Last week, BOCOG took all the international volunteers touring around Beijing. I'll go through what I saw: some of it stunning, some of it smelly!
Our first stop last Friday was at Beijing's newest water treatment plant. Yeah, not what you'd consider a great tourist destination when you have the Great Wall 45 minutes away. The water treatment plant was no different than the one that cleans the water in our American hometowns, but it was new and was boasted about by the Chinese government ahead of the games, so it was deemed a 'must-see' spot for us! It only took us an hour or so to see the whole plant. Nothing really interesting to report, honestly.
On Saturday, we visited the Great Wall at Badaling--and for the first few hours, we were packed in like Sardines at near the Great Wall. Presidente Felipe Calderon of Mexico was on the wall (I saw him later on, right before he left). Security was extremely tight, but when he finally left, several million people breached the Wall like the Mongols it was built to keep out. (Without sounding too sappy) I have to say the Great Wall was the most existential moment of my life. It was probably all the blood that was pumping through my brain after I climbed the portion of the
wall at a 45* angle, in 110 degree heat! Of all the sites I've visited, it trumps them all. Vatican City, the Colosseum, Chichen Itza and Teotihuacan all seemed minuscule compared to the Wall. It stretches on for thousands and thousands of miles across northern China.We later stopped by the Ming Tombs in northern Beijing. I'll be posted at the Tombs during the Olympics for the Triathlon. The tombs for the Ming-dynasty's Emperors were rebuilt, re-painted and emptied-- so it wasn't anything of the original tombs. That seems to be the case with a lot of the old historic sites.
On Sunday, I visited the Summer Palace and Old Winter Palace. The Old Winter Palace was in an old Park, not too far from our hotel on Renmin University's campus. It was fun to walk around and climb on the ruins. There was a really cool maze we spent an hour in, and lost 15 lbs in sweat. The Summer Palace was just how I expected: I was in complete relaxation (albeit the millions of other tourists there.) The Emperors and his family used to spend their summers at this palace, so you can imagine the extravagance! A two-story ship built out of marble for the Empress! I walked around the lake with some friends and couldn't take it all in. The immense hand-dug lake, the temples, the marble bridges around every turn, the gardens, the heat! It was one of my top 5 favorite sites in the Beijing-area.
As much as that three day trip was frustrating at times, I wouldn't change a thing! When we weren't thrilled with our sites, we made the best of it and laughed it off. I'll say again, I couldn't have asked for a better group of people to be here with!
We had Monday off, so I spent the entire day inside. It was raining all day.
On Tuesday and Wednesday, we had training with BOCOG. We went over our rules, responsibilities and procedures for interviewing athletes. We were asked to stop talking to the media. It was basically aimed at the Missouri group since we're attracting so much attention here! There have been countless news stories done on our group, I show up in the background of most of them. I'll post the links later. BOCOG gave us the rules about blogging, so if you notice some obvious things lacking from my blogs (i.e: what happened during my training meetings, stories about athletes), you'll know why! :)
I have a five-day weekend, starting today. I'm off through Tuesday. I'm thinking of heading down to Shanghai or Xi'an with some friends overnight, or maybe camping on the Great Wall. Since everybody is wanting to do something a little different, I'm sure nobody will end up doing anything!
I went shopping yesterday and bought a brand new winter coat! I originally started bargaining at $250 RMB...but finally convinced the lady I didn't want it (which was a total lie) and said "If you really want me to buy this coat that I don't want or need, I'll pay $150 RBM. I won, and have a new jacket for $22 USD!
Sorry for the long post! It was a busy week!
Mark
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