Three days to go. Fortunately the weather seems to have cleared up a little. There’s haze, but not as bad as yesterday, and actual blue visible in the sky. Read a report in 新京报 about The Torch’s parade through Beijing. Seems it’s Yanqing leg is only leaving Badaling to head southwards. From the edge back into civilization. Can’t have those nasty Shanrong stealing it away from Yan, now, can we? I can’t quite figure out how the torch crosses through Chaoyang or any of the downtown areas, although several places are mentioned, but I don’t think I’ll bother. If it’s anything like Tianjin, I won’t be able to see it anyway. TV’s probably going to be better.
If this post comes across as a bit grouchy, forgive me, I don’t mean to be. It’s just one of those afternoons when I feel tired and a little grouchy for no reason.
The NZSO is coming to town, and we got tickets! That ought to be cool. They’re playing two concerts, one in The Egg, one in the Forbidden City Concert Hall. Our tickets are for the Forbidden City concert on the 27 and should be delivered tomorrow. Actually, I’m surprised how cheap the tickets are. Well, there weren’t any of those 30 kuai tickets when we booked online this morning so, dammit, we had to go for the 80 kuai ones. Considering just how expensive so many events in Beijing are, I’m certainly not complaining.
So, three days to go….
hey, thanks for the link. I heard afterward that people on other parts of the route had an easier time getting closer to the torch, but I haven’t heard any success stories.
They’ve set up a huge outdoor screen in the same place where they concluded the torch race, so we’re gonna head down there Friday night to watch the Opening Ceremony, hopefully with a big crowd of Tianjiners. Tomorrow night (thurs) we’ll take in a soccer game – our token Olympic event. I would have picked something more exotic to see, but soccer is all Tianjin’s hosting.
Hi Joel. Yeah, us lucky Beijingers get all the exotic stuff. But we’re only half an hour away by train these days, so if you get bored of soccer, why not pop up for a visit?