Olympics year-after: Miscellaneous

In and around Olympic Green.

Olympics year-after: Olympic Forest Park (south side)

Olympic Forest Park is a nice concept, but the result leaves more to be desired.

For one, it's much too massive, especially when you consider the water is foul and the sights are commonplace, even downright boring. There's scant little to do inside -- you can rent a boat, but I can't imagine anyone wanting to -- and the coffee shop has long shuttered its doors. Perhaps this place would be nice for an evening stroll -- especially since speakers along the sidewalk constantly play violin and piano concertos and, I kid you not, the instrumental version of Can You Feel the Love Tonight -- but who would possibly go all the way to Fifth Ring Road just to walk around yet another Chinese park?

My final complaint is that there's no way of getting across the central lake to the south entrance exit if you're anywhere on the northwest part of the park. You have to walk around, and the walk is long and exhausting (the park is 680 hectares, after all) and can get really annoying. Did I mention the elevator music?

Again, it's not a bad park, and the designers certainly had their hearts in the right place. It's just a little -- dare I say? -- unnecessary.

Olympics year-after: Olympic Forest Park (part 1)

Olympics year-after: Mountain bike track

Olympics year-after: Laoshan Velodrome

Today's my birthday! And a reminder that The Beijinger's August issue has a feature I wrote about what's happened to Beijing's Olympics venues a year after. Check it out (the "features" pdf).

Olympics year-after: Wukesong Baseball Fields

Olympics year-after: Water Cube

Olympics year-after: Bird's Nest

The Beijinger's August issue has a feature I wrote about what's happened to Beijing's Olympics venues a year after. Check it out (the "features" pdf).

Olympics retrospective

Over the next few days this blog will relive some of the sights and sounds of Beijing one year prior, when the greatest show on Earth rolled into town and completely transformed this metropolis. You might remember if you were here: blue skies every day, students handing out "good ways to act" cards, face-painted foreigners everywhere and everyone so friendly and helpful. It must have been unimaginable for long-time residents who were used to loogies on sidewalks and street vendors at every corner. Some remained cynical through it all -- indeed, some had a right to be, they who were displaced and inconvenienced -- though the majority of folks, I think, embraced the experience as the kind of once-in-a-lifetime event that really does have lasting consequences, changing things for the better.

A personal note: As a native Beijinger (disclaimer: I grew up in Kansas), I'd eyed the Olympics ever since I was in high school as a can't-miss event. After graduating from college, I was more determined than ever to come to Beijing, even if that meant leaving a cushy freelance job at ESPN the Magazine. In April I did just that and eventually landed a weekly writing gig with The Mag's website -- archive of stories here.

It's pointless to recount how my life has changed since then -- or more accurately, because of the Olympics (just look at how many posts on this blog are labeled "Olympics" -- I've written more about this topic than any other). Let's launch into this retrospective, shall we?

100 days left!


Blue skies


Opening Ceremonies

See, the Chinese do have a sense of humor

From BBC:

China's prostitutes are better-trusted than its politicians and scientists, according to an online survey published by Insight China magazine.

The survey found that 7.9% of respondents considered sex workers to be trustworthy, placing them third behind farmers and religious workers.

"A list like this is at the same time surprising and embarrassing," said an editorial in the state-run China Daily.

Politicians were far down the list, closer to scientists and teachers.

Car on fire

From July 31: What are these people looking at?


Oh, just a car on fire.




I was on my bike riding down Second Ring Road when I smelled burning rubber somewhere between Dongzhimen and Dongsishitiao. I have to admit there was a brief though intense moment of trepidation as I whizzed by, wondering if the car would explode.

It didn't, I think much to everyone's disappointment.

Jam band performing at a bar tucked between Old and New Beijing

I'm always happy to discover good live music in Beijing, such as Pet Conspiracy and Hao Yunyu, but it's so much easier to "discover" bands when you have a friend in them.

Presenting... Lan Daotian (蓝稻田, Blue Rice Paddies) and drummer Kevin Reitz, who played Saturday night at Hot Cat Club, which is tucked away in a hutong between Beixingqiao and Lama Temple. The location is near Dongzhimen, one of Beijing's many symbols of its sprawling, concrete-based modernity. Hot Cat Club, alas, is a throwback, a place with portraits of Thom Yorke on its walls and squat toilets in the alley. (Only one of those things is good.)

Without further ado...





This is Kevin (as is this, but he probably hopes you don't click on that), and this was him last year playing at Nashville Bar during the Paralympics Opening Ceremony.

POSTSCRIPT: Never a bad time to give a shout-out to friends' bands, such as this bluegrass quartet now called The Redbucks.

Obama endorses Xian real estate

Okay, not really. It's just the latest example of what adept Chinese counterfeiters can whip up, and not the first nvolving the popular American president's image.

What happens when the heaviest rainstorms of the year sweep through

Sinkhole.

China Daily, HT to Alicia

Picture of the Day: Dongzhimen's Minan Xiaoqu

The courtyard in which I now live (and have for the last four months), taken July 7. Minan Xiaoqu (民安小区) means something like "safety of the citizens courtyard" or "courtyard of resident peace." The non-residential office building on the right is the headquarters of China Petrol.

Picture of the Day: frolicking in Sanlitun

The fountains at Sanlitun, taken from the Apple Store. Kids there are overly cute.

Ron Artest and Kobe Bryant at Vic's in Beijing

Read about it here. Word is the superstars were just passing through and didn't get mugged too badly for autographs.

UPDATE: YouTube video here.

Onion of the Day: Yu Wan Mei selling the Onion

There're some half- and near-truths in this excerpt. CEO Zuo Xiabing:

Disloyal Americans! You have aided these treasonous snakes in their plot against Yu Wan Mei. First you refuse to ingest our coagulated octopus paste at a fast enough rate, and now you hold a dagger to the throat of the printed word itself! Your obsession with personal liberty has been a burden on your nation's success for generations, and now you sit there like livestock as an entire industry falls to dust around you—the very industry upon which you construct your imaginary foundation of free speech!

Submission is deficient in this culture of indolence, where citizens would rather have the unmitigated thoughts of others poured into their heads by the Internet than read diligently the printed word, as decent people do.

Another edition of hilarity

It's hard to say the Onion's better since the takeover by Yu Wan Mei, as it's always been top-notch, but now it at least gives this blog an excuse to link to its articles.

This one, for instance: Yao Ming!

Yao Ming officially averages 84 points per basketball game and has a shooting percentage of .9999998, Chinese basketball officials said. Furthermore, Yao Ming is perfectly healthy and, in fact, cannot be injured. Yao Ming is also a universally acknowledged beacon of humility and respect, and on the exceedingly rare occasion when he does miss a shot, he no doubt does so on purpose, selflessly ensuring that his lesser American teammates feel better about their own lackluster shooting percentages.

This did not happen: President Hu Jintao's son linked to corruption

Good luck getting any search engines to return a search for "Hu Jintao son corruption." As far as I can tell, the article itself has been stripped from all non-censored websites, such as the Telegraph. That's why you'll get an extended excerpt this time, from Wall Street Journal:

Mr. Hu's connection to any public scandal, however remote, could prove embarrassing to the Communist Party and President Hu's administration, which has waged a high-profile campaign against corruption in China. During the Hu administration there has been a strenuous effort to keep leaders' family members out of the spotlight.

Namibian investigators say that after the Namibian government signed a $54 million deal with Nuctech to provide cargo scanners for Namibia's ports and airports and made a $12 million down payment, the Chinese firm paid $12 million to a local consultancy, Teko Trading.

"It goes to corruption if these people were given this money in order to influence the authorities to give a contract to this company," said Paulus Noa, director of the Anti-Corruption Commission.

Police have already arrested Teko's co-owners and the person identified as a Nuctech employee.

The three have each been charged with fraud, bribery and failing to report a corrupt transaction. They were expected to appear in court Wednesday. Their lawyers couldn't be reached to comment.

In a sign of the sensitivity of the case, Chinese-language versions of recent foreign news reports about Nuctech were removed from at least two Chinese Web sites. Efforts to search for "Hu Haifeng" or "Nuctech" on Baidu.com, China's most popular Internet search engine, returned a message saying: "The results of your search may not comply with relevant laws, regulations and policies."