Rear Your Fair

The Birdsnest
see all photos »

Our plan had been to switch from couchsurfer to couchsurfer until we ran out of generous souls and were forced to retreat to the hostels. Fortunately we got along well with our first hosts and they agreed to sublet their apartment to us for the week while they traveled to Seoul.

It was a huge blessing as we've been noticing that our energy levels are getting lower and lower, maybe because the End is in sight, maybe because we've been traveling almost non-stop for ten months. Either way we are nearing the bottoms of both tanks.

The Aquatic Center
see all photos »

Another pain with moving is that China is currently insisting all foreigners register at the local police department if they're staying outside of a hotel. We registered at Jacob and Diane's without problems, but we only did it because on the second day a huge bilingual poster went up in the hall of the building asking us to do so.

China is, with good reason, worried about troublemakers ruining their big party. They want every one and every thing completely in their control. If the Chinese people are to be believed, the Government even controls the weather. It does seem suspicious that everytime the pollution reaches the point to where our noses start running like faucets, in begins to rain. It also only rains just before or just after the weekends, leaving those days cloud free and lovely. That the Chinese have been trying to control the weather via cloud seeding is well known, its just how successful they've been that is in question. Whatever they're doing it seems like it works, at least until the pollution, which becomes as thick as the old infamous London fog, is regenerated and chokes off the sky again.

Waiting for the bags to come off
see all photos »

It is an interesting time to be here. The build-up to the Olympics is frenetic and the excitement is palpable. Strangers stop us on the street to offer their help and then ask if we're here for the games. I wish we could say yes since they obviously are giddy about the flood of foreigners that are about to pour in. The Olympic park is chain-linked off but you can see the amazing new stadiums from just outside the gates fairly well.

I see there was an article in the New York Times about the changing face of Beijing but I was a little annoyed when I read it. The new buildings are amazing for sure, but it isn't as if the world is just happening by and noticing for the first time how modern Beijing is. China has been shoe-horning Beijing into modernity for the past year, hoping visitors to the games won't notice the shady infrastructure that underlies it all. The article asks if the West can now ever catch up to China's groundbreaking architecture, but even at the height of the games you still won't be able to drink the tapwater (something New Yorkers take so much for granted nowadays that they might be forgiven for forgetting the small luxuries of modernity).

you WILL enjoy the Olympics!
see all photos »

Anyway, small rant aside, the Birdsnest, the signature stadium in the new Olympic park, is breathtaking and will surely impress the world when broadcast on opening day.

We will be well outside of Beijing by the time the games start but I look forward to watching the action wherever we will be finding ourselves. Maybe in a little bar somewhere in Fujan provence, standing shoulder to shoulder with a leathery old farmer, who'll be beaming with pride. I'll even drop politics for a while and help cheer on his team.