Oh Suitcase!

Why always packing and unpacking.

Paralympics!

I was not in attendance at the closing ceremonies, though I did catch some bits and pieces of the broadcast, as displayed on this massive contraption across the street from the Hua Ting apartment complex. I think it's a hotel, and it's supposed to resemble the Olympic torch. There's a line of little brothers behind the big one, sans TV screens, marching along for half a kilometer next to the Olympic Park. They remind me of Starman and Starman Junior from Earthbound. Come on, someone knows what I'm talking about! No one? Whatever. It's probably just the psychadelic background.

THE QUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUEBBBEEE.

It was a photographic orgy in the square outside of the Bird's Nest (or Bird House, as the Bejingiese call it). Mostly couples snapping shots of each other, though there were plenty of photographers photographing the photographers, not to mention photographers photographing photographers photographing photographers. Yeah baby, that was me.

This one was cute. She was running in big arcs around the square, pretending to be oblivious to the long string of kites and photographers chasing after her.

One day, I would like to meet the fancy-lad bird that's supposed lives in this place.

The stands were chock-full on this, the last night of competition before the closing ceremonies. Cheers!

Though I arrived more than two hours early, I was wandering around the stadium when seats started filling up and ended up in the rafters. My spot was right on the finish line, which wasn't bad. When things started thinning out towards the end of the night, I didn't hesitate to sneak down and catch the wheelchair races from up close.



Though legal methods of procuring Paralympics tickets were both scarce and convoluted, the legions of scalpers outside the stadium were more than willing to lend a hand. Even with the mark-up to 140 RMB (bargained down from 200^^), an all-day ticket only ran me about $23; not too shabby.

Despite being in Beijing at the opportune moment, I was admittedly not feeling the Olympic bug. Lack of available information re: tickets, venues, events had dampened my enthusiasm. Once the end was approaching, however, I started feeling like a bit of a louse for missing the opportunity, hopped on my bike and headed over to the park to see what I could see. With the help of a handy scalper, I procured a shady ticket and hopped on line. I was nervous that I'd been grifted, but at 140RMB there wasn't potential for any catastrophic damage. I was pleased when the ticket turned out to be totally legit, though not so pleased that the only way to get to the games was through a scalper.

If I hadn't gone, I would have been dumb. It was a poignant experience. Seeing athletes at the top of their game locked for a single moment in the competition of their life, you know, like, wow. It sticks with you. I felt like, even though I couldn't totally follow what was going on, I had participated in someone's momentous, personal struggle.

Compounding my generalized ignorance of sport, the balkanization of paralympic events into many sub-events, based on disability, made things somewhat confusing. Luckily, it was a night of straight gold medal matches, which kept it all simple enough to cheer to. I couldn't tell who was competing against whom in the various discuss/shot put events, but I did get a kick out of the very large eastern European ladies lobbing heavy objects across the green.

My only regret is that I didn't see any Paralympic rugby, which I regard as way hardcore based on an interview with the director of the documentary, Murderball. I also regret that I haven't seen this movie. Anyway, I could have attended the gold medal match between the US and Australia; I further regret that I did not know where it was. I wandered into the indoor stadium on my way out of the park, just in time to catch the medal ceremony. Blast!!

At the Summer Palace

I met a pretty awesome old lady, and she told me about Beijing. Here's to you, old lady!

Guess who had delicious Indian food for dinner?

This mysterious person also paid another visit to the Bell Tower/Drum Tower and the delicious all night cafes to be found in the area. Well, I don't know about all night, but pretty late at least.



No seriously, one guess.

On the subject of turtles ..

.. a little gem from the Opus archives. Yes, I know that this is completely off topic. Incidentally, what's up with the current Opus story arc: creators, neck braces, ending the world, Opus coming to grips with FINALITY .. ? Is Breathed ending the strip (again) or switching the characters over to a new universe (again), dying of terminal neck-soreness (not possible) or just trying to give Opus anxiety attacks (unnecessary)? Well, sugar beak, what's shakin'?

Turtles, of course, make an excellent foundation for any belief system.

Dajue Si

Of course, Dajue Si is really all about the turtles.

Chinese stone eaves are amazing. They're so Greek-temple-wooden-architecture-made-from-stone. You can let grass grow in them with no ill effects and they have fantastic plasticity.





Turtles! There were awesome turtle ponds.


Mr. Chang is a friend of the Satterwhites. He drove me to Dajue-si. This is his taxi. I forgot to get a photograph of the man himself (--_< )!

Dajue Si is a temple located approx. 50km to the n/w of Beijing. It is very pretty, and very old. About 1000 years old, Ming Dynasty, Qing dynasty, even one dynasty that I'd never heard of but which, it turns out, made its seat at Dajue Si after being overthrown; this temple has seen them all. One of the famous water temples of ancient Beijing. Among other things, I came to Beijing to visit this temple. Also, I bought some plums from a fruit vendor outside of the main gate. Those plums were delicious.

Electric Lights Beijing

Some would call it foolish, riding one handed in six lanes of traffic along the fourth ring road snapping photos forward, behind, etc. This is lily-livered sissy-talk for sissys.

The Forbidden City

Back when it was still forbidden, this was about the extent of the palace tour. Take what you can get!

This wall must be so depressed; what's it have to do, now that the whole 'forbidding' thing is of out of the water? It's still rather menacing. I guess that's something.

Haha, moat, I scorn you, for I have breached the palace defenses with my 60RMB!

Favorite photo of the day

Hello. Today, I explored the Forbidden City.

Tianjin

Arriving in Tianjin was terrifying. After the usual nerve-wracking experience of getting through immigration control, I stepped out of the quiet (empty) arrival terminal and into .. a throng of shouting Chinese people? Probably a third of them were cab drivers. As for the rest, I don't know what it was all about, but there were a lot of them. It made the gaijin hella nervous, all a group of shady looking character standing in a circle giving the stink-eye while a lady yelled at you to get into her taxi. After some minor commiseration to the tune of, 'No I do not think that we will ever find that bus that the doctor told us about,' the Orlando crew and I grabbed a cab and made haste for the train station. This was an experience in itself: the Chinese have a creative approach to traffic lanes.