Olympics, the Great Wall and the Closing Ceremony

  Beijing, China
Tuesday, August 26, 2008

Thursday 21st August
 
Alison: Despite our late night I woke at 8.30 and continued working on the blog until everyone else woke at about midday. It was raining - the first we'd seen since our arrival. I made brunch and did a bit of shopping with Rachel, buying her an umbrella which we have discovered is equally good for the sun as the rain.
 
Although we had tickets for the Kayaking in the afternoon, we decided not to bother going as the venue is quite a bit out of town and it was raining so it wouldn't have been that much fun in the wet. We were quite pleased to just have another lazy day. We had an early dinner at the Chinese Restaurant opposite our apartment and then caught a taxi to the subway and headed off to the stadium.
 
This time our seats were in G sector, on the 3rd tier, Row 14, so we got a great view of the Women's Javelin where the Czech girl Spotakova won the Gold on her last throw of 71.42m, beating the Russian leader. It was also great being so high up to watch the Women and Men's 100m Relay Heats which were on. These were most notable for both the Jamaican teams winning and both the USA teams dropping the baton and thus missing out on even being in the final - great shocks all round! The Americans did at least come 1, 2, 3 in the 400 m men's final which cheered them up a bit, but the baton dropping really was a debacle.
 
Friday 22nd August
 
Alison: Today we had the Handball to see at 12.00 so I got up at 9.00 and dragged everyone else out of bed at 10.00. We finally got out of the house at 11.15 and reached the National Indoor Stadium by 12.15 where the game was in progress. We had never seen Handball before and had minimal idea about the rules but it was a really exciting, fast game to watch and incredibly physical. Russia was competing against Denmark and it was a really close game with Russia getting a goal in the last 3 seconds to win! We had been barracking loudly for Denmark with some spectators a few rows behind us barracking loudly for Russia, so we had a good time geeing up the crowd and trying to out-shout each other, much to the bemused Chinese crowd's amusement and then we cheerfully shook hands at the end.

 
We managed to convince the people at the entrance gate to let us out to get some lunch before the second game. I got to try the 'box meal' - a clever self-heating box where you pull a string to release water onto some pads which creates a chemical reaction and a huge amount of steam which then heats the bottom of the container holding the pre-cooked rice and curry sitting on top it. It took about 10 minutes to heat through and worked very well - it's just a pity that the actual food wasn't so good! After lunch we went back into the Indoor Stadium and watched Korea versus Poland. This time we barracked for Korea in honour of our neighbours' children Chandler and Chloe, whom they adopted from Korea, but Poland won, so we weren't very successful in any of our cheering!
 

We had a few hours before we were due at the Bird's Nest, so we once more took on the horrors of the Superstore, this time to buy pins and presents for people at home. It really was quite nightmarish, the queuing in the hot sun almost as bad as entering into the huuuge building packed with souvenirs and people jostling each other to grab them. We eventually escaped with lots of pins and other bits and pieces and went next door to the equally giant MacDonald's to get dinner.
 

It was a fabulous night at the stadium! We were seated this time in Row 8 of Tier 3 of Sector H, looking almost straight down on the Pole Vault where the Men's Final was happening. This was extremely exciting with all our hopes resting on Steve Hooker who had just made it into the final 2 nights before. While they were doing their jumps the track events continued. We watched the Aussies just qualify for the finals in the Men's 4 by 400 m Relay Heat and then watched the Women's 5000 m Final in which the Ethiopians came 1st and 3rd. Then we watched the Women's 4 by 100 m Relay Final and wouldn't you know it, after the USA debacle in the heats, the standout favourite Jamaica then dropped the baton! Russia went on to win the race, but it was a bit tragic for the Jamaican girls. Thank goodness there were no such disasters in the Men's 4 by 100 Relay Final where we watched Jamaica with Ursain Bolt win the race in another World Record time, giving Bolt 3 Golds with 3 World Records - quite extraordinary!

Meanwhile the Men's Pole Vault continued to its nail biting conclusion, with Steve Hooker managing to get over each successive height, seemingly each time on his third attempt - absolutely nerve-wracking! Finally he won when his only surviving competitor missed his 3rd attempt, much to the delight of the crowd. Michael cheerfully led our sector in an 'Aussie, Aussie, Aussie, Oi, Oi, Oi' chant and we all screamed ourselves silly.
Then Steve decided to prolong the excitement by going for an Olympic Record. He missed his first attempt and decided to forego his second and say that his next was his third attempt - a good move since he seems to go best on his 3rd! Anyway, he cleared the 5.96 metres comfortably and more screaming and cheering followed - great stuff!

 
We finally headed home, decked in all our flags and cheering lustily with many spectators stopping to congratulate us! Of course it was our barracking that got him over, so we accepted the congratulations graciously... At last we got home and headed off to bed, looking forward to the last day of competition and seeing the Great Wall the next day.

 
 
Saturday 23rd August
 
Alison: I did some washing and hung it out on the balcony before Darmen arrived. He'd organised a very comfortable car to take us all out to the Great Wall at Badaling. This is the most touristy part of the Great Wall near Beijing, but also the closest and easiest to climb so we went for that option.

 
We finally left at 11.00 and arrived about an hour later. It was very hot and the crowds were enormous, but we had a great walk up and along the wall, constantly being stopped by Chinese tourists who wanted to take their photos with the children.
In fact they were queuing up to do so, and it felt like we did 3 steps, then stopped for photos, another 3 steps, another photo stop etc. Now the kids know what it must be like to be a celebrity, but luckily they were pretty tolerant of it all, smiling widely with each photograph.

 
There was a trolley car that you could catch down from the Wall but when we went to buy tickets they said there were no more available. Michael told Rachel to start limping and he convinced them that she had hurt herself and we had to catch the trolley down, so eventually he got his way and we came down on something similar to a roller coaster.
It was lots of fun and ended at a Bear Garden where they kept a lot of Black Bears in pits for the tourists.
They were very sweet, climbing up on poles to catch fruit chucked at them by the many spectators, but it was rather sad seeing them penned up.
 
From Badaling we drove to a really yummy Hot Pot Restaurant for a late lunch - the kids decided it was their favourite meal for all of China and I'd have to agree that it was delicious.
Then we drove to quickly check out the Ming Tombs at Ding Ling where we saw the tomb of Emperor Zhu Yijun built in 1584.
It was large and impressive, but we rather rushed through it all as we were running out of time to get to the stadium and we didn't want to miss Steve Hooker's medal ceremony.
 
We drove back through nightmarish Beijing rush hour traffic, the driver got confused about where we wanted him to drop us so that added an extra 20 minutes or so, and then the queue outside Beitucheng station (not our usual entrance) was horrendous, so Michael just pushed his way into the line by pretending to know someone there (much to my mortification, but as already shown in the Trolley Car experience earlier, the boy has no shame whatsoever!) and we finally made it to the stadium just in time.

Our seats were brilliant: in Row 18 of Tier 1, so right near the front but with enough elevation to see over the whole ground and in Sector H again. We all stood and sang the National Anthem lustily as Steve Hooker was awarded his Gold Medal - very thrilling to see the Aussie flag aloft there!
Being the final night of Track and Field it was an all finals night, and we excitedly watched the Men's 800 m, the Women's 1500 m, the Men's 5000 m and then the Women and Men's 4 by 400 Relays. Providing some balm for their hurt pride over their baton dropping in the 100m relay heats, the US won both of the 4 by 400 relays, but while we were watching the men's relay we were so busy cheering on the Aussies that we hardly noticed who won! Anyway, the Aussies came a very creditable 6th, while the US won it in World Record time - but who cares about that?!
In terms of field events the Aussie dipped out in the Men's Javelin and a Belgian won the Women's High Jump, which we happily celebrated with a lovely Belgian chap sitting just near us. Altogether, it was a fabulous night - or as Tom once more announced as we left the stadium, 'Another great night at the Olympics!'

 
 
Sunday 24th August
 

Alison: After breakfast I brought in the washing and started an initial pack before we were picked up for lunch. Michael had accepted the kind offer of one of his Chinese suppliers to take the family to lunch which was really nice. First they took us to their office where we got to see where they work and some of the many products they can supply. Then they took us to a really up-market restaurant which was huge. We looked around the enormous tanks of various fish and seafood available to eat and chose our dishes, before being taken up to our private room where we were presented with course after course of beautiful Chinese food. It was a really lovely experience and very much appreciated.

 
Eventually, after eating far too much, they took us home, dropping me back at the apartment so I could get on with packing, and Mike and the kids at a famous Silk Market. I managed to get pretty well packed just in time before they all got back and Darmen and his girlfriend Jo-Jo arrived to look after the kids while we went to the Closing Ceremony. This was great of them, as otherwise I don't know what we would have done since we were only able to get 2 tickets, but we left the kids happily playing on the DS games Mike had bought at the Silk Market and looking forward to getting Pizza for dinner from the Italian restaurant opposite.

 
We were worried that it might take longer than usual to get into the stadium for the Closing Ceremony, but it all went like clockwork as before and we found ourselves in our brilliant seats with three quarters of an hour to spare. We were in Row 11 of Tier 2 in Sector F, so we had a grand view of the whole arena without being too far back, and very excitingly for me, had a brilliant view of the Olympic Flame, which I took lots of photos of. They had entertainment on before the ceremony even began, and also took time to explain what we were meant to do with the many things in our showbags, including a fan with orange material to flap, an Olympic torch which flashed and a piece of coloured cellophane to wave (our section was green). There was also a little double barrelled drum which Mike seized upon with alacrity and continued to bang it, even after the poor volunteer came up and explained that he really was not to do it yet and that he would be told when to do so.

 

The ceremony itself was most spectacular, but thankfully not as long as the Opening Ceremony, with the athletes all coming in fairly randomly and getting to see a lot of the entertainment themselves rather than coming in at the very end. Zhang Yimou did another great job with his cast of thousands, but when the English did their 10 minute piece with a London Bus suddenly bursting open and an aging Jimmy Page from Led Zeppelin thundering out Rock and Roll riffs, you couldn't get a greater contrast with China! It got us very excited and already planning our next Olympic experience - London here we come!!!

 
The whole night finished relatively early so we got home at the reasonable hour of 11.15, ready to put the kids to bed and be up earlyish the next morning to fly to Hong Kong.