spectacular!
Wow! Zhang Yimou rocks! That was a spectacular opening ceremony! I loved it. I loved the amazing choreography, the attention to detail, the precision, the art, the engineering, the camera work. It was fascinating, incredible, mesmerising.
I do have to say, though, that after the brilliant photographs of the fireworks practice runs that have been published, the actual fireworks didn’t seem quite so brilliant, but that can’t be counted as a complaint. I loved the helicopter run with the fireworks exploding from Yongdingmen up Beijing’s north-south axis through Qianmen, the Square, Forbidden City, Gulou up to the Olympic Green. That was so cool.
Then the parade of the athletes started and things started to go a bit downhill. Can’t blame Zhang, though, there are certain Olympic rituals that have to be included. But as for the parade: What was Dashan doing in the Canadian team? 相声/crosstalk isn’t an Olympic sport. And it was a bit of a surprise to see countries like Andorra, Liechtenstein, San Marino and Monaco. And Somalia. Geez, how does Somalia manage to get a team together? How long has it been since they had a stable, functioning government? I’m not complaining, though, I’m impressed.
And I’m inclined to agree with Stuff’s Marc Hinton– the Kiwis looked smart. Great uniforms.
And somebody needs to teach ol’ Vlad Putin to smile. He should perhaps go talk to W. about that- at least the Bushes managed to look enthusiastic.
And after all that and the Olympic rituals (am I the only one totally creeped out by the neo-pagan quasi-religious aspect of the Olympics?) was the torch and the lighting of the flame. Now, it was cool to see Li Ning fly up into the air and run along the rim of the Bird’s Nest, but still, after that awesome ceremony it was all a bit anti-climactic. I dunno, lzh and I were decidedly underwhelmed.
Anyway, congratulations to Zhang Yimou and his utterly incredible team. That was a brilliant ceremony.
counting down
Two hours to go. My wife is telling me to get off line. We’ve stocked up on snacks and drinks for the Big Occasion. lzh has been channel surfing, and CCTV 5/Olympic already has live coverage of the build up, including footage shot from (I’m guessing here) a helicopter (or at least from something airborne) circling the Olympic Green. And lzh’s specialty chicken curry is planned for dinner- excellent- and she’s starting to cook now. I suppose I should obey orders and shut the computer down. Seems the big headlines in all the Beijing papers are dripping with anticipation of the opening ceremony and that there’s going to be more fireworks than the Gulf War- but good ones this time, like all your Spring Festivals have come at once. Now I’m getting really curious about what Lao Zhang has got planned for us.
subway won’t sleep tonight
Posted by wangbo in beijing public transport on August 8, 2008
新京报/The Beijing News’ Li Liqiang reports that the subway won’t go to sleep tonight, there will be special opening ceremony buses, and many bus routes will run until the wee small hours all to make getting to and from the Opening Ceremony more convenient. Y’know, I think it’s long since time Beijing had subway trains and buses running through the night anyway, especially now that Line 10 stops at Tuanjiehu, a short, short walk from the bars of Sanlitun and the Workers’ Stadium. Anyway:
地铁全线今夜“不眠”
Whole subway “won’t sleep” tonight
●前往“鸟巢”有三种乘车方式 ●100条常规公交线延时运营
●Three ways to get to the “Bird’s Nest” ●100 regular bus routes to extend hours of operation
今晚8点，开幕式将在国家体育场拉开帷幕，今日将开通28条奥运会开幕式公交专线，另有100条常规公交线在8月9日凌晨1点前摆车接驳，地铁8月8日首车起至8月9日末班车全路网将不间断运营（含机场线），方便观众抵离。
At 8 this evening the curtains will lift on the opening ceremony at the national stadium, and today 28 special Olympic opening ceremony bus lines will run. In addition, 100 regular bus lines will run until 1am on the 9 August and the entire subway network will run without interruption from the first scheduled train of August 8 until the last scheduled train of August 9 (including the airport line), for the convenience of spectators going to and leaving the ceremony.
前往“鸟巢”观看开幕式盛况的观众，可根据个人情况，选择乘坐奥运专线、地铁、常规公交线路。凭当日开幕式门票免费乘坐市区内公共电汽车和地铁（不含郊区县境内客运、地铁机场线）。
Spectators headed for the”Bird’s Nest” to watch the grand occasion of the opening ceremony can choose to take one of the Olympic special routes, a regular bus route, or the subway according to their personal circumstances. Holders of tickets for today’s opening ceremony can ride for free on buses, trolley buses and the subway (excluding passenger transport within suburban districts and counties and the subway’s airport line).
More detailed descriptions of the three ways to get to the opening ceremony follow, but I’m too lazy to translate them, sorry. Anyway, I’m not sure of this line “100条常规公交线在8月9日凌晨1点前摆车接驳” so if you can translate it better than I did, please comment.
Anyway, this is all a great idea and I hope those attending the ceremony leave their cars at home and take public transport.
today
Posted by wangbo in life in Beijing, random on August 8, 2008
So today’s the day.
Unfortunately the rain has not materialised and the city is still smothered in Beijing Summer Grey.
Watching Olympic football matches it seems Shenyang and Tianjin aren’t any better off air quality-wise, either. I noticed quite a haze for the China-Sweden women’s match in Tianjin, and Shenyang wasn’t much better for last night’s men’s matches between Brazil and Belgium and China and New Zealand.
The Brazil-Belgium game reminded me why I hate professional football so much. It was scrappy and cynical with almost as much time and energy spent diving, writhing and milking penalties as actually playing the game. And Brazil was unimpressive for such a strong footballing nation. The Beautiful Game it was not. China-NZ was fun, and the nail-biting finish had lzh making sure I calmed down once the final whistle blew. I found the reffing to be, well, interesting, but never mind. NZ- the Oly Whites it seems they’re being called- did us proud. I think they were out-played by China overall, but their defence was pretty good and China’s attack unconvincing. China, even though they dominated play and were much more aggressive, only managed a handful of attacks that actually looked threatening. Brockie’s goal for the Kiwis was brilliant, and fired up China. NZ held them off right up until the end, when China equalised. Still, a one-all draw is a pretty decent result. Brazil’s next up, followed by Belgium. It would be unrealistic, to say the least, to expect or even hope for a Kiwi win, but they showed what they can do and so long as they give it their best and put up a decent challenge, it’s all good.
The Kiwi women’s footballers are also doing alright, it seems, with a two-all draw with Japan. I don’t know who they’re up against next, but I hope I can watch a game of theirs, too.
Well, a decision: Men’s road cycling is on tomorrow, starting at Yongdingmen at 11am and heading up through Tianqiao before zig-zagging through the central city then out to a big Jundushan loop between Juyongguan and Badaling. Now that would be awesome to watch. Consulting the schedule, it seems no tickets are required. Just pick a spot by the side of the road and stay behind the barriers. I could easily get over to the Yondingmen/Tianqiao/northgate of Tiantan/Taijichang/Qianmen early section of the course, and the rest of the downtown stretch wouldn’t be difficult to reach, but unless I make the trek out to the Jundushan loop, all I’ll get to see is the cyclists whizz past. That’s it. It’d be over in a couple of minutes, max. And if I was to park myself on the side of the road somewhere up in the mountains, I’d be spending hours an end twiddling my thumbs waiting for the cyclists to whizz past again. Hardly seems worth it, even if NZ has a decent shot. Let’s face it, unless you’re one of the cyclists, this is the kind of sport best viewed on TV, and CCTV 2 has live coverage tomorrow afternoon from 1605 to 1750 (here’s their schedule- covering all CCTV channels, for those who read Chinese). Well, I suppose I could ride over towards Tianqiao or the north gate of the Temple of Heaven by 11 tomorrow morning, watch the cyclists whizz past, then get back home in time to deprive lzh of all TV rights from 1605 to 1750….. Decisions.
What else is on tomorrow? China vs Spain in women’s basketball at 1425 on CCTV 5/Olympic and China vs Venezuela in women’s volleyball on CCTV 1 at 1936. Oh, and I missed that- women’s single sculls is somehow mixed in with fencing beginning 1320 on CCTV 1, and the schedule confirms the heats begin at 1350.
Well, I haven’t really being enjoying all the malarkey associated with the Olympics, but with a bit of luck, the Olympic and CCTV schedules- and Stuff’s guide to when Kiwis are competing– and CCTV’s coverage permitting (and it never feels good to rely on CCTV for Olympic- or any sporting- coverage), and, naturally, lzh’s agreement when she’s at home, I think I should get to watch some pretty interesting sports over the next few weeks.
And apparently I’m a model worker. That’s pretty cool, especially in light of that comment by YZ. Thanks Danwei. But I recommend checking out all the other blogs listed there, they’re all much more worth your reading time than this. I also highly recommend checking out the Chinese-language model workers (if you read Chinese, of course). There are some excellent blogs on that list, and I’ve found a couple more I didn’t know about that I’m looking forward to reading. I think Chinese voices really do need more airtime in the outside world, and its great to see Danwei giving them equal weight- and for that reason I was very happy to see Fool’s Mountain on the list. Those guys do stellar work, and they get my vote for best newcomer.
Now, six hours to go….
立秋
Posted by wangbo in life in Beijing, random, ranting on August 7, 2008
Today is the start of autumn according to the traditional Chinese calendar. lzh informs me that if it rains today, it’ll rain all autumn, and that won’t be good for those harvesting grains. Pity, because we really need rain. The air has closed in again. Yesterday was Beijing air at its depressing, grey average. Today is Beijing summer air at its suffocating, close, humid, murky and filthy worst. Not good.
And I notice CCTV 5/Olympic is back to its old tricks. In the Athens Olympics I was sent into paroxysms of rage because the idiots who run that channel interrupted a really exciting women’s volleyball game to show shooting. That’s right, shooting. And not just because China stood a chance of winning the shooting, either, because China was also playing in that women’s volleyball game. I can only conclude that decision was made out of sheer stupidity and terminal incompetence. Anyway, this morning I wanted to see the torch as it passed Badaling, so I got on the CCTV website and checked their schedule. 8 am it said the live broadcast of the torch relay would begin. 8 am came and went and they still had the usual idiots (why are sports commentators so inane?) blethering on about nothing of any interest. 8:3o they announced they’d go live to the relay, but keep blethering on. Then there’s ads. Then probably about quarter to nine we finally get to the relay, but by this time it is well underway and they’re focussing on the torch bearers, their very short runs, and their silly antics at each handover. Dammit, I wanted to see what they’d done with Badaling! I wanted to see the whole scene, the mountains and the wall and they spectacle of the relay’s starting point! No, all because the idiots can’t keep to their own scedule or make intelligent decisions about what makes for good TV and good coverage.
Well, the games have already started. We watched the China vs Sweden women’s football match in Tianjin last night. China won, which was good, but most of the match left me thinking the Chinese women have been watching too much Chinese men’s football, who in turn spend far too much time watching Italian football. So:
Dear China,
Italy does not have football. Italy has bad soap opera actors putting on football uniforms, prancing around the pitch like a bunch of prissy prima donnas, diving on the ground and writhing in fake agony whenever an opposition player comes within a metre of them in a pathetic, childish attempt to milk a penalty and perhaps win the Oscar for most over-acted fake injury. Please stop watching Italian football. Try Scandinavia instead, they actually play football there.
Yeah, I couldn’t help but notice the Chinese women were quicker to go down on the ground, wave their hands around and try milking the penalty. The Swedes didn’t. The Swedes got off to a slow start (indeed, for the first few minutes I thought I was going to see every stereotype of Swedes I had drummed into me when I was in Norway confirmed), but after China’s first goal they came out firing and played a tight, aggressive game and kept it together for the whole match. And they did not try milking the penalty or hollywooding or any of that nonsense.
Still, China won and their two goals were thoroughly deserved, two pieces of very good play. Oh yeah:
Dear Sweden,
Get a goalkeeper.
Anyway, tonight at 7:30 is New Zealand vs China in men’s football. That should be good for a laugh.
the Yanqing train is open!
Posted by wangbo in beijing public transport on August 6, 2008
Excellent news: The new S2 train from Xizhimen/Beijing North Station to Yanqing is now open. The first train was scheduled for 11:08 this morning. 新京报/The Beijing News’ Zuo Lin reports:
首条城市铁路S2线票价19元
First suburban rail line S2 tickets 19 yuan
乘动车组从北京北站抵延庆需80分钟
It will take 80 minutes to ride the train set with power car from Beijing North to Yanqing
Yes, alright, ‘suburban rail’ is not necessarily the best translation, but ‘commuter train‘ isn’t necessarily any better considering the price and the fact it’s only faster than the bus if the bus gets stuck in traffic on the Badaling Expressway. The bus costs 12 yuan or something like 9.4 yuan if you use the Yikatong swipe card. And that headline is a little deceiving….
S2线票价确定：二等座全程票价19元，一等票23元。这条北京北站到延庆的铁路是国内首条城市铁路，今天中午11点08分，首辆运载普通乘客的S2线列车将从北京北站发车。
S2 line ticket prices have been decided: Second class tickets for the whole distance are 19 yuan, first class tickets are 23 yuan. This line from Beijing North Station to Yanqing is the first suburban rail line in China, and at 11:08 this morning, the first S2 train carrying ordinary passengers left Beijing North.
初期执行折扣票价
Discount tickets in the initial period
铁路部门昨日消息，S2线动车组票价确定，一等坐席全程票价25元，初期采用折扣票价23元；二等坐席票价21元，初期采用折扣票价19元。北 京北至八达岭一等车初期票价为17元，二等车为14元。至于何时开始采用正式票价，铁路部门未做透露。由于有简短的开通仪式，今天，S2线首辆载普通乘客 的列车将在上午11点08分开出。
The railways department yesterday reported that the ticket prices for the S2 line trains had been decided. First class seats for the whole journey are 25 yuan, but are discounted to 23 yuan over the initial period; second class seats are 21 yuan discounted to 19 yuan over the initial period. First class tickets from Beijing North to Badaling over the initial period are 17 yuan, and second class tickets 14 yuan. The railways department did not reveal when the ticket prices would be put up to the regular level. Because their would be a brief opening ceremony today, the first S2 train carrying ordinary passengers would depart at 11:08 am.
S2线全长82公里，是国内首条城市铁路，今天开通时，列车将挂“Y”字头旅客专列车号，全天开行8对，计划以后每天增开2对，至10日达到全 天开行16对。列车最小发车间隔34分钟，最大间隔1小时33分钟。全程运行时间在80分钟左右，而原先的绿皮车行程耗时2小时38分钟，几乎是现在的一 倍。
S2 Line is 82 kilometres in length, and is the first suburban rail line in China. When it opens today, the train will hang a “Y”as a special tourist train. There will be 8 trains over the whole day, and it is planned to later add two more trains per day until the 10th when there will be 16 trains per day. The shortest gap between trains is 34 minutes, and the longest is 1 hour 33 minutes. It will take 80 minutes to run the whole route, while the original green trains took 2 hours 38 minutes, almost twice as long as the modern trains.
代售点前晚开始售票
Ticket agencies started selling tickets night before last
昨日上午8时，北京北站内开始发售S2线车票，截至下午4时，今天首趟列车的车票已全部售罄。据悉，北京各火车票代售点从前晚就已“悄悄”开始卖票了。张辉当晚在左家庄一处车票代售点，幸运地买到了首趟火车的001号车票。
At 8 yesterday morning tickets for the S2 line went on sale inside Beijing North Station, and tickets for today’s first train had all sold out by 4 pm. It is reported that all train ticket agencies in Beijing quietly started selling tickets the evening before last. Zhang Hui had the good fortune to buy ticket number 001 for the first train from a train ticket agency in Zuojiazhuang that evening.
昨日，同时开始售票的还有北京南站，据昨日前去南站的刘先生表示，南站售出的S2线车票不同于普通售票点打出的粉色普通纸票，而是磁卡火车票，外形与京津城际列车的磁卡票类似。
Yesterday Beijing South Station started selling tickets at the same time. According to Mr Liu who went to the South Station yesterday, the S2 tickets sold at the South Station are not the same as the regular pink paper tickets sold at normal agencies, but are magnetic tickets which resemble the Beijing-Tianjin Intercity train’s magnetic tickets.
S2线
S2 Line
以北京北站为起点，中途停靠清华园、清河、沙河、昌平、八达岭，终点为延庆站。
With Beijing North Station as its starting point, it stops at Qinghuayuan, Qinghe, Shahe, Changping, and Badaling, reaching its terminus at Yanqing Station.
首班车6：08从北京北站出发，7：07到达八达岭，7：27抵达终点站延庆；末班车21：27从北京北站出发，中途不停站，22：41直达延庆。
First train leaves Beijing North Station at 6:08, reaches Badaling at 7:07, arrives at Yanqing at 7:27; last train leaves Beijing North Station at 21:27, does not stop en route, goes directly to Yanqing arriving at 22:41.
Now that’s all well and good, and I like the relatively late last train heading Yanqingwards (I’m having no luck finding a timetable, so I have no idea how late the last train from Yanqing is, but that may, perhaps, bring one more advantage over the bus), but that’s still twice as expensive as the bus. Is it worth it? Well, I’d like to try it once just to see, and if we could know in advance the state of the traffic on the Badaling Expressway, it might prove a good way of dodging the traffic jams, but otherwise…. it’s twice as expensive as the bus!
one for the mystery books
Posted by wangbo in tilting at windmills on August 6, 2008
How could a caucasian woman die in southern Wairarapa at a time when there were no European inhabitants in the area?
hybrid taxis
Posted by wangbo in beijing public transport on August 6, 2008
I’m not the only one! Finally, thanks to Beijing Air, independent confirmation of the mystery Chery hybrid taxis. And a Chery hybrid page, too. Apparently there are 50 Chery hybrid taxis on the streets of Beijing. Excellent.
three
Posted by wangbo in life in Beijing on August 5, 2008
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….
four days….
Posted by wangbo in Environment, life in Beijing on August 4, 2008
Four days to go and we’re back to thick, humid, turgid crap for air. I really hope it rains before Friday. And with southerly winds, you know we’re getting all the airborne crud from Baoding. Winds? Not quite. Pathetic attempts at breaths of wind today, coming from the south. And yesterday evening on a quick run to our neighbourhood Jingkelong, it seemed like a souwester, and strong enough for me to actually consider it a breeze. Southwester, what’s southwest of Beijing? Shijiazhuang, and further afield Taiyuan and Linfen. So you know this air ain’t good. I’ve got the fan turned on max to try and stop me from melting, I’ll probably turn the aircon on for a couple of hours before lzh comes home to dry the place out and take the temperature down to something reasonable. Well, the aircon can’t quite decide whether it’s 30 or 31 inside, so the temperature’s not too high, but with this humidity it’s far from comfortable if you stray outside of that small area the fan keeps bearable.
lzh tells me The Torch passes through Chaoyang on the 6th and Yanqing on the 7th. I think it’s only fitting that Beijing’s best county gets the torch on the last day before the games. Well, I can’t go see it in Yanqing, but perhaps I might go see the 热闹 on the 6th. Perhaps.
But what to do on Friday? A trip up to the Olympic Green is out of the question. Probably just watch the opening ceremony on TV. I’m actually really curious to see what Zhang Yimou has prepared for us. lzh suggested it may well be a composite of his latest few films. I wouldn’t be surprised if it was. If so, it would be a visually luxurious feast with a complex mess passed off as plot and ideologically worrisome undertones. It’ll spark discussion, in other words, and that is not a bad thing. And if he’s got something completely different up his sleeves? Well, so much the better, and so much more discussion will be sparked.
I remember back in July 2001, my last night in Taiyuan if I remember rightly, but at the very least I was about to leave, I decided to check out the choosing of the 2008 Olympics host city on TV. When the name “Beijing” was read out, as everybody already knows, the place simply exploded. Honestly, I’m sure people had either moved their TVs outside or set some kind of remote control so that they could let off their fireworks as soon as Beijing was awarded the games, because the firworks were instantaneous. I remember thinking that it was pretty cool that Beijing got the games, but dreading the seven years of ever increasing noise and hassle. I remember deciding I would not be in Beijing for the Olympics. Well, the next day or very soon after I moved to Beijing, and apart from six months in New Zealand and one year working in Tianjin, I’ve been here ever since. Still here now, and the Olympics are about to start. Dread of all the noise and hassle has given way to fatalistic resignation, and now I’m almost even looking forward to it.
I just hope we get a decent rainfall by Friday, and good, dry northerly, too.