Summer Olympics News

I have to admit that I know next to nothing about Olympic sailing (or sailing, in general, really). But this video from youtube of the top US team and their quest for gold in the 470 event in Beijing is really interesting. You can check out more about the pair on their website.

The “Golden Tripod Attic” (Jin Ding Xuan) is near the Lama Temple, and it‘s perfect if you‘re looking for a place to have dinner either with a couple of friends or a large group of people. You can get there by taking the subway to Lama Temple station (Yong He Gong) and then take the exit that leads to the Temple of Earth (Di Tan).

This bustling several-storey-restaurant is really atmospheric, each floor with different seating arrangements. The Golden Tripod is famous for its Cantonese cuisine, but also offers Shandong, Sichuan, and Huaiyang dishes. The menu is available in English, although the translations are sometimes perhaps a bit too unspecific. I ordered “Sautéed vegetables with cashews”. “It’s sweet,” the waiter warned me. I got crisp seaweed and cashews with sugar.

It tasted really good, just not what I had expected. There’s a menu with “dim sum” – the famous Cantonese snacks. It’s not translated into English, but it’s got pictures, so you can see what you order. If you’re having seafood, you can also avoid surprises by picking your food right from the aquarium. In any case, the Golden Tripod Attic is a great place for trying new dishes and experiencing the Cantonese cuisine in Beijing. I can really recommend it.

Steamed buns filled with vanilla custard

Due to a recent spam attack on our blogs (over 1000 in the past two days), we now have to require registration before comments can be posted. Sorry for the inconvenience, but I can’t spend all day going through splog comments.

Thanks to YouTube, we can all see commericals for the 2008 Beijing Olympics that we, otherwise, might never see. Here is one. I think it’s really quite beautiful, actually.

Although Chinese swimmer Wu Peng looks up to Michael Phelps, he doesn’t consider him to be his idol. Wu Peng is one of China’s great hopes for a medal at the 2008 Beijing Olympics. Recently, he won the 200 m butterfly at the Asian Games.

It’s still a long way off, but the USA Gymnastics Committee has set the date and the city for the Olympic trials for the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics. The event will be held in Philadelphia in June of 2008.

It’s always amazing to me that teams are chosen so close to the event. When I was younger, I thought Olympic teams were chosen years before the Olympics, not weeks. But, of course, this year’s champion may be next year’s broken down ex-athlete. Choosing so close to the Olympics is the best opportunity to get athletes at their peak.

Beijing citizens are learning to say, “cheese” as part of their preparations for the 2006 Summer Olympics. Culturally, smiling at strangers is not something the Chinese are accustomed to, but they want to appear hospitable to Westerners, so volunteers are attending “smile” classes.

There will be no third Olympics for Ian Thorpe, as the two-time 24 year old Olympian officially announced his retirement from competitive swimming. Well, there’s always the possibility of a comeback for the 2008 Beijing Olympics, I suppose, but Thorpe says that’s unlikely, and people close to him seem to agree that a comeback is not really in keeping with his personality. There has been speculation for some time about whether the “Thorpedo” as he is known would compete in the Beijing Olympics.

Sports Illustrated ran a recent story about a test run for clearing Beijing traffic for the 2008 Summer Olympics. I don’t think that most of us truly appreciate the traffic problem in Beijing. It’s not simply a matter of too many drivers on the road (think New York City). It’s also the lack of adherence to basic road rules. Overall, visitors to the Beijing Summer Olympics should probably plan to use public transportation.

I’m from Texas, so the Winter Olympics are pretty scanty on competitors from my home state (although we do turn out some pretty decent skaters— figure and speed— from time to time), but we’re much more likely to see competitors from our home state in the summer Olympics. Notably, I read this article about the Texas Trio, three swimmers from Texas expected to contend for medals in Beijing in 2008. The three swimmers (Aaron Peirsol, Brendan Hansen, and Ian Crocker) all train at the Longhorn Acquatic Center under University of Texas coach Eddie Reese, who will also coach the swimmers at the the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

China used to have a two-price-system, one set of prices for Chinese and one set of prices for foreigners. While that was abolished a while ago, it still sticks in the heads of some people. Vendors think that all foreigners have an incredible amount of money to spend and will often charge you three times the price they would ask from a Chinese person – or more. While you will have to resign yourself to the fate that you will always be charged more than the Chinese, you can try to keep the price difference at a minimum.

I’ve seen foreigners adopt a variety of strategies in order to avoid being ripped off. Some tourists just walk away when the first price they are told is not the one they are willing to pay. This might actually be very effective in the long run if more people started doing the same thing, but for now, you are more likely to leave empty-handed and disappointed.

Especially at places like the Silk Market, Hongqiao Pearl Market or Xidan – basically any place where there are lots of Western tourists – bargaining can be tough. There are a few markets in Beijing were vendors will start out at a price that is very close to what they are willing to sell for. You will eventually get some idea of how much money things are worth. The more you bargain, the better you will get at it.

Since I have found no satisfactory guide to bargaining in China in any of the travel guides I have consulted, I’ve put together a little “tutorial” myself. I have found this strategy to be very effective, although a little time consuming at times. There’s absolutely no need to feel bad. No vendor will sell to you if he doesn’t think he’s getting a fair price. Just be polite. Having a Chinese friend with you will save you a lot of time and money. But beware of having your tourist guide do the bargaining for you.

Step 1: Ask for the price.

Step 2: Tell the vendor it’s too much. If you have no idea of what you want to buy is worth, divide the price you were told by five(or so) in your head, and you will probably have a fairly realistic estimation of what it is worth.

Step 3: You will be asked how much you are willing to pay. Ignore that question (very important!) and ask the vendor to go down with the price some more.

Step 4: Walk away when the “negotiations” begin to stagnate. This will bring you much closer to the actual price.

Step 5: Once the price sounds fairly reasonable, you can tell the vendor what you are willing to pay. Always start out a bit lower than what you‘re planning to spend.

Step 7: If necessary, walk away again. If nobody shouts after you to come back, you know that your price was too low, and you will have to start over again at the next booth.

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Step X: Once you got what you wanted, feel smug and, most importantly, never ever ask a Chinese how much the stuff you just bought is really worth.

I booked a room through www.ctrip.com at the Beijing Nikko New Century Hotel, a five star hotel run by Japan Airlines, The hotel is located in the western part of the city between the third and the second ring road. Booking through ctrip, the hotel was only 788 Yuan ($100) per night.

As I got there on foot, finding the entrance was the first challenge. I walked around the whole hotel past construction workers who all stared at me wondering what the strange “laowai” (foreigner) with the bag in her hand was doing wandering all the way around the hotel. Once I got to the entrance, I found out that I could have gotten there so much easier had I taken the entrance from Xizhimen Road. In any case, this is something that won’t happen to you if you take a taxi.

The hotel looked okay from the outside, though of course not as nice as on the pictures I’d seen. The lobby was really plush, although it was almost a bit too much with all the gold ornaments, little lights on the ceiling, and the palm trees next to the counter selling mooncakes for the mid-autumn festival, which was two days ago.

Checking in in English was no problem. The fuwuyuan (universal term in the north of China referring to all service staff whether in a hotel, a restaurant, a shop or anywhere else) spoke English well enough to explain everything that was necessary and answer my questions. I had to carry my luggage upstairs myself, but I only had one bag, so I don’t know whether it would have been any different had I had more luggage.
As the elevator sped up to the 18th floor where my room was, I was getting more excited.

The more disappointed I was when I got to the room. Officially I had booked a deluxe room. I don’t know what exactly I had expected, but it had definitely been something else different from the smallish room with the gray carpet I was standing in. For a moment, I was thinking about setting up a tent and sleeping in the lobby. That is not to say that the room was horrible. There was absolutely nothing wrong with it. There was just nothing special about it, either. Later, I found out that Deluxe room was just a nicer name for standard room, i.e. all rooms that were not business rooms or executive suites were simply called “deluxe”. The room was very similar to other standard rooms I had stayed in and paid considerably less money for, that is except for the mini bar and the chocolate bar on my pillow. Not to forget the comb in the bathroom that was made out of real wood… Anyway, I was disappointed.

The service was not overwhelming, either. Again, there was nothing wrong with it, nobody was unfriendly to me, and the staff was able to help me when I had questions about where this and that restaurant was or on how to check out later, but nobody was overly enthusiastic, either.
There are a couple of things to say in favour of the hotel: There’s a Carrefour right across the street, which is very convenient if you need or want to do some grocery shopping or need anything else. The selection of restaurants nearby, on the other hand, is less impressive, but there is a variety of restaurants, cafes and bars in the hotel.
The hotel is located fairly close to Xizhimen subway station. You can take a taxi there or take a bus from Baishiqiao bus stop very close to the hotel. Xizhimen is two stops away. If you don’t cross the road, this is one of the very few places were you’ve got an extremely high chance that you’ll get on the right bus.
The view on Xizhimen Avenue at night was nice, too. But it didn’t make up for the small size of my room.

If I could do my own hotel rating, I would say that I stayed in a three star room in a four to five star hotel. You can tell it’s not the newest hotel, either. The room was only $100, and I know that there are more “discount five star hotels” like this in Beijing that are okay, but not what you would expect from an upper range hotel. Unless you want the services offered by a five star hotel, there’s no need to stay there. You can get similar or better rooms in cheaper hotels. It’s probably better either to spend the $200 or $300 and stay in a hotel like the St. Regis and get a real five star hotel (of which there are quite a few in Beijing, too) or to save the money and stay at a place that might have a less fancy lobby, but equally good rooms.

It’s always considerably cheaper to reserve a room online than to book at the hotel directly, so here are some websites that have got good offers.
http://english.ctrip.com : the Chinese classic in English; you can reserve all types of hotels except real budget places and dorm beds. You can also book discount flights here if you have to travel within China.
http://www.sinohotel.com : everything from no stars to five stars; you can also book dorm beds here
http://hotelguidechina.com : 3-5 star hotels, you can search hotels by area.

During my one-year stay in China as an exchange student, I was very careful not to have to go to the hospital, and, in fact, the only time I ever had to was when I accompanied someone else. Apart from that one time, I managed to stay away from hospitals and was very grateful for that. The horror stories circulating among students about Chinese hospitals certainly contributed to that. Even when I got a 104 degree fever in a malaria area over night, I preferred just taking the malaria medicine I’d brought along over going to the hospital – and I still think that was a good choice (I would have gone to the hospital had I been in Beijing though).

This time, things went differently. I had dinner at a fast food place near Beijing railway station. I’d been looking for a different place to go to, but there were not a lot of other restaurants around. I had no one to have dinner with that night and just wanted to grab a bite. It was a very typical fast food place with cafeteria tables and plastic bowls. A look into the menu told me it was pretty expensive, too. My experience in China so far has been that if an ordinary small restaurant has nothing special to offer and charges more than other places, the food is usually not very good, so I briefly though about getting up and leaving. But I didn’t feel like having to look for another place, so I stayed. I got Zha Jiang Mian, a famous Beijing dish which is usually very good and had always come as a vegetarian dish when I had ordered it so far. Apparently, it also exists with meat, and that was what I got: a pot of noodles with lots of ground meat on top. I ate them up quickly and left.

In the subway station, my stomach was beginning to feel funny. I ignored it. “You’ll be fine.” I told myself. Nothing serious had ever happened to me because of eating Chinese food – and I’d eaten lots of things I would never put into my mouth in Germany. If anything, I thought, this is la duzi – diarrhea. La duzi is something you will probably get sooner or later if you are in China. It usually goes away after a day or two; it’s annoying, but nothing to worry about. On the bus, which was cramming full as usual, it finally began to dawn on me that this time I would not be fine. I got off two stations early, just about in time before my stomach decided to revolt. I rushed into the nearest restaurant and right into the gents’ room, as the ladies’ room was occupied. There’s something comical about squatting in the less than hygienic restroom of a really plush restaurant, having stomach problems and la duzi at the same time while crowds of angry men are banging on the door demanding to be let in.

I did feel a bit better afterwards and took a taxi home. “You’ll be fine.” I told myself. I was wrong again. I spent the next four hours at home in the bathroom. When my roommate got back very late at night, I told her what had happened. “Off to the hospital,” she said. I was not happy about going, but by that time, I was feeling so miserable that I didn’t really care any longer. Plus I was beginning to be really dehydrated as my stomach refused to take anything in, and I didn‘t know for how much longer this would continue. Unfortunately for me, the taxi driver who took us knew a lot about meat poisoning and how very dangerous it was, and was more than willing to share that information. I just remember hunching over my plastic bag in the back of the car and saying “Let’s talk about something else now, shall we,” every once in a while, but he just ignored me.

The hospital we went to was crowded and not the cleanest place I’d ever been to, but after all the horror stories I’d heard about Chinese hospitals, I had expected something worse. The syringes were new, although the nurse doing the blood test was very reluctant to tell me at first. “Does it make a difference?” She just snapped. I decided there was no point in telling her that yes, it made a big difference. The other people at the hospital were nicer, though not much more specific. “You’ve got bacteria in your blood,” I was told once the results came back. “We need to take one more blood sample amd do more testing now, and you’ll get an infusion in the meantime.” I tried to extract some more concrete information from them, but they just told me I‘d probably have to be re-examined again in a couple of days. I can’t say I cared much at that point in time.

After they took my blood sample, I spent the next three hours getting my infusion lying on a bed designed for patients having their ECG done. It was the only bed not occupied, and I did feel bad since there were quite a few patients much sicker than I was who did not have a bed. Every now and then I had to get up to make room for people who got their ECG done. Finally, at four o’clock in the morning, I got the results of my blood test: the form of meat poisoning I had was harmless, and I would be okay soon. Still not very specific, but much better news than what I’d been told before. I had to go back to the hospital for the next three days to get more medicine, which I did at a smaller and much nicer hospital closer to my home. I am still eating meat, but I’ve been more careful and have been staying away from ground meat altogether, as spoilt ground meat apparently is one of the major sources of food poisoning.

There is still a very high chance that the worst problem you will ever encounter in China is diarrhea. You should be sure to bring some medicine for that. In case you do have to go to the hospital while in Beijing, you have several options. You can either go to one of the regular Chinese hospital, which vary in quality of their service, or to one of the hospitals for foreigners, which are less crowded, cleaner, (and considerably more expensive), but might take you a lot longer to get there. I remember having to ride in the ambulance for 45 minutes when I accompanied a friend to one of those places. Make sure to have enough cash on you or to bring someone who can pay, as otherwise you will probably not be treated.

I also found the section on medical information of the website of the US embassy quite useful. You can get the names and addresses of a couple of major hospitals in Beijing here, as well as the number of an emergency

I went to Tian’anmen Square one last time before leaving China. I’d read about the decorations for National Day on October 1 in the newspaper and seen the first preparations myself. National Day celebrates the founding of the People’s Republic of China on October 1, 1949 and is accompanied by a week of vacation, during which the entire population of China goes travelling, or so it seems. Students go home for the holidays while Beijing fills up with tourists from all over the country. It is a time notorious for the impossibility to get train tickets anywhere. The only option for those who do not wish to spend hours or days in a queue and then fight over the last few tickets, or for those who despite all efforts leave empty-handed, is taking a plane.

On my last day in Beijing, National Day was noticeably drawing closer. I had trouble getting into the cram-full subway train, and only managed to squeeze myself inside thanks to the crowds of people behind me who kept pushing.

The decorations on the square had been finished the day before. On one side of the square was a miniature Potala Palace, a miniature Three Gorges Damn, and a train representing the railway from Qinghai to Tibet, which has just been newly opened on July 1 this year.

Right in front of the Monument to the People’s Heroes hung the portrait of Sun Yat-sen, inofficial father of the nation and first president of the Republic of China, established in 1912 and not to be confused with the People’s Republic whose anniversary is celebrated… Nonetheless, Sun Yat-sen’s gets his place on Tiananmen Square every year.

On the other side were the Olympics mascots sitting in the middle of the flower arrangements – probably the biggest attraction judging by the number of people taking photos – as well as a rather smallish and much less impressive replica of the “Bird’s Nest”, one of the major Olympic venues. Since last year nobody knew yet what the Olympics mascots would look like, this the first year they were displayed for National Day.

Tian’anmen Square was filled with people, mostly from the countryside, taking pictures in front of the giant Olympic mascots and the other decorations. For most people coming to Beiing is something that they don’t do every year. It might even be a once in a lifetime experience for some, so everyone is really excited.

I was in for another photo session. There were only a few foreigners around that day, and as soon as people noticed I was willing to have my picture taken, more and more came up to ask. I’ve gotten into the habit of asking everyone who wants to take a picture with me whether I could also have a picture taken with them with my camera in return. Most people are very surprised that a foreigner wants to take their picture, but nobody minds, so by the end of the day, I had a nice photo collection on my camera as well as lots of new cell phone numbers, i.e. lots of new friends. I’m still in touch with some of them.

I had to go back to the place where I stayed fairly early though, since my flight was going that night. So I got back onto the subway, which was slightly less crowded by then, and went home to get ready to pack.

Things became a bit hectic during my last couple of days in Beijing, and I had some problems with my internet access on top of that, so this is why I haven’t written anything recently.
I just got back to Germany a couple of hours ago, but I’ll be posting more soon about what I’ve been doing the last few days in Beijing, including a night at a five star hotel, lots more tourist attractions under construction, more Olympic venues, and another trip to Tianan’men Square to check out the decorations for National Day on October 1.

My roommate and I talked about ways to get to the Great Wall the night before I went, and she told me about a bus that was going to Badaling. I still insisted on taking the tour bus that night since I didn’t want to miss out on the joys of taking a tour. After I had fought with about half of the people offering tours at Qianmen, I was beginning to reconsider the regular bus as an option.

Bus No. 919 leaves from Deshengmen and passes various other bus stops on the way, such as Beijing long distance bus station, Xiao Ying, or Xi San Qi. You can get to Deshengmen taking the subway to Jishuitan station. Take exit B, look to the right as you walk out and you’ll be able to see Deshengmen about half a mile from the subway station. It’s the gray building that looks a bit like Qianmen. If you happen to just come from Qianmen, you will have no trouble recognizing it. Be careful on which bus you get. There are two 919s driving to two different destinations. As a foreigner, you will probably be immediately directed towards the Badaling bus, but don’t count on it; it’s best to ask the driver or the ticket seller. If they start shaking their head violently and push you out of the bus at your attempt to pronounce Badaling, you’re on the wrong bus. If you get on the bus at a station any other than Deshengmen, look for ticket sellers screaming “Badaling! Badaling!” into their megaphones.

The bus ride takes about 1 hour and costs either 6 or 12 Yuan, depending on whether your bus is air-conditioned or not. Stations are only announced in Chinese, but it is very hard to miss Badaling. It’s the first station after the bus drives into the mountainous area and has passed countless road signs announcing the “Great Wall of Badaling”.

I’ve been to two sections of the Great Wall before, Mutianyu and Jingshanling. The section at Mutianyu is pretty touristy, but nothing compared to Badaling.

People trying to fight their way through hords of other people…

The Olympic Emblem at Badaling

As a Chinese saying goes “A man who has not climbed the Great Wall is not a true man”. I’m not sure whether that includes taking the cable car and the pulley, but if you do feel too tired either to climb the wall or to walk back down, you have the option to take either. Each ride is 30 Yuan.

As opposed to Mutianyu, hawkers are surprisingly little aggressive while you’re still on your way to the Great Wall. This changes once you get there. Badaling resembles a market more than anything else. If you want to you can have you’re picture taken on a horse or a camel, get a certificate that you’ve climbed the Great Wall, or buy some slightly out of place Terracotta warriors and lots of other stuff. With the masses of other tourists trying to climb the Wall you have a fairly high chance of dodging the hawkers. Once you buy something though, there’ll be many more to surround you.

These vendors have to stay behind their counter and can’t follow you around…

I can really recommend taking a taxi to Simatai or other less crowded sections of the wall. Jingshanling used to be a really good place to go to, but it’s been rebuilt, and the climb is probably not as good as it used to be.

If you just want to go to Badaling, I would recommend taking bus no 919 from Deshengmen. In case you would rather take a tour, the ones from Qianmen include the bus ride, admittance to the Great Wall and the Ming Tombs as well as lunch. They also include, as I found out, a pricey trip to Old Beijing and stops at various tourist shops. Needless to say it’s not a good idea to buy anything there. Hidden fees are common and don’t only affect foreigners but also Chinese tourists to some extent. As long as you don’t mind paying, this is not a problem. You are likely to be charged even more though if they notice you don’t care about the price. The tour will probably cost you around 200 Yuan. Add 15% foreigner fee to that, and you have a fairly realistic estimate of what you will be charged.

Chinese phrases you will be expected to understand when taking a tour:
“Kuai dianr!” (kwigh D R) – “Hurry up!!”
“Deng yihuir” (Dang E ho R) – “Wait a moment.” A moment on a Chinese tour can be anything between five minutes and two hours.

My agenda for today sounded quite simple: take a tour to the Great Wall at Badaling. Badaling is the section of the Great Wall closest to Beijing and most overrun by tourists. I had only been to other sections of the Great Wall so far, but never to Badaling. I had, however, taken various tours before in China, so basically I knew what I was getting into. Taking a tour in China is a well-balanced mixture of having to wait for hours, then being rushed through a couple of sights, taken to some tourist shops, and paying twice the price originally agreed on. If you’re lucky, you’ll even get to wear a hat. This was pretty much what I expected from what I knew from previous tours – and I was not disappointed, although I never got around to taking the tour.

I meant to take The Tour Bus No. 1 from Qianmen bus station and reserved tickets the night before. We agreed on 70 Yuan for the bus and the entrance tickets, which was a bit less than I had expected. “No hidden fees?” I asked. “No hidden fees,” the guy reassured me, “everything’s included.” “Are you sure?” I asked and almost felt guilty for being so persistent. Yes, he was absolutely sure.

Buses leave between 6 and 10 a.m. Since I live quite a way from Qianmen, I got up at 5:30. Once I got to Qianmen, the first thing I learned was that I would have to pay 100 Yuan. “We don’t take anyone for 70 Yuan,” the colleague of the person I had talked to the night before informed me. I called the guy again. “No problem, 70 Yuan, that’s what we agreed on.”
“No extra fees?” I asked again.
“Absolutely everything included,” was the answer, “hurry up and get in the car!” He took me to the tour bus, about half a mile away.
Once I got there, I was asked to pay. “That’s 70 Yuan for the tour,” the lady said, “plus 80 Yuan for Old Beijing.” (I.e. Hutongs and neighborhoods with traditional courtyard houses.)
“I didn’t book a tour to Old Beijing,” I said.
“Either you pay for it or you’re not going.” The lady said, and the guy I had talked to and who had assured me about ten times that 70 Yuan was all I would be paying just shrugged. “Up to you.”
I decided that I was not going, at least not with them. The guy drove back to Qianmen, but of course refused to take me, so I had to walk back. I was beginning to be annoyed, but since being annoyed is what taking a tour in China is all about, I wasn’t too worried, yet.

There are plenty of other tour buses leaving from Qianmen. Basically if you go there before 10 o’clock on any day, people will shout “Badaling! Great Wall!” at you from all directions. I asked one of the ladies how much her tour was. She showed me a card with all the prices listed. 150 Yuan alltogether. “Any other fees?” I asked. “No.” She said. “Everything included.” I asked her whether I had to go to Old Beijing if I took her tour and whether that would cost me any extra money. After a short pause, she nodded. I left.

On my way back, I passed the guys from Tour Bus No. 1. The guy who had refused to take me back was already sitting there in his car eying me suspiciously. His colleagues all thought the whole situation was very funny. I asked them whether I could just go and see the Great Wall for 100 Yuan, the price they had originally told me. They said I had to go to Old Beijing and pay for it, otherwise I could not take their tour, but they would still take me for 180 Yuan. It was then that I decided I would not be taking a tour.

I do not think that 180 Yuan is an awful lot of money. Nor do I mind seeing old courtyard houses; on the contrary, I like old Beijing, although 80 Yuan is really too much for that. The problem here is one that you will most likely also encounter when taking a tour. People will talk you into coming with them offering you a really low price and then charge you much more in the end. If you’re lucky, you find out before you get in the car. Usually, they won’t tell you about the extra fees before you actually get to the place. Sometimes, you don’t have much of a choice, but have to take a tpur because there is no other way to get to a place . I probably would have still gone with them had they been friendlier, despite the fact that they had tried to trick me. But I just couldn’t get myself to get back in the car with the guy who had lied to me and refused to take me back to Qianmen.

I did get to the Great Wall though, and I will write more about Badaling and how I got there in my next post.