Olympic Insanity

As the Olympics approach I will be blogging a little more regularly. Things have been moving quickly here and it is hard to believe the games are almost upon us. It is hard to believe because people here are as excited as they were two years ago. The anticipation and excitement probably peaked this past fall. Since then a series of events have caused concern, fear, and disappointment, all helping to take a bit of the shine off of these Olympics. Between the riots in Tibet, the trade wars with the US, and the Beichuan earthquake, people are saying that the games are 'cursed'. The really funny thing about that is people are blaming the 'Fuwa', the Olympic mascots. Some say the five of them represent five ills that have befallen/will befall China.
People say the yellow one named Yingying, whose form is meant to symbolize the deer that inhabit the Tibetan plateau, is responsible for the unrest in that area. Jingjing, the panda looking one, brought the earthquake in Sichuan province, home of the panda. Beibei, the blue one, planted all that algae in the water in Qingdao, the city that will host the sailing events. This leaves us Huanhuan and Nini, whose nefarious plots have yet to be exposed. And you thought they were cute. If you take their names and put them together it reads Beijing Huan Ying Ni, which means Beijing Welcomes You. If you read it backwards it means Paul is dead.
The newest subway lines opened last weekend. I am super excited about them because the subway is a great way to get to new places around the city and the new lines are really nice and clean. With the opening of these two new lines the grand total of subway lines in Beijing stands at six. The mini line that runs to the Olympic venues is numbered eight. Only six lines but one is called line eight? That is because eight is a lucky number, hence the opening ceremonies beginning at 8pm on August 8th 2008. Soooooo lucky. There is a huge run on weddings that day as well. I spoke with a student of mine who planned to get married at the moment that the opening ceremonies start. Speaking of the opening ceremonies, they had the rehearsal last week and wowy were the fireworks spectacular. What else would you expect from the home of black powder?

Back to the subway lines for a second. When I moved to Beijing only two years ago, there were three lines in Beijing. In the last eight months three more have opened. There are plans for six more lines to open by 2012. It is just amazing how quickly Beijing is skipping over the 20th century entirely.

Old Subway Line

New Subway Line

One thing that has changed in Beijing in recent days has been the installation of banners, art, signage, volunteer booths, and designated lanes for the Olympics. The city is certainly getting dressed up. The volunteer program was a huge success here. Two years ago, in an event here in Beijing, Jackie Chan kicked off the volunteer registration. Millions of people submitted their names to do everything from working the aforementioned booths where visitors can have their questions answered to carrying the medals and delivering them to the athletes. Word on the street is that volunteerism has is advantages when applying for membership in the party. Now all over the city volunteers are manning question booths in street corners and subway stops all over the city. All the volunteers got very cool shirts. Based on the number of shirts I have seen there must be nearly 80,000 volunteers. They are everywhere.



In Olympic related news, I bought tickets to see the US Olympic Basketball Team play against Australia in Shanghai in a pre-Olympic tournament on August 5th. I am incredibly excited. Bryne will be in Shanghai by then so I will go there for a quick visit as I need to work the next day. I can't stop smiling, I am just thrilled. On July 25th the remaining Olympic tickets went on sale at the venue's box offices. It was insane. Thousands of people camped out and waited for those tickets to go on sale. It was a madhouse and people were angry when (surprise) many of them tried to run to the front of the line as tickets went on sale. Basketball, diving, ping pong, and gymnastics were the first to go. Badminton tickets were sold out long ago. It should be noted that, for the first time in Olympic history, a stadium entirely devoted to ping pong was constructed. Today I am headed up to the Olympic area via the two newest subway lines (with camera in tow) to see if I can get my hands on some baseball tickets. I can't decide if it would be cooler to see USA vs. Japan or USA vs. Cuba. Why not both?

I plan on posting more pictures, thoughts, and observations as they come in. Until then make sure you keep the Fuwa out of your life.