National Holiday

Sorry for not updating during a long time but have been quite busy.
Two weeks ago we had National Holiday in China and many people travelled across China - it is a small logistic miracle every year whel several million Chinese go by bus, train and airplane on the same days....

A lot of people from other parts of China visit Beijing during this holiday. This is the way it can look at Tiananmen Square and Forbidden City during one of the peak days.

8,2 million people visited Beijing major tourist sites during the week and later 38,75 tons rubbish was swept up from Tiananmen Square (last year 80 tons).
Also the Great Wall was crowded with people.




















In Badaling, 396 000 people climbed over each other.

According to the Beijing News, Beijing ate RMB 115 million worth of food, a 53.6% increase on last year.
Beijing parks saw almost 3 million visitors over the seven-day break. The Summer Palace (Yiheyuan) proved the most popular with 443,900 visitors. The Altar of Heavan (Tiantan) attracted 353,300, Beihai Park 229,700 and Fragrant Hills (Xiangshan) about 200,000.

So, a good advice from friends was NOT to stay in Beijing over the holiday. We did not - we went to Inner Mongolia....

Blue skies

The past weeks have been wonderful in Beijing. Not just because of the Olympics but because of the weather...
Living here for almost two years now I have never seen a weather like this before - almost every day a clear sky that is almost blue. The visibility some days was over 40 km - you could see the mountains with the Great Wall in the north being high up on a building. This August was the best month of air quality Beijing seen in many years - 14 days with "excellent" air quality and 16 "fairly good". The previous record set in 1998 was just 9 days with "excellent" air quality. Last August just had 2 days.

So, all actions take for the Olympics payed off in the end. Abandon all trucks that are heavy polluters, odd-even driving for private cars, stop all construction sites and stop all pollution from factories in and around Beijing (closed down permanent or during Olympics).

The big question is now - how will it be now when the Olympics and after that the ParaOlympics is over. Will Beijing go back to what it was before - one of the most polluted cities in the word...
We can just cross our fingers and hope not!

Typhoon!

Back in Doumen and Zhuhai (my second home) for two days meetings. Got some warning already when I arrived that there was a typhoon coming up and that it would probably strike the area during Friday.
Friday morning the typhoon warning was "yellow" - a medium strong wind with not too much impact but during the day it was increasing to "orange" - a quite strong typhoon.
So just before lunch we got order to leave Doumen and quick go back (around 1 hr) to Zhuhai and stay inside the hotel. Shuttle buses was quick arranged and the put me and Peter in a car so we quick would come back.

The maximum was estimated till around 17-18 in the evening and all people was asked to stay inside. Some of my Chinese friends was quite worried but for me it was a new experience and quite exiting....
After returning to the hotel I had to go out to find something to eat since we had no lunch. The wind was so strong so I was almost flying around in the street - feeling like the "Micheline man". The sea was not blue anymore - the water was dark brown and the waves very high - in some places pushing the water over the road and the cars driving there. And the heavy rain started - totally wet in 3 minutes.
The hotel entrance was covered with a big metal plate entrance with a small door with metal window - looked like the entrance to a prison..

In the evening the rain was very heavy and the streets "flooded" and the wind was very strong but in the morning in had calmed down and this afternoon the weather is very nice - blue sky, sun and it smells nice.

So, now I have added "typhoon" to my list of experiences.....

It was amazing...

Finally we got to see the Olympics - it was amazing!
On Sunday and Tuesday we had tickets for the Athletics at "the Bird nest"and it was a great experience. Not just seeing some excellent performance by the worlds best athletes but also to see the organization behind it.
The Olympic area with all the different venues - Bird Nest, Water Cube, Nation Indoor stadium and all the other in the Olympics park is worth a day to study. The architecture is great and now cost is saved to make it perfect.

And the service - every where. All this tens of thousand of volunteers helping you everywhere with everything - from finding the way to you venue or to take your picture standing in front of the Birdnest. All these young people doing this without any payment - just getting free food. But, as one of the girls we spoke with said
" We are doing this for our country and it is also a good opportunity for me to see and speak with a lot of foreign people - and to see some of the games for free..."

So, the games? Well it was a very special experience to watch the games inside a this stadium - together with 91 000 other people. The enthusiasm among the spectators was great and it was great to "do the Wave" together with all these people in this great arena. Once they started doing the Wave they almost never stopped again.
We also say some great results, like the new world record on Women's 3000m Steeplechase by Gulnara Galinka-Samutove with 8:58:81. Or Women 100 m where Jamaica made a triple before the three Americans.... Shelly-Ann Fraser got the gold in 10:78

















But the most amazing thing was when the games was over for the day - and 90 000 people should leave the stadium and go back home. Before I could see it as a nightmare (you all know how it looks around Råsunda after a football match when 300 people is going back - it is chaos).
No way - we just followed all the other people as a "stream" walking down to the new subway. There was volunteers all the way side-by-side showing you the way and make sure you not went the wrong way. Down into the subway (no ticket needed) and direct on to the first train on the Olympic Lane. At the end station direct change to our Line 10 and we was back at our apartment "in the other end of the city" withing 45 minutes.

I must say I am very, very impressed by the way these games are run by the Beijing Olympic Committee and by the city of Beijing. All foreign people I spoke with during the games and also in the subway had the same expression - It was amazing!

Chinese opera

Yesterday we were at the opera. Bao Bao got tickets from his music-teacher so we went with him and his father to see the opera. It was a quite famous opera with famous singers.

Although I do not understand opera and not understand Chinese it was a nice evening. The costumes and the set was beautiful and the singers were very good.
But, the first part was best with a little more "action". The second hour was a little bit boring....