Olympic Village, Shopping and Random Thoughts

This morning the group didn't leave the hotel until 10, so Susan and I decided to take a walk. We crossed the 3rd Ring Road (14 lanes of traffic - fortunately there are pedestrian overpasses) and walked a few blocks north to a small park along a river. Men were fishing and one was taking a dip, and several women were doing a kind of exercise I've never seen before - walking backwards along the path and making tai chi-like motions with their hands.

Our main activity this morning was a visit to the Olympic Village, where we got a chance to go inside the Bird's Nest (the main Olympic stadium, where the opening ceremonies and track events were held) and the Water Cube (site of Michael Phelps's amazing victories). Both are just as impressive close up as they looked on TV last year. I promise to post pictures as soon as I can.

This afternoon was shopping in Silk Street, which is no longer a street but a five story building full of vendors selling just about everything. Dinner was at a great Szechuan-style restaurant at the Pacific Department Store. (Yes, somewhere in the world, there still is a good department store restaurant.)

Now some random thoughts...

The girls have formed a group and taken over the back of the bus, where they are making paper cranes as a gift for earthquake survivors in Szechuan. Most of them also sit at their own tables at meals - usually with one or two adults, but clearly they prefer each others' company. I think it's cool that they have made friends so quickly.

Beijing has changed radically since we were here nine years ago. New skyscrapers are everywhere in the central city, and many former hutong residents have moved to outlying areas as a result. The architecture is also much more varied than the glass boxes that dominate new Manhattan construction today.

Traffic in Beijing is a tremendous problem. When we were here in 1994, bicycles vastly outnumbered cars on the roads. In 2000, there were still a lot of bicycles, but mopeds and motor scooters were really catching on. Now the roads are clogged with cars, especially at rush hour. The government is trying to encourage mass transit use by keeping 20% of cars off the roads each day. Traffic jams may be no more hellish than in New York, but the number of cars seems to be orders of magnitude greater.

More tomorrow.