I have been so busy being a tourist that I'm not performing my prime function in life which is to keep an update of said blog.
Rapidly doing the things which must be done such as the Great Wall. This was a trip organised by the hostel where I'm staying.
The bus was scheduled to come at 7am and we left at about 7.30 and it was due to leave Mutianyu at midday and we left at 12.30pm.
I was scheduled to leave Leo's hostel on Tuesday but I am leaving as soon as this downpour is finished.
Too many little things are going wrong with the room so I figure it is best to get out while I can still recommend the place.
It has been a friendly little haunt but sadly I am too old to endure the compilation of little things.
This has made me wonder about my own stolidity and the like. But the upshot is that I've found a place which is around a courtyard and the rooms are, on the face of it, superior so with just over double the outlay I'm going to be getting a quadrupled aesthetic experience.
And so off I go to Courtyard 7. I like the sound of it, the Courtyard 7 it sounds like a team of superheroes.
Or perhaps the title of a kung fu movie.
Friday, 29 August 2008
Wednesday, 27 August 2008
The Tourist III
There was more sightseeing since this is the nature of the game. Have got free travel on the subway - a legacy of the Olympic Games and this gives me free access to all the famous monuments. These sort of freebies have made me become a complete capitalist and I take the taxi places because they're cheap too and I get to see the upstairs rather than riding downstairs.
I suppose I could say I'm helping the flow of cash. Whatever. Saw an 18 metre high Buddha as given by the seventh Dalai Lama to an emperor back in the 18th century - a time when everyone was getting along.
It is quite spectacular. Carved from a single chunk of Tibetan white sandalwood. Took two years to build and three years to transport to Beijing.
There's steady work.
That was at the Lama Temple. After years of seeing the Peking Opera in London and Paris, I saw the Peking Opera in Beijing. It was loud and good and just what I needed as the new National Theatre was exceptionally disappointing.
I got there as it was just closing down the public viewing areas. And I didn't fancy going to watch Turandot there. So I ended up at the Chang An Theatre listening to people pull faces and do their Noh thang.
Off to the Wall tomorrow. That should be great.
I suppose I could say I'm helping the flow of cash. Whatever. Saw an 18 metre high Buddha as given by the seventh Dalai Lama to an emperor back in the 18th century - a time when everyone was getting along.
It is quite spectacular. Carved from a single chunk of Tibetan white sandalwood. Took two years to build and three years to transport to Beijing.
There's steady work.
That was at the Lama Temple. After years of seeing the Peking Opera in London and Paris, I saw the Peking Opera in Beijing. It was loud and good and just what I needed as the new National Theatre was exceptionally disappointing.
I got there as it was just closing down the public viewing areas. And I didn't fancy going to watch Turandot there. So I ended up at the Chang An Theatre listening to people pull faces and do their Noh thang.
Off to the Wall tomorrow. That should be great.
Tuesday, 26 August 2008
The Tourist II
Saw new sights and sounds today. Essentially since that is the idea of touring, I seem to be fulfilling the whole point.
Have moved from the Olympic venue - the Beijing Friendship Hotel - to a place which is a bit more of a budget thang.
It seems OK at the moment. It is a bit more limited in space but then it does not matter. I'm here to see things like Houhai Lake and the Temple of Heaven.
Both of which I have taken in. Not to overcome by the taxi drivers. As far as collective commentary goes, it's an edgy thing getting a taxi. Even when they stop it's not always certain that they will take you.
One tried to charge 150 yuan for a journey - even though there is a meter in the car.
I know I look like a tourist but I didn't arrive yesterday.
Have moved from the Olympic venue - the Beijing Friendship Hotel - to a place which is a bit more of a budget thang.
It seems OK at the moment. It is a bit more limited in space but then it does not matter. I'm here to see things like Houhai Lake and the Temple of Heaven.
Both of which I have taken in. Not to overcome by the taxi drivers. As far as collective commentary goes, it's an edgy thing getting a taxi. Even when they stop it's not always certain that they will take you.
One tried to charge 150 yuan for a journey - even though there is a meter in the car.
I know I look like a tourist but I didn't arrive yesterday.
Monday, 25 August 2008
The Tourist
I've escaped from the hotel - venue - hotel vortex and I've become a tourist.
Forbidden City and the Silk Market have been taken in along with some hutongs - the narrow lanes that used to characterise the city.
Actually parts of the Forbidden City resembled a glorified hutong. Have also been introduced to a restaurant and bar. These after the two and a bit weeks of enclosure are a breath of fresh air.
Forbidden City and the Silk Market have been taken in along with some hutongs - the narrow lanes that used to characterise the city.
Actually parts of the Forbidden City resembled a glorified hutong. Have also been introduced to a restaurant and bar. These after the two and a bit weeks of enclosure are a breath of fresh air.
Sunday, 24 August 2008
The Medals
Who gets my gold silver and bronze?
This is the crucial issue emerging from the 29th Olympiad.
There could be many categories but for the reasons of space and because I don’t want to bore, I’ll only highlight a few.
In the men it’s a close call between Usain Bolt and Michael Phelps.
But the gold medal for me goes to Bolt who in his two individual races broke the 100 and 200 metres world records;
After easing up towards the end of the 100 metres he was asked why he didn’t go flat out preferring to start hailing the crowd.
The gist was since I had the world record .......breaking that wasn’t as important as winning the race.
And he was as true as his word in the 200 metres. He got the fastest time because it was an event that was dear to his heart.
Two golds, unseen in 24 years at the Olympics, and the first Jamaican man to triumph in those events.
His runs lifted the stadium.and the second week of the games.
He was also good for the post race comments he inspired. The whole thing about what did you do before your run for glory.
Slept till 11am, watched TV, had some nuggets, slept, woke up, had some nuggets, came to the track.
Even his opponents added to the legend. Richard Thompson, who was second in the 100 metres, confirmed the nuggets story to a disbelieving press conference, adding that during the race he was still pumping away while he could see Bolt ahead of him easing up.
Thompson was munificent enough to admit no one could have beaten the Jamaican.
And the American, Shawn Crawford, after the 200 metres just said Bolt was a bad, bad man. And, of course, by this he meant outstanding.
Phelps gets the silver because he’s already got 14 gold medals and I like to be contrary.
He comes behind Bolt for me because he’s not as overtly charismatic. Bolt is a showman, a crowd pleaser. True, there’s more room for it on the track. Phelps is a brilliant racer and as greatest Olympian of all time at 23, he lit up the first week. He’s on a mission to make swimming more popular so his journey is a work in progress.
If there were a category for team player the American swimmer Jason Lezak would win gold. But as there isn’t, he gets my overall bronze for somehow being a better performer in a group than individually.
Lezak has been the bedrock of American freestyle relays since the 2000 Olympics in Sydney, helping them to secure silver and bronze in Sydney and Athens.
Here in Beijing when he got into the water for the final leg of the 4x100 freestyle he was behind the Frenchman Alain Bernard, who beats him all the time one on one.
Lezak went past Bernard in the final centimetres to win the gold for the United States, thereby coining the term used among all the swimmers as “the relay”.
Performing for the collective is a concept that would find favour anywhere in the world.
As for the women, gold goes to the British athlete Tasha Danvers who had a horrible season of achilles and hamstring injuries and then was found to have a low white blood cell count which hampered her training.
She came third in the 400 metres hurdles and was so elated to be up there. Moreover she was able to epitomise the attitudes of a fighter. “You never ever, ever give up,” she told me. “It ain’t over till the fat lady sings, or the thin lady or size 12lady or whatever sings.”
The Russian pole vaulter Elena Isinbaeva gets silver for responding to taunts from her American rival Jennifer Stuczynski in the best possible way by beating her in the Olympic final.
In the run up to the games, it was reported that the American was going to "kick some Russian butt". And Isinbaeva not only relegated her into second place but stayed around for a solo crowd pleasing performance to set a world record on her third and final attempt - long after all the other pole vault competitors had gone home. That’s top level butt kicking.
Vengeance, as the saying goes, is a dish best served in front of 90,000 people.
And bronze goes to Stephanie Rice, the glamour girl of Australian swimming. She prettied up my bleary eyed mornings at the swimming pool. Moreover she was brilliant and poised in her press conferences and also stuck around to chat afterwards. She certainly has grounds to be a prima donna, she’s good looking and very good in the water.
But she’s a down-to-earth siren and she went home with three gold medals from three events. Almost Phelpsian
I didn’t attempt to get her phone number.
But then I give myself a gold medal for being intelligent enough not to ask
This is the crucial issue emerging from the 29th Olympiad.
There could be many categories but for the reasons of space and because I don’t want to bore, I’ll only highlight a few.
In the men it’s a close call between Usain Bolt and Michael Phelps.
But the gold medal for me goes to Bolt who in his two individual races broke the 100 and 200 metres world records;
After easing up towards the end of the 100 metres he was asked why he didn’t go flat out preferring to start hailing the crowd.
The gist was since I had the world record .......breaking that wasn’t as important as winning the race.
And he was as true as his word in the 200 metres. He got the fastest time because it was an event that was dear to his heart.
Two golds, unseen in 24 years at the Olympics, and the first Jamaican man to triumph in those events.
His runs lifted the stadium.and the second week of the games.
He was also good for the post race comments he inspired. The whole thing about what did you do before your run for glory.
Slept till 11am, watched TV, had some nuggets, slept, woke up, had some nuggets, came to the track.
Even his opponents added to the legend. Richard Thompson, who was second in the 100 metres, confirmed the nuggets story to a disbelieving press conference, adding that during the race he was still pumping away while he could see Bolt ahead of him easing up.
Thompson was munificent enough to admit no one could have beaten the Jamaican.
And the American, Shawn Crawford, after the 200 metres just said Bolt was a bad, bad man. And, of course, by this he meant outstanding.
Phelps gets the silver because he’s already got 14 gold medals and I like to be contrary.
He comes behind Bolt for me because he’s not as overtly charismatic. Bolt is a showman, a crowd pleaser. True, there’s more room for it on the track. Phelps is a brilliant racer and as greatest Olympian of all time at 23, he lit up the first week. He’s on a mission to make swimming more popular so his journey is a work in progress.
If there were a category for team player the American swimmer Jason Lezak would win gold. But as there isn’t, he gets my overall bronze for somehow being a better performer in a group than individually.
Lezak has been the bedrock of American freestyle relays since the 2000 Olympics in Sydney, helping them to secure silver and bronze in Sydney and Athens.
Here in Beijing when he got into the water for the final leg of the 4x100 freestyle he was behind the Frenchman Alain Bernard, who beats him all the time one on one.
Lezak went past Bernard in the final centimetres to win the gold for the United States, thereby coining the term used among all the swimmers as “the relay”.
Performing for the collective is a concept that would find favour anywhere in the world.
As for the women, gold goes to the British athlete Tasha Danvers who had a horrible season of achilles and hamstring injuries and then was found to have a low white blood cell count which hampered her training.
She came third in the 400 metres hurdles and was so elated to be up there. Moreover she was able to epitomise the attitudes of a fighter. “You never ever, ever give up,” she told me. “It ain’t over till the fat lady sings, or the thin lady or size 12lady or whatever sings.”
The Russian pole vaulter Elena Isinbaeva gets silver for responding to taunts from her American rival Jennifer Stuczynski in the best possible way by beating her in the Olympic final.
In the run up to the games, it was reported that the American was going to "kick some Russian butt". And Isinbaeva not only relegated her into second place but stayed around for a solo crowd pleasing performance to set a world record on her third and final attempt - long after all the other pole vault competitors had gone home. That’s top level butt kicking.
Vengeance, as the saying goes, is a dish best served in front of 90,000 people.
And bronze goes to Stephanie Rice, the glamour girl of Australian swimming. She prettied up my bleary eyed mornings at the swimming pool. Moreover she was brilliant and poised in her press conferences and also stuck around to chat afterwards. She certainly has grounds to be a prima donna, she’s good looking and very good in the water.
But she’s a down-to-earth siren and she went home with three gold medals from three events. Almost Phelpsian
I didn’t attempt to get her phone number.
But then I give myself a gold medal for being intelligent enough not to ask
Saturday, 23 August 2008
The Lure
First it was the swimmer Ryan Lochte waxing lyrical about his penchant for hamburgers, then Usain Bolt took over with his nuggets fuelled sprint world records.
The overt suggestions finally got to me and I succumbed to the lure of the corporation.
But rather than a fast food outlet, I opted for another trip to look at the shiny watches. There was an ulterior motive this time.
As I’ve walked past the Omega pavilion these two weeks, their first floor terrace balcony has been crying out to me to come and lounge.
But it’s not an open to the hoi polloi. You need an invitation.
The Belgian spinter Kim Gevaert, the Russian polevaulter Yelena Isinbayeva and the American speedster Tyson Gay were all I needed as the passport to gratification.
They were there as guests of Omega and they were talking about their time in Beijing. While they were showing off their pictures of their moments in the city to an adoring public, I was wandering around the mezzanine level, looking down on the well-buffed watch cases and athletes.
Of the trio, Isinbayeva wins the gold medal for imaginative pictures. But that’s not a surprise because she is a keen photographer in her spare time when she’s not breaking pole vaulting world records.
Once the champions had been taken into a special room, I thought I’d make the most of the comfy seats.
.
Most of them were taken but I spotted a spare one opposite a couple. I asked if I could sit down and they said yes.
Just after I’d sunk into the leather cushion, the woman asked if I was from Switzerland as I was wearing a watch based on the Swiss Railway clocks.
And we got chatting. We spoke about the games and they told me a bit about their life in Beijing as opposed to Switzerland and so on.
Forget fast food restaurants, this was more my speed.
While we talked, attentive staff brought drinks and appealing snacks and - this was the best bit – waited for you to finish before asking if they could take it away.
Urs and Steffi looked as if they were installing themselves for the evening. The lounge lizard in me was jealous but there was the small matter of going to cover the evening’s athletics at the Bird’s Nest.
As I was leaving, Tyson Gay was without the earlier phalanx of corporate PRs around him. With Bolt like speed I enjoined him in conversation.
“It’s been the best experience I’ve ever had in my life,” he told me of his Beijing sojourn. “I really enjoyed it.”
Gay has been a bit part player in these Olympics, the antithesis of the Usain Bolt success story.
The American was supposed to be one of the protagonists but he never made it through to the finals of the 100 metres and a bungled baton change in the 4x100 metres relay semi-final robbed him of the chance for redemption there.
But it’s just part of a process.
“Even though I’m going home with no gold medals,being around all my friends and family, having support through the bad times has been amazing,” he added
“The hardware is good but no one can take this moment away from you.”
Casting his eyes around the lounge, he added: “It’s just been great being around all these people, you see I don’t have any gold medals or nothing but I’m still getting a lot of love and attention and it means a lot to me.”
Time well spent then.
The overt suggestions finally got to me and I succumbed to the lure of the corporation.
But rather than a fast food outlet, I opted for another trip to look at the shiny watches. There was an ulterior motive this time.
As I’ve walked past the Omega pavilion these two weeks, their first floor terrace balcony has been crying out to me to come and lounge.
But it’s not an open to the hoi polloi. You need an invitation.
The Belgian spinter Kim Gevaert, the Russian polevaulter Yelena Isinbayeva and the American speedster Tyson Gay were all I needed as the passport to gratification.
They were there as guests of Omega and they were talking about their time in Beijing. While they were showing off their pictures of their moments in the city to an adoring public, I was wandering around the mezzanine level, looking down on the well-buffed watch cases and athletes.
Of the trio, Isinbayeva wins the gold medal for imaginative pictures. But that’s not a surprise because she is a keen photographer in her spare time when she’s not breaking pole vaulting world records.
Once the champions had been taken into a special room, I thought I’d make the most of the comfy seats.
.
Most of them were taken but I spotted a spare one opposite a couple. I asked if I could sit down and they said yes.
Just after I’d sunk into the leather cushion, the woman asked if I was from Switzerland as I was wearing a watch based on the Swiss Railway clocks.
And we got chatting. We spoke about the games and they told me a bit about their life in Beijing as opposed to Switzerland and so on.
Forget fast food restaurants, this was more my speed.
While we talked, attentive staff brought drinks and appealing snacks and - this was the best bit – waited for you to finish before asking if they could take it away.
Urs and Steffi looked as if they were installing themselves for the evening. The lounge lizard in me was jealous but there was the small matter of going to cover the evening’s athletics at the Bird’s Nest.
As I was leaving, Tyson Gay was without the earlier phalanx of corporate PRs around him. With Bolt like speed I enjoined him in conversation.
“It’s been the best experience I’ve ever had in my life,” he told me of his Beijing sojourn. “I really enjoyed it.”
Gay has been a bit part player in these Olympics, the antithesis of the Usain Bolt success story.
The American was supposed to be one of the protagonists but he never made it through to the finals of the 100 metres and a bungled baton change in the 4x100 metres relay semi-final robbed him of the chance for redemption there.
But it’s just part of a process.
“Even though I’m going home with no gold medals,being around all my friends and family, having support through the bad times has been amazing,” he added
“The hardware is good but no one can take this moment away from you.”
Casting his eyes around the lounge, he added: “It’s just been great being around all these people, you see I don’t have any gold medals or nothing but I’m still getting a lot of love and attention and it means a lot to me.”
Time well spent then.
Friday, 22 August 2008
The Sexing-Up
I have wondered many things since the Olympics started. Things such as: What’s Beijing like? And why is beach volley ball an Olympic sport?
But I’ve never mused on why table tennis should be made sexier.
Maybe it’s because I don’t play the sport. But clearly the bigwigs of the International Table Tennis Federation have been exercising their minds on this issue.
And the ITTF’s vice-president, Claude Bergeret, has come out and said the girls should be urged to wear skirts and more alluring shirts.
“Not the shirts that are made for men,” he advised. “But ones with more curves.”
Ooh la la.
Ana Ivanovic, the women’s world number one, is a Slavonic rhapsody of a looker. The Serb could more or less wear anything on the court and look dynamite.
Over in the men’s the top player Rafael Nadal sports a sleeveless shirt that accentuates his Uberhombre upper torso.
At the French Open you can just hear the women in the stands swooning as the Spanaird packs off a pheromone-filled forehand past the latest hapless sap on the other side of the net.
And not to mention the clenched fist: “vamos” following an important point. Indeed Nadal screams sex.
Not so China’s Wang Liqin, a top table tennis player he may be but he’s not going to leave the girls gaga.
No robust musculature on this one. He’s simply a wiry lad with regular features who plays a good game. True, just like his lawn tennis counterparts, there are plenty of clenched fists after crucial points but the game’s not built around expansiveness.
And as we all know, no matter what the therapists say, size does matter when it comes to sex in sport.
Table tennis is a compact, intense game. And its appeal lies in the fact that ordinary, even diminutive physiques seem to be able to excel.
It doesn’t appear to be the case in tennis. The players there are, for the most part, bigger;
Nevertheless some of the table tennis fillies feel it’s time to project lubricity. Japan’s Ai Fukuhara opted for a “skort” – a tight skirt with cycling shorts underneath - for her last 16 match against China’s Zhang Yining who faced off against her opponent in black shorts and a shirt which was emblazoned with a yellow dragon on the front.
That doesn’t seem to me to ooze sex appeal, it's perhaps better suited to dazzling the adversary into errors.
Have to say during the quarter final match between Liquin and the Croatian Tan Ruiwu on Friday afternoon at the Peking University Stadium, the crowd seemed to be getting into it.
They were shouting between and during points and Tan had to put his finger to his lips.
The spectators responded by lowering the decibels but it didn’t make much difference, Tan lost the second game 11-7 which prompted another barrage of flag waving and screaming.
During the pause before the third game, the crowds continued to brandish their flags and chant in unison to a derivative of the Human League’s Don’t You Want Me Baby.
It might not be sexy but they seemed to be having fun.
And we can never have enough of that.
But I’ve never mused on why table tennis should be made sexier.
Maybe it’s because I don’t play the sport. But clearly the bigwigs of the International Table Tennis Federation have been exercising their minds on this issue.
And the ITTF’s vice-president, Claude Bergeret, has come out and said the girls should be urged to wear skirts and more alluring shirts.
“Not the shirts that are made for men,” he advised. “But ones with more curves.”
Ooh la la.
Ana Ivanovic, the women’s world number one, is a Slavonic rhapsody of a looker. The Serb could more or less wear anything on the court and look dynamite.
Over in the men’s the top player Rafael Nadal sports a sleeveless shirt that accentuates his Uberhombre upper torso.
At the French Open you can just hear the women in the stands swooning as the Spanaird packs off a pheromone-filled forehand past the latest hapless sap on the other side of the net.
And not to mention the clenched fist: “vamos” following an important point. Indeed Nadal screams sex.
Not so China’s Wang Liqin, a top table tennis player he may be but he’s not going to leave the girls gaga.
No robust musculature on this one. He’s simply a wiry lad with regular features who plays a good game. True, just like his lawn tennis counterparts, there are plenty of clenched fists after crucial points but the game’s not built around expansiveness.
And as we all know, no matter what the therapists say, size does matter when it comes to sex in sport.
Table tennis is a compact, intense game. And its appeal lies in the fact that ordinary, even diminutive physiques seem to be able to excel.
It doesn’t appear to be the case in tennis. The players there are, for the most part, bigger;
Nevertheless some of the table tennis fillies feel it’s time to project lubricity. Japan’s Ai Fukuhara opted for a “skort” – a tight skirt with cycling shorts underneath - for her last 16 match against China’s Zhang Yining who faced off against her opponent in black shorts and a shirt which was emblazoned with a yellow dragon on the front.
That doesn’t seem to me to ooze sex appeal, it's perhaps better suited to dazzling the adversary into errors.
Have to say during the quarter final match between Liquin and the Croatian Tan Ruiwu on Friday afternoon at the Peking University Stadium, the crowd seemed to be getting into it.
They were shouting between and during points and Tan had to put his finger to his lips.
The spectators responded by lowering the decibels but it didn’t make much difference, Tan lost the second game 11-7 which prompted another barrage of flag waving and screaming.
During the pause before the third game, the crowds continued to brandish their flags and chant in unison to a derivative of the Human League’s Don’t You Want Me Baby.
It might not be sexy but they seemed to be having fun.
And we can never have enough of that.
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