National indoor stadium - site of gymnastics
The fam.

A bar on Santilun Street

Imperial Garden at Forbidden City. "Forbidden" because the common folk were never allowed to see it.

Us and one of the palaces within the Forbidden City

Tien 'na men square, with Mao Zedong's portrait.

Waifujung Street, shopping district in Beijing. Us in ponchos.

Just a prop, she's too young.

The Today show is currently filmed in Beijing - this is the sign outside their set. Hi Karen!

The water cube. Smoggy day.

The bird's nest. You can barely see the torch flame in this pic.

I think balance beam is one of the hardest.

Hey everyone!

Ahhh...finally a moment to recap whats been going on here. We've been having a great time and pretty busy over the last 2 days. Since we live outside of Beijing, it actualy is a bit of a trip getting into and out of the city - it involves a 30-45 min bus ride, then subway or cabs in the city, that we end up staying in the city all day.

You've also probably heard about the stabbings of the 2 Americans here. From our perspective, that seemed to have been an isolated incident with no signs of terrorism. We don't know what the heck caused the guy to do such a thing, but it does not seem to have deterred many people from going out, enjoying the Olympics or the city. In fact, the amount of security and people involved in oversight is incredible. There are police in every major area, standing at attention or marching in formation. There are also volunteers lining almost all the streets, as well as monitoring activity in stores. There are also volunteer security, who help enforce rules and manners, such as making sure people wait in line at bus stops (waiting in line was not part of etiquette previous to the Olympics).

Well yesterday we started off going to gymnastics in the morning. It was pretty freakin cool watching the best gymnasts in the world. We saw the women's prelim team competition, which included China's team, and of course all the fans were going nuts. Those little girls are totally jacked!

The Olympic Green, the area where the main stadiums are, is actually not green at all but a vast concrete area. The buildings are amazing, especially the water cube and the bird's nest, but the rest of the Olympic park is surprisingly bare - I expected almost a "fairgrounds" and festive atmosphere, but it was more like a concrete jungle. There were fountains, like there are in Atlanta, but that was it. Nothing else to see, really, no real exhibits. Nevertheless, all the action happens inside the stadiums. We can't wait to see our other events, indoor and beach volleyball. We may still try to scalp some other tix.

After the olympics, we spent the afternoon roaming around the shopping district, Waifujang (sp?) street, where it proceeded to rain on us. It didn't stop us...we had ponchos that were given out during the Olympics earlier in the day. The shopping district was loaded with tons of stores, many of them international brands. Jenny got sprayed with nasty street water by a bus. Nearby, there were alleys with lots of open air food vendors, which had mixed reviews. Amy had some sort of crepe wrap with vegetables, where she found a long black hair in it! Then some nasty corn on the cob. Then some yummy seafood/veggie balls. Amy had her picture taken by a random tourist on the street. Don't know what that was about. Oh, and in a communist country they can do what they damn well please. We wanted to check out a restaurant in the Beijing hotel, a pretty nice hotel in the upscale shopping district. For some reason, there were police at the crosswalks leading to it. We ask the police how to get there, and at first they direct us across the street. Then we say we want to have dinner there, and they look us up and down and say, "Oh no, you can't go in there." So we eat a late dinner in a...Chinese restaurant...somewhere else, and call it a night.

Today we went to Tien na' men Square and the Forbidden City, which was amazing. Tienamen square is where Mao Zedong proclaimed the People's Republic of China (ie Communist China) in 1949. His portrait there today still looks flawless. It was crowded as hell. We got inside, into the Forbidden City, the palace where pretty much all the emperors of China during its imperial period lived (something like years BC until 1911). Huge, and amazing. My favorite part was the imperial garden, which was like a fairyland of artistic vegetation. At one point they locked up the doors and made us stay in a certain section for about 20 minutes...someone "important" was walking through, and a ton of police kept us away from them. There were some whispers it was Bush and Co....always getting in our way!

After we left, we headed to Santilun street, the bar district of Beijing to check it out and have dinner. Lots of neon lights and bars catering to international people/expats. Looks like a pretty fun atmosphere. There was no drinking and debauchery tonight, just dinner at a friendly Thai restaurant, and then home...so we can rest up for a day trip to the Great Wall tomorrow!