Summer Olympics News

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.

After reading in the newspaper that this year’s tea had just newly arrived in the stores, I definitely had to go to Maliandao to buy some. Maliandao is in the southwest of Beijing, just south of Beijing West Railway Station. It’s basically a whole street just lined with tea stores, some bigger ones, but mostly little family-run businesses. Some are right on the streets, others are hidden in little alleys. It’s easiest to go there by taxi. I fyou do decide to take a bus (e.g. bus no. 609 from Beijing West Railway Station) get off at Maliandao Nankou.

When I first got there, I was shocked. I had not come in a while, and all I saw was t0rn down buildings where I thought the little alleyway I used to go to had been. I finally decided to walk into one of the big buildings with countless little tea shops inside. There I was told that quite a bunch of the little tea shops had been torn down in October the year before and moved into the bigger building.

I was still disappointed, but decided I could also buy my tea there. You are always invited to sit down and have a little tea ceremony before you buy in order to try all different types of tea. Nobody rushes you or tries to talk you into buying something. I usually stay for a few hours.

So yesterday, I just sat there, had lots and lots of tea and made friends with the tea sellers, two nice young people. There were other customers who came and went; sometimes there were four or five of us sitting at the little table, sometimes it was just me.

I asked the tea sellers whether they often had customers who did not speak Chinese. They said quite a few. Sometimes they would bring someone who spoke Chinese, other times they would come by themselves, but they usually managed to buy tea somehow. In any case you get to try the tea and can then pick what you liked best. There are other places in Beijing where you can also have a tea ceremony and where people do speak English, like Tenfu Tea Store, but Maliandao is definitely the much more authentic experience.

After about four hours, I decided it was time to leave. I bought some tea cups, two different types of tea and got some more as a gift. Finally, we took some pictures and exchanged cell phone numbers.

As I walked back to the bus, I discovered that only very few places had been torn down, and that the alley I had gone to before with all its little tea shops was still there. I had only walked into the wrong direction first. With Beijing changing so fast these days, I was really relieved to find that Maliandao is one of the few places hardly affected by those changes so far.

The Summer Palace is a huge park area in the Northwest of Beijng, three quarters of which are covered by Kunming Lake. It was build in 1750 and destroyed during the second Opium War. After it was rebuilt in 1886, it served as Empress Dowager Cixis Summer Getaway. The Summer Palace also had one of Beijing’s earliest telephone lines so Cixi could talk to her nephew and adopted son, Emperor Guangxu. There’s an exhibition about those early phone lines in Shuimuziqin Hall.

Admittance to the Summer Palace is 30 Yuan ($3.8). You can also buy a ticket for 50 Yuan ($6.3), which already includes some of the attractions inside the palace that you need to pay extra money for. As the Summer Palace is really huge, unless you want to rush from sight to sight, buying just the entrance ticket and then see what you want to do inside is good enough.

At the entrance, there’s not only a weather forecast, but also a “tourist volume forecast”, which I thought was pretty funny. But at least I learned that I was one of 15200 expected visitors that day. I had no idea so many people came everyday.

I first walked around the lake and down the Long Corridor, a wooden corridor decorated and painted with colorful patterns and landscape scenes, and then went up the many stairs to “Cloud Dispensing Hall” (admission 10 Yuan, a bit more than $1). This Hall and the surrounding buildings were just renovated in 2005 and are shining in bright new colors. Unfortunately, the “Tower of Buddha Incense” was still closed when I was there because of construction, but it will be reopened for visitors on October 1, the National Day in China. Unless you are afraid of heights, Cloud Dispensing Hall is worth spending the extra buck. I can imagine that the view from the Tower of Buddha Incense must be even better.

The Tower of Buddha Incense

After I had gotten back down, I walked around the lake, eating some green bean ice cream and took a look at the big tacky marble boat sitting at the side of the lake. The Lonely Planet speculates Cixi had it put there because the Summer Palace was rebuilt using money from a navy fund… Whether this is true or not, the boat is really just, well, big and tacky, but nonetheless a very popular photo object.

Of course, the obligatory Olympics merchandize stores and ads for the Olympics, which can be found at all major tourist sites, weren’t missing. They blend in perfectly with the architecture of the summer palace…

You can rent pedal boats at the lake for 30 Yuan (a bit less than $4) for 4 people or 60 Yuan ($7.5) for 6 people, plus a deposit. Since I was by myself this time, it was not worth renting one, so I decided to cross the lake on of the many “Pleasure Boats” instead (rides 8 Yuan, $1). There’s nothing all too spectacular about the boat ride except being taken from one side of the lake to the other, but it’s a good shortcut in case you are tired of walking, plus it gives you a good opportunity to take a picture of the impressive Tower of Buddha Incense.

The boat ride took me to South Lake Island, a small island connected to the lake shore by a bridge. I checked out the photo exhibition there about Puyi, the last emperor, and Empress Dowager Cixi. Except for the introductory note and a Mao quote about Puyi and why the Party did not kill him, not many other inscriptions were in English though. Neither was the “Taking photos strictly prohibited” sign, so you can pretend you didn’t know.

Finally, I fought my way through hords of tourist groups all wearing bright orange hats and had a quick glance at the “Hall of Benevolence and Longevity” right next to the entrance/exit, where court affairs were handled under Cixi and Guangxu.

There are various other exhibitions and attractions at the Summer Palace, so you can easily spend the whole day there and just walk around und pick what you want to see or relax at the lake. Or you can try and walk all around the lake and let me know if that’s possible. I’ve been meaning to do that, but have always given up somewhere on the way so far.

Since I arrived much too late on my first night in Beijing I went back to the airport the other day to find out first hand what the best options for getting to your hotel are.

The first thing I noticed though, both when I first got to Beijing and when I went back to the airport, was that Olympics have definitely made their way to the airport, too. There are posters advertising for the Olympics long before you get to the baggage claim. There’s a countdown clock in front of the airport, and another one on the second floor departure deck. And if you need to buy a cell phone number, you can do so from one of the little China mobile sales booths decorated with posters of the Olympics mascots. Numbers, by the way, should be between 50 and 100 Yuan. Prices of numbers can vary as there are lucky and unlucky numbers. 8 is a lucky number, rhyming with the Chinese word for “making money”. If you want to save some money, look for numbers with lots of 4s, 4 sounding like “death”.

Once you arrive, you will probably have to exchange or withdraw some money first. You can do this at the bank counter in the airport. In case the banks are already closed, there’s also a money exchange machine and someone to assist you.

If you stay at one of the bigger hotels, there might be an airport shuttle to the hotel; you have to check this before you get to Beijing or enquire upon arrival at the “Hotel and Tour Information” desk.

The people there can help you out in case you’ve got other problems or questions as well. I cannot recommend booking a hotel there late at night, but when I gave them the name of my hotel and asked them how to get there, they were really helpful. I wanted to go to the “Beijing City Central International Youth Hostel”. They told me a taxi would be around 120 Yuan, which I know from previous experience is about right. When I asked about a bus, they directed me to bus number 3, going to Beijing Railway Station. I tried to convince them to write me a “Dear driver, please tell me to get off at…”-note, but since Beijing Railway Station was the last station anyway, they did not consider this necessary. I had no problem finding the bus station, although, reminding myself that I could not read Chinese, I had to look twice before I found the right bus. As opposed to the terminal stop, which is written in Chinese characters on a sign right above where the bus stops, the number of the bus is hidden on the other side of the sign. We were stuck in traffic for a while, but apart from that everything went fine.

Although taking a taxi is probably the more convenient way to get to your hotel, if you do want to take one of the buses, you can ask the people at the Hotel and Tour Information desk which bus you need to take, and at which station to get off. I can recommend taking the bus if you know you have to get off at the last station, otherwise, it might be difficult to recognize your station when the driver announces it. Buses run to and from Xidan, Beijing Railway Station, the Friendship Hotel, and Zhongguancun, among others. (I have a list of all the stations here in case anybody is interested.) Bus rides are 16 Yuan. You buy the tickets directly at the station right outside the exit. Stations are written in both Chinese and English. Take exit number 11 or 13.

If you prefer to take a taxi, take exit number 5 or 7. The taxi stand is right in front of the airport; you can see the queue from the exit. Taking a taxi from the airport is no problem and much more convenient than taking a bus if you don’t speak Chinese. Nonetheless, it’s best to have the address of your hotel written down in Chinese characters (you can ask the people at the Hotel and Tour information desk to help you out with this). It’s also helpful to have the phone number of your hotel, so the taxi driver can call the hotel in case he does not find the place right away.
The taxi should cost around between 100 and 150 Yuan during the daytime if you are going to the center. There’s a surcharge at night for all cabs in Beijing. Do NOT accept rides from anyone who approaches you inside or right outside the airport.

The Subway
The subway is the most convenient means of public transportation in Beijing for various reasons. First and foremost: you cannot get stuck in traffic. With some of Beijings roads almost constantly jammed, this is worth a lot. Also, it’s no problem to take the subway even if you don’t speak Chinese. Stations are written and announced in English, and there are maps of the subway on every train. The only drawbacks: trains are often crowded, although usually not as crowded as buses during rush hour. Sometimes it can be difficult to get off the train if you are the only person and there’s a crowd of people waiting on the train platform ready to fight their way in. So far, there are only four lines in operation, but more lines are supposed to be opened until the Olympics.

Buses
The way buses are now, they are inaccessible to foreigners who don’t speak Chinese. There’s a variety of reasons why:
1. Stations are only written in Chinese.
2. Stations are announced by the person selling tickets, usually with a broad Beijing accent ( So even if you think you might recognize the sound of your station that can be a completely different story once you’re on the bus)
3. If you have a bad sense of direction, you might get on the bus heading in the opposite direction of where you want to go to.
4. It’s impossible to tell from the tourist maps where you have to transfer in case you have to take more than one bus. This can make taking a bus complicated even for people speaking Chinese.

If you’re feeling adventurous or need to take a bus really desperately, this is how you do it: tell the staff at your hotel where you need to go. Have them write down the number of the bus you need to take and the station where to get off. Then ask them to write something like “Dear Shoupiaoyuan (ticket seller on the bus), I want to go to (insert name of station here); please tell me when to get off the bus!” in Chinese for you. If you only have to take one bus, this should be no problem, unless you happen to be unlucky enough to get on one of the few buses without a ticket seller. Don’t try this when you are in a hurry.

Taxis
There’s really no necessity to take a bus; taking a taxi in Beijing is fairly cheap and convenient. Although cab fares have risen over the last years and can be expected to go up even more until the Olympics, they are still much more inexpensive than in most Western countries. The starting price is 10 Yuan ($1.25), which will take you a few kilometers, and then 2 Yuan ($0.25) per kilometer. The great majority of taxi drivers is honest and uses a meter. Make sure to take a bilingual map or the address of the place you’re going to written in Chinese characters, especially if you’re going to one of the less well-known places.

Rickshaws
Rickshaws don’t just exist for Hutong Tours, there are regular rickshaws as well. They drive on the right lane of the regular roads, so some people find it scary to sit in a rickshaw and drive next to buses and other cars. If you need to get somewhere fairly closeby, it can be fun to take a rickshaw, but make sure that you and the driver are agreed on the price. Drivers usually don’t speak English, so again, this is something you would do for fun, not if have get somewhere really quickly.

There are so many different sports in the summer Olympics that there seems to be something for everyone and no clear consensus on a favorite. Frontrunners are gymnastics, swimming, track and field, and basketball. What do you think of the results?

What is your favorite Summer Olympic sport?
Swimming: 16% (25)
Diving: 1% (1)
Gymnastics: 34% (55)
Track and Field: 9% (15)
Basketball: 14% (22)
Cycling: 1% (1)
Equestrian: 2% (4)
Fencing: 2% (4)
Rowing: 2% (3)
Volleyball: 7% (12)
Wrestling: 2% (4)
Other: 9% (14)
Total Votes : 160

Last Sunday was a really nice and sunny day, so I went for a stroll around Xihai, Houhai and Qianhai, all of which are lakes Northwest of the Forbidden City. I started out at Xihai Lake, very close to Jishuitan subway station. As opposed to the other two lakes, it’s allowed to fish there, so the lakeshore was crowded with people patiently dangling their fishing poles into the water.

I walked around the lake, taking short detours through the adjacent alleyways every once in a while. Occasionally, there would be a rickshaw driver coming my way shouting “Hello! Hello! Hutong!”, but apart from that it was really nice and quiet, something you really learn to appreciate in Beijing. The number of rickshaw drivers and hawkers increased as I came closer to the other two lakes. Houhai and Qianhai are lined with Western-style bars with huge Budweiser-signs and Western-style decoration, where you can get expensive drinks and, well, let’s just say mediocre Western food. I had a salad at one of the bars, and while I’ve definitely had worse, I’ve certainly had better, too.

After lunch, I went on another trip through the Hutongs, this time on foot. There’s a small, busy alley right next to Houhai and Qianhai, where you can buy yet more souvenirs or just enjoy the atmosphere. Once I got out of there, I headed left and walked through the Hutongs next to the Bell and Drum Towers.

For the night, a couple of friends and I had reserved tickets for the performance at “Laoshe Teahouse”, a teahouse named after the play “Teahouse” by the famous writer Lao She. It’s behind Tian’anmen Square, to the West of Qianmen. People sat at tables and could enjoy tea and snacks during the performance, some of which tasted really good while others tasted really… interesting. The show included traditional music, excerpts from Peking operas, sketches, an artist who could change the color of his face within the fraction of a second, a magician, and a kung fu performance. I can really recommend this place. Don’t expect a Western style theater: people are drinking tea and chatting while watching the show, but that’s exactly what makes for a great atmosphere. Performances are every night at 7:50; you have to reserve tickets in advance. Prices for tickets vary from 60-180 Yuan ($7.5 – $23) depending on how close or far away from the stage you want to sit.

I’ve always admired people who come to China even though they don’t speak any Chinese, and I‘ve always wanted to know how they manage. That’s why I decided to pretend that I did not speak or understand a word of Chinese for a whole day. The experiment did not always go smoothly. I switched to Chinese once, and although I could pretend I did not speak Chinese, I could still understand what people were saying, and it was not always possible to block that out when deciding what to do or say next. Overall, this day was definitely one of the most interesting experiences I’ve had so far.

Beijing Subway
The subway was easy to find. Stations are marked with a blue sign saying “Beijing subway”. The ticket booth was also easy to locate; just look for a big crowd of people fighting and cutting in front of each other (or for the sign saying “tickets”). Ticket prices are only written in Chinese. I was unsure whether non-Chinese speakers would be able to guess which of the many numbers is the price, so I just handed the lady a 20 Yuan bill to be on the safe side (tickets are 3 Yuan, around $0.35). Stations are written both in characters and “Pinyin” (the official transcription), with English translations whenever there exists one. So far no problem. On the train, stations are announced, but if you are not familiar with the pronunciation, it might be better to keep track of where you are on the map right above the door.

Beijing Hutongs
I got off at Qianmen and walked up Dazhalan Jie, a noisy street filled with little restaurants, stores selling souvenirs, tea, Chinese crafts, etc., before deciding to take a tour through the Hutongs. Hutongs are the famous small alleyways of Beijing, mostly lined with one-storey traditional courtyard houses. They are one of Beijing’s most popular attractions, but have made the headlines over the last couple of years mainly for being torn down and being replaced by more modern buildings. There are still a few left though.

It’s easy to find a rickshaw that will take you on a tour through the Hutongs, as a matter of fact, sometimes it can be very hard to fend the drivers off. I bargained for the price for a short while, which was not that easy, as the driver spoke no English, except for numbers, but overall no problem. We settled for 20 Yuan ($ 2.5).

The tour was a nice way to relax, although I would have liked to learn a bit more about the different places he took me to. We went to a hotel, several old residences, an old theater, Liulichang, and through lots of Hutongs. Whenever we passed another rickshaw, I could listen to my driver bragging in Chinese about how much money he was charging me. After about thirty minutes, we got back to where we had started. My driver took out the piece of paper with all the places we had gone to (10 altogether) and said: “Twenty. Each.” As I did not even have 200 Yuan ($ 25) on me (not that I would have paid that much) and was starving and not in the mood for a fight, I decided that this was a good time to let him know that I had understood what he had said the whole time. So I gave him the 20 Yuan and I told him in Chinese: “We agreed on 20 Yuan. There you go. Stop overcharging people.”He had to laugh really hard, and I don’t think he was all that upset about the 20 Yuan, either.

I do have to say that problems like this happen quite frequently, and they cannot always be solved that easily. Always make absolutely sure how much you are supposed to pay and for what. If you are asked to pay more money than you agreed on later, don’t.

Beijing Restaurants
I went to one of the little restaurants on Dazhalan Xijie, most of which have English menues, as this is an area frequented by Western tourists. Dazhalanjie is actually one of the very few places in Beijing where I found dog meat on the menu, although none of the dog dishes were translated into English. No need to worry though, you can be absolutely sure you won’t be served dog meat anywhere unless you order it.

Beijing Taxis
After having lunch, I took a taxi to Coal Hill, a park right behind the exit of the Forbidden City. It’s a really popular place as you have a great view of the roofs of the Forbidden City from the top of the hill. It would have been within walking distance, but I was tired and still wanted to test how taking a taxi in English would work. The taxi driver did not speak English, and he did not understand my attempt to mispronounce “Jingshan” – the Chinese name of Coal Hill – either. Things became much easier once I took out my map of Beijing. Tourist maps are sold on every corner, and are handy as they are written in both English and Chinese. Although there are some taxi drivers who do speak a little English, I would recommend always taking a map with you (make sure names are also written in Chinese characters) or to have someone write down the address in Chinese for you. That way, there’s really not a lot that can go wrong.

Coal Hill
The top pavilion on Coal Hill is under construction at the moment. Unfortunately, they do not tell you that before you get to the top, where the guard sent everybody back down. I simply decided to climb up the rocks, which was what most other tourists did as well. I could only get to one of the smaller pavilions though, from which the view is not as good.

I had fried eggplant for dinner at one of the restaurants next to the Forbidden City, which also had an English menu. As the English menu didn’t have prices, I had her show me how much my dish was on the Chinese menu, which she did truthfully.

I have to admit I was really tired once I was on the subway and heading back home. Speaking Chinese can make you tired sometimes; I was not aware that not speaking Chinese can be even more exhausting.

The “Friendlies”, the five Olympic mascots, have taken over Beijing. Well, not quite, but two years before the 2008 Beijing Olympics, merchandize is a big deal. Beibei, Jingjing, Huanhuan, Yingying, and Nini, which together form the sentence “Beijing Welcomes You”, come in all forms and shapes: as stuffed animals, on key chains, badges, t-shirts, baseball caps, backpacks, building blocks, posters, pencils, cups, umbrellas and basically everything else you can imagine. There is some merchandize with the Olympic emblem, too, but the mascots are really dominating everything.

There are only a few designated shops that are allowed to sell Olympics merchandize, such as the official Olympics store next to Tian’anmen Square, the merchandize corner in the Great Hall of the People as well as a couple of department stores on Wangfujing, which have big posters and banners with the Olympics emblem hanging outside to ensure that you won’t just walk by.

I’ve been taking lots of pictures. At first, it felt a bit odd to take photos of counters inside a store, or of huge stuffed animals. But I noticed pretty soon that the Chinese are doing the exact same thing. Wherever the mascots are displayed, people take out their cameras.

Last Wednesday night, the Paralympics mascot was first shown to the public in a big ceremony, which I meant to watch on TV, but missed as I was stuck in traffic. The Paralympics are going to take place from September 6 to September 17, 2008. The mascot (a cow in the colours pink, white, green, and yellow) is now also for sale in the stores. It always looks a bit lonely to me sitting packed inside a box all by itself seperated from the other five mascots, but I’m sure there’ll be lots of people to take it home with them and free it from its plastic cage.

First thing on Thursday, I went to see the “Bird’s Nest” the National Stadium right next to the North Fourth Ring Road, which is still under construction. The Bird’s Nest will be the main track and field stadium for the 2008 Beijing Olympics. It’s a building made of overlapping steel bands and does look quite a bit like a bird’s nest or something comparable. After seeing a picture of it on the official website of the 2008 Olympics, I thought it looked really strange, but I have to say I liked it when I went to see it.

I could see parts of it from the bus, but where I got off, it was hidden behind trees and billboards. I walked around the construction site for a while, trying to get a better view, or rather any view at all. Soon, more and more construction workers with blue overalls and yellow helmets came my way, and after while I did find one of the entrances. I did not seriously expect to be able to get on the construction site, but as people were walking in and out, I thought I would give it a try, just to get a better view. I was immediately stopped and sent back by a guard though as soon as I got anywhere near the entrance. So I just took a picture and then walked back down the road.

Next, I went to the International Olympic Sports Center, formerly the Asian Games village. Here, it was possible to get inside the Center, but not any closer to the gymnasium or the other venues. I walked around the construction site, lined with small two-story buildings where the construction workers live, and then decided to have lunch at the Olympic Center Restaurant, which is more like a cafeteria, except smaller. But there was some problem with the kitchen, and they could only serve cold snacks, so I left. I was the only foreigner around, and probably the only foreigner who had come in a while, as the Olympic Center is quite a way from the center of the city, so I was stared at a lot more intensely than usual and decided to leave.

In the afternoon, I went to see a couple of art exhibitions in Chaoyang disctrict, which I will write more about later.