Beijing 2008 Recap

The whole Olympic experience has been unreal. Beijing was so different during the Olympics with the help of a bazillion volunteers to help anyone and everyone, clean air thanks to regulations and limited cars allowed in the city, and the opening up of subway lines. China has done an incredible job of making Beijing a great place to be during the Olympics and I was very impressed. If only Beijing could be this nice all the time... The sky was blue, the air clean, the people very nice and helpful (especially to foreigners that needed to find their way around, thanks to the bazillion volunteers all over the streets), traffic was good and not jammed up... I think Beijing has left a very good impression on the people that came solely for the Olympics.

The first event Steve and I went to was men's volleyball semifinals. We had no idea who was going to compete until we actually got inside and we found out it would be the United States facing off against Russia. It was an incredibly entertaining game that literally lasted until the last point. With this being my first time going to a live volleyball game, it definitely was pretty exciting.

Olympic tickets in hand!

After volleyball, we headed over to the Olympic Green to just hang out. Turns out it takes fucking FOREVER to get there with the bus... We got there in a measly 2 hours.... Regardless, we made it a good 2 hours before the track events started so we had a chance to walk around and explore. First impressions are that the Water Cube and Bird's Nest are amazing! It's something to see them on TV but you never really get a sense of how incredible these structures are until you get to see them for yourself.

Front view of the Bird's Nest

The Bird's Nest looks very very impressive. I thought that it might look like a jumble of steel beams but I was pleasantly surprised at how "clean" everything looks. Like any stadium it is huge but the fact that there is literally nothing around makes it look even better. There's not really any way to put how nice it looks. You just have to go see for yourself.

Side view with the Olympics Torch in sight

Pictures will never do the Water Cube justice. It always looks interesting in the way it is built but seeing it in person is incredible. It literally looks like a million bubbles sticking out, much like the way you would see in a bubble bath. The material used on the walls just completely reflect the design ideas and is amazing. I just wish I could have gone inside the building. Like the Bird's Nest, it is one of those things you have to see to appreciate.

Water Cube

The one thing that really sucked about the Olympic Green was the lack of food... I thought queuing up and fighting through the crowd at any Chinese McDonald's was bad but damn.... This was worse. Beijing had (still has?) the world's largest McDonald's and it only puts a teeny little one in an area where a potential 90,000 people can be? That's just ridiculous and typical Chinese thoughtlessness. Maybe there's some rule I'm not aware of or whatever but it just made no sense to me. When we saw the line had like 300 people, we had to go get some crappy instant rice dinner from the food stands on the Green.

Line up please!

Our seats in the stadium were AWESOME. Row 20, right in the middle. Could've been closer to the finish line but this actually gave us a good view of where Usain Bolt would be running (although we didn't know it at the time). Entering the stadium was jaw-dropping. I've never been in a stadium this big so it definitely was quite an experience to see all the seats available. The quality of the screens on the side also really amazed me since they were so damn big and clear.

Sweet seats again!

We saw a lot of finals during the 4 hours we were there, including women's long jump, men's pole vault, women's 5000m, women's 4x100m relay, decathlon's last events, and of course men's 4x100m relay. It was great to see everyone cheering for the long jumpers and pole vaulters when they were doing their thing, especially at the end of the pole vault when the crowd literally willed Steve Hooker (hooker!) to beat the Olympic record of 5.95m. Simply incredible. The main event, and the one event where everyone was in their seats for, was of course the men's 4x100m relay. Usain Bolt was running 3rd so would be rounding the last corner with Asaffa Powell running last. Our seats were great in that they would let us see both guys run near us. Once the run started, Jamaica were slowly making ground but man.... As soon as Bolt got the baton he just took off and was gone. Most amazing thing ever! I saw the race on TV and the noise you hear simply doesn't even come close to how loud the stadium was. The electricity when everyone saw him leave everyone in the dust was amazing. This race alone was worth the whole trip! Just no other way to put it.

Insane Usain with the Jamaica crew!

In the end, I was so glad that I decided to go to Beijing. It was an awesome experience and you could really feel the whole Olympic spirit in the city. A very impressive showing by China winning the Gold medal count and in preparing the city for such an event. I had my doubts whether China could pull it off and I'm happy to say that they did a fantastic job. London 2012 anyone? Haha.

Night view of the Bird's Nest

I rule