’t put it down. What a great adventure! I can hardly wait to find out how it ends. Two If By Sea – buy it as soon as it’s available!!! But now I’m really feeling the lack of sleep. It feels like I pulled an all-nighter studying for exams at university. I’ll give you a short run down on what I’ve seen so far then I’m off to the sack.

The Beijing airport was packed with people. It’s a huge place but running about at capacity with all the incoming flights. China is really organized and they give you lots of information on the plane so you know what to expect when you land so it was really easy. It only took about 45 minutes to get my bag and go through customs.

The taxi driver I got didn’t speak English and he didn’t understand my Mandarin – no big surprise there. I was saved by showing him the copy of the map I brought with my hotel marked on it.

It took over an hour to get to my hotel. There are masses of people here. The freeway in from the airport is six lanes wide and it was at running at maximum capacity. In the city the traffic wasn’t bad, I guess because of the limitation on cars, but it goes on forever. The amazing thing is that with over 15 million people and all the visitors, the city didn’t seem to be crowded.

It’s really hot and humid but the hotel is air conditioned so it should be okay. The smog is pretty bad. That’s all I can manage for now. More soon.

Today’s the day! I’m packed and ready to go. Everything fits into one suitcase and a small carry-on bag. If I’ve forgotten anything then I’ll just have to pick it up there. These days it would probably be made in China anyway.

I completely forgot to say which events I’m going to see! I didn’t get a pass to see the opening ceremonies so the earliest I could get a visa was August 9^th. The first event I see is the swimming, then tennis, softball, basketball and water polo.

Yesterday I picked up my Berlitz phrase book for Mandarin, the major language in mainland China. In Hong Kong most people speak Cantonese. The language structure is similar to English so I’m hoping that I can make some sense of it. So far I know that ‘shie shie’ means thank you. That’s a start.

It looks like the Chinese people are really excited about hosting the Olympics and showcasing their athletes. I understand that Yao Ming has been cleared to play basketball for China. He’s a huge celebrity there. More importantly, did you know that Miss China is Miss World? Now her I’ve got to see.

I got a new Canon video camera for the trip. It’s great! I hope to be able to post some videos of the scenes. Not too long, I promise.

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I got my Chinese yuan today at the currency exchange. All the bills have Chairman Mao’s face on them. I can hardly believe I’ll be in Beijing in two days! I’m flying from JFK nonstop to Beijing. It’s a 13 1/2 hour flight and Beijing is 12 hours ahead of New York so it will be quite a time change. At least I’ll have lots to time to watch movies, sleep or read my book.

Did you see that there was a terrorist attack in northwestern China this week? They killed sixteen policemen. China says it’s more worried about internal terrorists than foreign terrorists but they say that this will be safest Olympic Games of any city ever. I’m not concerned.

I’ve decided to take a surgical mask with me in case the smog gets bad and just in case there are any flu’s going around. This would be one hell of a place for a virus to take hold. China has really done its homework. I read that they’ve put aside 2 million of doses of antiviral drugs just in case of a SARS or avian flu outbreak.

I’ve been reading up on Chinese history. Did you know that Ghengis Khan used carrier pigeons to send messages? Maybe that’s why the Chinese call their famous black, one speed bicycles the “Flying Pigeon” brand. With the restrictions on the use of cars to keep the smog down, I think I’ll see a lot of those bicycles.

I leave for Beijing in two days. I got the last of my shots yesterday. You need hepatitis A and B, yellow fever and tetanus shots to go to China. I need to get a booster for the hep shots in 6 to 12 months then I’m good for life. I forgot to get the booster after I went to South America a couple years ago so I had to do it all over again.

China is such an interesting place. There are four cities with over 10 million people each. In Beijing there were whole sections of the city with traditional courtyard homes called ‘siheyuan’. Some of these family homes are centuries old and were formed by building four living spaces around a central courtyard. Rows and rows of these courtyard homes formed complex lanes and alleyways. The government knocked a whole lot of them down to build new apartments and office buildings, but now they’ve finally realized the value of the historic and culture and have been preserving and restoring them. I’m hoping to take a tour of some of the restored sites.

I saw on television that some of our cycling team arrived at Beijing airport wearing pollution masks. I don’t blame them. A typhoon cleaned up the air last week but it looks like the smog as set in again. I’m thinking about taking a mask myself in case it gets too bad.

The weather is supposed to be hot and humid, kind of like New York in summer, so lots of us will feel right at home.

I’ve been reading about the avian flu virus. This stuff is scary! Humans have no immunity to the virus and hundreds of people around the world have died from it, mainly in Asia.

My new video camera is great! I hope to be able to post some videos of the scenes. Not too long, I promise.