My Beijing Diary - Post two

Wed, 13 Aug 2008 09:25:47 -0700

The 29th Summer Games have been underway for a few days now, and so much has happened.

I am excited to be here in China. Beijing is a great host city; people are going out of their way to make us feel welcome and ready to assist fans from around the world.

On Friday August 8th, or 080808 as it will now be recorded in history, China inspired the world with an incredible display of artistic choreography, traditional culture and brilliant pyrotechnic displays.

China blew our minds with this human powered show, an event that will be forever archived as one of the best Olympic opening shows!

After spending a brilliant night making friends with fans from around the world, we went exploring various venues. On our list of locations to scoot, we ventured to the 'Birds Nest' national stadium, the 'Water Cube' aquatic centre, the fencing hall and the Yukeson basketball stadium.

Day one here took a sad turn when we heard about the deadly stabbing of an American relative of a USA volleyball team coach, an event that has raised issues about some of the security measures at non-Olympic venues.

We also ran into the Chinese women's fencing team and their coach. Since I'm such a fencing fan, this was the highlight of my day.

That night we went to Beijing's one and only Drive-In-Theatre where an all night concert was hosted.

On our second day here, we attended the rowing qualification and cheered for Canada, China and other countries. Sadly a thunderstorm forced us to return to the comfort of our apartment in Fulicheng, a district south-east of Beijing. This allowed us to regroup before watching the USA-China basketball game.

Today we will be going to see our peers at the British Colombia Canada pavilion where they will showcase the upcoming 2010 winter Olympics in Vancouver.

scales, robert scales - beijing2008

My Beijing Diary - Post two