We decide to visit the Forbidden City. We take a subway to the closest stop, only to be told we aren’t allowed to walk west, the direction we need to go. A policeman sent us around the block, which turned out to be a huge block. Twenty-five minutes later, we’re back up to the street we were on, one block west of where we were, only to be told by a different policeman that the Forbidden City is closed today, try again tomorrow. Agh!! We have walked a long time in this heat and humidity just to be shut down - again.
We need to go to a bank, so we head to the Wangfujing District, a shopping area. We see an Olympics volunteer in the subway and ask for directions to the bank. Just like yesterday's volunteer, she cheerfully gets out of line (she was headed the opposite direction) and walks us to where we need to go.
The bank is in a beautiful mall. This Nike display was extremely well done, showing every China uniform for every sport in the Olympics:
We grab an eel and duck combo lunch at the Kung Fu restaurant (featuring the likeness of Bruce Lee in their logo), then enjoy the finest gelato I’ve ever had at Romana Ice Cream Factory, then hit Wangfujing street. Now, this is what I’m talking about! This is the community feeling about the Olympics that I was looking for yesterday. This whole street has great energy. You can see it in the pictures below.
After a couple of hours of this, we changedclothes and head for the Goose and Duck to watch the opening ceremonies. We take the subway part of the way there, meeting a nice girl from the University of Southern California, now studying in Shanghai, her friend from Canada, and a guy they had met from New Zealand. Again, good community stuff! This is the end of the subway line, so we jump out and look for a taxi to take us the rest of the way.
This picture below tells you about what this night means to people in China. These people are outdoors, gathered under a highway overpass, crowded around a single television. Everyone, everywhere here is either watching this on television or listening to it on the radio.
The cab driver got as close as he could to the Goose and Duck with the info we had. We got out and did what we do a lot here – started walking. A half hour later and several people asked along the way, we arrive at the Goose and Duck.
It is completely packed, loud, and hot. The Goose and Duck was founded by a British ex-pat, and this crowd was mostly all Anglo Europeans. Being packed, it definitely gives the room energy. We are also close enough to where the opening ceremonies are taking place that we can hear the fireworks as they are being fired at the Bird's Nest. As the different countries walk into the stadium on the televisions, cheers go up in different parts of the room for those people’s home country or even just countries they are fond of. It's a lot of fun. I have some good fish and chips, Aaron some wings, and both us down a couple of cokes and water bottles each to try to keep cool.
Once the ceremonies were over, we walk out to the street to try to find a cab. We wave our arms, trying everything we can for twenty minutes to get a cab. Nothing. It’s now 12:25 a.m. and starting to lightning. We have no choice but to do our usual – start walking.
The bad news here is that if we have to walk all the way back to our hostel, it will take at least four hours. That’s how far away we are.
We walk and hail, walk and hail, still no empty cabs pass and stop. It is now after 1:30 a.m. We have been walking for over an hour and aren’t even a quarter of the way back yet. We come across a McDonald’s and are at least able to get something to drink. It is still very hot and humid at this hour. After hitting the street again, five minutes back into walking, a cab stops. Yeay!!! We are so happy.
Finally, after 2:00 a.m., we arrive back at our hostel. We still have some unfinished business. We bought Judo tickets on eBay before we left, but are to pick them up in Beijing from the seller. We were supposed to meet after the opening ceremonies. I email him to update him on our situation. Faithfully, he shows up at our hotel at this hour and delivers the tickets. We feel so much better having these in hand.
What a day. What a night. We’re completely exhausted.
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