colduphere

Six of us returned late August 30th from a trip to Japan (6 days), South Korea (2 days) and China (18 days). The primary purpose of the trip was to see the Olympics. Aside from myself there was my wife, 15 year old daughter, 13 year old son and 9 year old son. My wife’s sister also came along.

Thanks to the many people on the Asia board who helped us plan the trip, knowingly or unknowingly. Despite the excellent information I gathered here, I doubt anyone will learn much from this trip report. At times I am afraid we resembled the Beverly Hillbillies visiting Asia, both in appearance and through our (at times) confused actions.

We each brought one piece of carryon luggage, although we usually ended up checking much of it. But traveling light was a must as the luggage was pulled along many a street and subway platform.

Our Air Canada flight left Ottawa, Canada on August 4 for a short trip to Toronto. We then boarded a 777 flight for Tokyo. The flight was miserable for me as I am 6-3 and the lady in front of me pushed her seat back as far as it would go for the entire 12 hours and 45 minutes. At least we landed on schedule.

I had noticed on diagrams of Narita airport that JR Rail has two offices on the basement level. I had pondered which office was the right one to exchange JR exchange orders for JR passes. I tried the first office we came to but while standing in line there waved our exchange orders high in the air at the people working behind a glass wall in the second office. They signaled for me to come over to their office.

I lucked out by being served by a fellow who spoke good English … he told me he used to work in Virginia. Within minutes we had our Narita Express reserved seats as well as reservations for all of the trains we would take that week.

We were attempting to get to the Sawanoya Ryokan which is located near Ueno Park. I had read many times to avoid Tokyo Station if possible, especially around rush hour. But Tokyo Station is where the NR Express goes and there were good subway connections from there to the Nezu station, which is close to our ryokan. And besides, how difficult can one little train station be?

And so started adventure number one. We got off the NR Express and started looking for the Marunouchi subway line. Things progressed smoothly until we found ourselves surrounded by gates that seemingly required tickets to get through. After a great deal of hand wringing we learned the trick of navigating Japanese train stations. When in doubt at any train station, walk purposely, smile at the gate attendant and flash your JR Pass. It worked then and every other time we didn’t know what to do.

We now found ourselves on the other side of the gate ready to proceed to the Marunouchi line. Our only problem was that we had no Japanese money to buy subway tickets. And it wasn’t easy to find an ATM. That took about 30 minutes. Then we couldn’t find any subway ticket machines, something that must sound laughable to veterans of Japan subway travel. There were lots of Pasmo smart card machines but we were looking to buy individual tickets. Finally we found a ticket machine, purchased six 160 yen tickets, found the Marunouchi line entrance, put our tickets through the gate and started down the stairs.

Before reaching the bottom of the steps I was grabbed by a subway employee. It seemed to me she was saying we could not bring suitcases on the subway. But my daughter convinced me she was pointing at our tickets and shaking her head no. Apparently in our glee at finding a ticket machine, we failed to notice that we were buying Toei subway tickets rather than the Tokyo Metro tickets we required. I had read about this distinction a hundred times but made the mistake anyways.

So back we went to another row of tickets machines, bought the correct tickets and ventured through the subway gates again. This time no one grabbed me by the shoulder. We had successfully negotiated about 200 yards of the Tokyo Station in just over an hour.

The subway was less crowded than I had expected and the connection to the Chiyoda line was simple. In a matter of minutes we were pulling our suitcases down a dark street looking for the right turn that would take us to the Sawanoya. As we were standing on the street looking at signs a person walking by said “if you are looking for the Sawanoya, it is down that street”. I thought what a wonderful country … people on every street corner advising tourists in their own language. We found the ryokan and quickly went to bed.

We live in a city that can be hot and muggy in the summer. Despite reading here many times how oppressive the heat can be in Japan in August, we thought we could handle it. Well we survived but it was incredibly hot. When you are traveling with a limited wardrobe, it is a pain in the rear to soak your clothing with sweat on every trip outside. But that is what happened to us. It was really, really hot.

We spent day one visiting the Ginza area and then the grounds around the Imperial palace. We found a restaurant for lunch and had to be reminded to take off our shoes. Our waitress spoke no English and we each only knew about ten Japanese phrases. In an attempt to garner glasses of water for all of us, I pointed to an empty bottle of water I had. The waitress nodded, took the empty bottle, filled it with water and returned it to me. Very practical.

We returned in the evening to see Tokyo at night. It seemed to us that even the alleyways off the main streets had lights bright and numerous enough to challenge Times Square. We encountered several well dressed businessmen stumbling along sidewalks after apparently having a few too many. In Ottawa the heavy drinkers aren’t usually so well dressed.

The next day we took a train to Odawara which is on the line to Kyoto. We were attempting to get up close and personal with Mount Fuji. After getting off the train we knew we had to find bus number four which would take us up to a good vantage point.

Finding the bus proved relatively easy, but for some reason I had in my head that bus number four was a special bus for which you would buy a ticket at a counter or pay the driver the total amount up front. Well the poor driver didn’t know what we were thinking and just kept pointing to the panel above his head which tells you how much you owe depending on where you got on the bus. Then you pay when you get off. In retrospect it is all so simple. But at the time we were trying to hand him money at the start of the ride … it was total confusion. In any event we ended up riding the bus up to Togendai (I am doing this from memory so I may have some of my details wrong) and then taking a “ropeway” to Owakudani (I think). From here we had a good view of Mount Fuji and a fun visit with some volcanic steam.

We then took the ropeway and a cable car to Gora and then two trains back to Odawara. At the Odawara train station a dull far away sound quickly turned into a full roar as a Shinkansen bullet train not stopping at the station went by only a few feet away and at very high speed. It was an incredible sight.

We left Tokyo the next day for Kyoto. The Sawanoya was a nice place to stay, although I kept hitting my head on doors not designed for tall people. The fellow who runs the place was very helpful to us. We stayed in traditional rooms and slept on futons.

Two odd things that struck us about Tokyo after our incredibly brief visit there were that there were very few places to sit down and even fewer garbage bins, recyclable or not. I am sure this is by design. To be continued and in much less detail.

boots08

Welcome back to the continent, Colduphere! I'm so glad you're writing a trip report.

I'm looking forward to the next installment, but please, don't make it any less detailed!

hester

Colduphere I enjoyed reading your first installment. We went to Japan and South Korea a year ago and will go again next April. I am anxious to read what you have to say about South Korea. Our son teaches in Inchon. Last time we went we went to Masan.

Our trip this time will include a stop in Tokyo (my husbands favorite place) and than the train to Kyoto. I can't wait until your next post!

easytraveler

Hi, colduphere!

Followed your directions and found your TR!

What a great start! Those drunk but well-dressed businessmen! And your poor head!

More please, as soon as you are up to it!

Thanks so much for sharing! Can't wait to hear your adventures during the Olympics!

colduphere

Hi boots, hester and et. At this pace of writing I may never get to either South Korea or the Olympics.

The next morning we took the Hikari train to Kyoto. Upon arrival we split in two groups of three to take two taxis, with neither driver certain where the Comfort Inn was. Yes I know, the Comfort Inn in Japan. But the hotel gets good reviews and was nicely priced. We checked in and then set out to find a restaurant.

We found a place fairly quickly. It was empty and better still had pictures of all of the available food right at the front door. A young woman showed us to a table. Remembering our mistake with our shoes the previous day we began pointing at our shoes before we sat down. This drew a blank stare from the waitress. So I started taking one shoe off all the while looking at the waitress with a quizzical look on my face. Suddenly she burst out laughing and ran away to tell the cook something. Maybe she thought we wanted our shoes cooked for dinner. You never know with Canadians (two of us had Canadian t- shirts on).

She was never to return but a young man came back and pointed at the pictures of the food at the front door and said “machine”. We’re not stupid. We get it. Go back and look at the pictures on the “machine” and maybe pick out a number or letter or something and then order. So we all went back to the front door, picked out our desired meals and returned to our table. The fellow returned shaking his head. “Pay.” Hmmm. They wanted to be paid before they knew what we wanted?

Finally it clicked for someone. Maybe you pay at the machine. Yes that was it. You pressed a button on the machine for the item you wanted. Then you got a ticket which you gave to the cook at the counter. Then you sat at your table and waited. Again, all pretty simple in retrospect. The food was good and cheap.

If Tokyo is a subway town then Kyoto is a bus town. The hotel gave us a neat little map with all of the main sites listed and the bus routes that would take us there. So the next day we bought a one day bus pass and headed off to see the Kiyomizu temple. What a beautiful place. Unfortunately you had to walk about 600 meters straight up a hill to get there but it was worth it.

And was this our lucky day. As we rested behind the main temple a Buddhist monk walked by in a beautiful purple gown. We asked if we could take his picture. He said sure in very good English. And he told us this was one of only three or four days a year that we could enter the main temple. It was free he said and the entrance was just a few meters away. So off we went only to be confronted by a ticket seller. It seems it wasn’t free. The kids were thrilled. Not only had we met a monk, we had met one of the few lying monks in the entire world. That was a story they could tell back home.

The next day we took a JR train to Nara. From the Nara station we followed a crowd of tourists over to bus number one which fortunately took us to Nara Park, our intended destination. This is where the deer roam free. I had read the deer could become aggressive especially if you had biscuits in your hand to feed them. Better not to let young children feed the deer.

Well who cares about expert advice? We gave our nine year old some biscuits to feed the deer with. They immediately were all over him. My wife went over and grabbed the biscuits from him as surely the deer would back off an adult. Wrong again. In fact one bit her right on the rear end. This is not a joke. I have the picture to prove it as do some other tourists. The biscuits went flying. My wife started running and yelling in pain. The deer were happily munching. Other tourists were laughing. A perfect scene. Oh, and the Todai-ji temple was absolutely amazing.

We returned to Kyoto in time for dinner at a nice little bar/restaurant in the Gion district. The food was terrific until a couple entered and started smoking. Nothing against them as smoking was allowed. We have just become used to no smoking in most public spaces here in Canada. It ruined the atmosphere for us so to speak so we paid up and left. The waiter had undercharged us on the bill and it took some time to point out the error to him. He assumed we were saying we were overcharged. It took about five minutes to convince him we were trying to give him more money.

We enjoyed the ease with which we could get around Kyoto by bus. No one stared at us despite the fact that my wife and sister in law were wearing hats right out of Hee Haw or Green Acres. People were friendly and the sites amazing. After two and a half days in Kyoto we left early in the morning for a long day of travel through Hiroshima, Fukuoka and a ferry ride to South Korea.

AnselmAdorne

Welcome back, colduphere. Looking forward to the rest; spare us no detail!

Anselm

goddesstogo

Hi cold, welcome back! I don't know if you've seen it yet, but there's a long 'missing colduphere' on the lounge.

I'm loving your trip report and cant wait to read the next installment.

When we were in Tokyo we found that many young people would stop and ask if we needed help. They all study English in school and we were told that they love the chance to practice. And the reason there were so few garbage and recycling bins is because Japanese people don't eat on the street. If someone wanted a cold drink, for example, from a vending machine they'd buy it and stand at the machine and drink it and then throw the can away there. That's another reason the streets are so clean.

We loved Tokyo. We spend quite a bit of time in Korea too, in Seoul and surrounds, so I'm looking forward to hearing your experiences.

Nice to have you back, cuh!

colduphere

Hi AA and GTG. We had a great trip but it is nice to be back in Canada. More people should come here to visit.

We had known for many months that August 11 would be a difficult day – physically and emotionally. We headed down the street at 7 am pulling our suitcases in order to catch Kyoto bus number 9. It took us off to the train station for the train to Hiroshima. I made one minor mistake – we stood on the platform for the train to Osaka instead of Shin-Osaka but I caught that mistake before it was too late. Two hours later we were in Hiroshima.

We stored our luggage in lockers and searched for the taxi line. A woman in Tokyo had written out for us in Japanese … “Please take us to the Peace Park.” We showed the note to two taxi drivers and off we went. I had contemplated trying to take the bus to the Peace Park but am glad we didn’t. We only had about three hours until our next train to Fukuoka.

Taking two taxis meant that we were always concerned about taxis letting us off in different places and having to find one another. This was not an issue with the Peace Park as there seemed to be one primary entrance.

We set out across the Park to the Atomic Dome. We all had our own private moment there. It is an image that will stay with each of us for a long time. We then headed to the Museum. As others have said here, the exhibits are very well done. There is a 360 image of the city after the bombing. It really leaves a person speechless.

There has been other discussion here about kids seeing the pictures and other displays. Our nine year old seemed fine with it all but who knows what effect it had. He now says that Hiroshima was his favorite part of the entire trip.

We then raced back to the train station for the ride to Fukuoka/Hakata. I had printed out two copies of the Beetle ferry home page with good pictures of the high speed ferry that would take us to South Korea. That seemed to work as the taxi drivers nodded and took us to the terminal.

What followed was one of the more confusing episodes to our trip. We were too early for our ferry, we had to buy terminal improvement tickets worth about $10 each, we had to pay an oil surcharge fee that was higher than expected … it was all a bit hard to follow despite months of reading about it. But things worked out and at 4 pm we were off on the three hour journey over to Busan, South Korea.

All in all we really liked Japan despite just touching the surface of what it has to offer. We felt that we were the observers in Japan, unlike in South Korea and China where one can easily get the feeing of being the observee rather than observer. Japan is a physically beautiful country. I would love to see more of the country when it wasn’t so darn hot.

And speaking of hot, I have never seen so many beautiful women dressed so elegantly as in Japan. If there is a second life I hope to come back as a young Japanese guy.

colduphere

South Korea. This is where the trip gets a little weird. We had less than 48 hours in Busan so I don’t claim any understanding of the country. As well we were completely unprepared for this part of the trip. We didn’t even have a list of common phrases to use.

Busan is a port town, something very evident as the ferry passed by some huge freighters on the way into port. We entered the terminal building and passed through immigration. Then we were directed to pass our belongings through an x-ray machine, something that was not done on the originating Japan side of the trip. This seemed a little odd to me. Check the passengers for dangerous articles after the trip is finished. Maybe they wanted to see who could have blown up the ferry if they had wanted to.

We exited the building only to run into a wall of taxi drivers wanting to know where we were going. I must say at this point I was a bit uncomfortable. It was dark and we were surrounded. And then one of drivers said … “Six of them. They need Kim” (or some name I can’t remember). With that we were directed to a fellow who had a van and could take all of us at once. That was a nice touch that we did not experience anywhere else on the trip. Busan is very colourful at night and it was a pleasant ride to our hotel.

Okay so it wasn’t a hotel. Many months ago it seemed like a good idea to throw in a hostel stay or two on the trip. It would show the kids what budget travel was like and that their parents weren’t dead yet.

The two top rated hostels in Busan aren’t traditional hostels, they are apartments rented out by someone who lives either in the same apartment or a nearby one. So the taxi took us to very large apartment complex that I must say in Canada might be considered a bit of a slum. It was a very hot night and many people were sitting outside seemingly in complete silence watching as we approached the apartment building. I was now even a little more uncomfortable.

I could not get the apartment intercom to work and therefore could not make contact with the hostel manager. Without saying a word a fellow who had been watching us came over, took the piece of paper out of my hand and called the manager. He then went back and reassumed his position watching us.

The hostel “owner” was a very young and pleasant woman. She told us we would not be staying in her building but in the one next door. We followed her up to the 20th floor. It was brutally hot and humid. We found a three bedroom apartment with no one else around. I asked her how many people would be staying in the apartment that night … just the six of us in one room, perhaps another couple of people? She smiled and said no, more than that. Oh and by the way she said, there was only one bathroom. No shower curtain. And please remember to put the toilet paper in the waste paper basket, not the toilet. Okey dokey.

To make a long story short, there were fourteen people in the hostel. One on the balcony who got soaked overnight. A couple from Japan and a fellow from New York on the living room couch and floor. A young couple from India in another bedroom. Three women from Denmark and Germany in another room. Since there was a fellow sleeping on the balcony, we kept our window closed as it opened to the balcony. It must have been 100 degrees in our room that night. My SIL looked petrified. I am sure she considered flying home that night. My wife had that “what the f--- were you thinking?” look on her face for the first 12 hours. The kids seemed happy as clams.

We woke up just in time to share the shower with our eight new friends. The floor was wet. Hair was everywhere. The waste paper basket was full. Okay … what had I been thinking? But these people turned out to be fascinating in their own way and really, who cares if the bathroom floor is wet and full of hair? Aside from my SIL I mean.

We headed to a nearby subway station and attempted to purchase day passes for 3500 won, or about $3.50 each. The machine would only take 1000 won notes. So while I moaned about how stupid that was, my wife went off and found a subway manager with a stack of 1000 won notes. Off we went.

The Busan subway is easy to navigate and very clean. It took about 30 minutes to reach Haeundae Beach ... a really beautiful setting. This was a great way to spend the morning and a perfect release for the kids. If you are ever there don’t worry about your child’s safety. One lifeguard seemed to spend his entire shift blowing his whistle to tell our nine year old to move back to shallower water.

We the spent the afternoon wandering around the Lotte department store area. Unlike Japan, we received many many stares from the locals. I did not like this at all. But conversely we found people very helpful. One lady went out of her way to help us order in a restaurant.

The Olympics were on televisions positioned around the shopping malls. Koreans seemed transfixed with the proceedings, especially with the progress of Korean athletes. Everyone would fall silent and then break into great cheers when one of their athletes did well. It was fun to be in the middle of this patriotism.

We retired to the hostel early in the evening. It was raining hard so all fourteen of us were there. I have great admiration for people who can just hop on a plane and travel the world with little money and few belongings. Each of these people was interesting to talk with. It was a good evening. Feeling more comfortable, we left our balcony window open and slept well.

The next morning we wondered around the area bit but then had to leave for the flight to Beijing. Talk about contrasts. We left an overcrowded hostel to spend an hour or so in the business class lounge of Asiana airlines. I had purchased business class seats as they were very cheap … $400 something a person. At first the lounge attendant did not think we were in the right place and perused our lounge passes closely. Ten minutes later a supervisor arrived and asked to see our passes again. Look all you want folks. Two hours ago we were poor beggars living in an overcrowded hostel. Now we were flying business class to Beijing for the biggest show in the world.

I wish I could say more about South Korea but we were barely there. The staring bothered me a lot. The hostel manager explained that Busan does not receive many western tourists. Yet every interaction with a resident was marked by kindness. Like Japan, the terrain is beautiful. We would certainly visit there again.

LoveItaly

Hello colduphere. I am enthralled with your trip report. I am glad I went to the Canada Forum and consequently saw that this thread of yours was posted there. I should have realized you would post your trip report on the Asia Forum. Wow, you were crowded at the hostel in Busan. The gals in your family are good sports!

Your trip will bring your children a lifetime of wonderful memories.

colduphere

Hi LI. I didn't know I was on the Canada Forum. I should hire AA as my publicity agent.

Shanghainese

So nice of you to start reporting immediatly after your 26 day Asia trip, you deserve a Fodor's medal!!

AnselmAdorne

cold, just send me a few Aeroplan points.

AA

colduphere

We arrived in Beijing the afternoon of August 13. Immigration took less than a minute. The new terminal three is very large. There is a tremendous amount of English signage.

I had thought we would either take a taxi or the new train into town but when we emerged into the lobby we could see the airport buses sitting right in front of us. I had read here that Airport bus number 2 would take us to the Civil Aviation Building near Xidan Street. From here we could get a couple of those taxis that were supposed to be everywhere for the final mile or so to our courtyard hotel.

So we hopped on bus number two and paid our 16 rmb each (about $2.40). Despite traffic being rotated on an odd/even license plate basis, there was still a lot of traffic. Our first impression of the city was how it looked like any other city except for perhaps the number of bikes. If bikes are being replaced by cars as reported than I would have hated to have seen the number of bikes a few years ago. They were everywhere.

An hour or so later we were dropped off at the Civil Aviation Building. We hadn’t made it ten feet from the bus when the first scam artist approached us. We ignored him and he went away. Unfortunately all of the taxis were either somewhere else or full. The odd empty one that went by was literally fought over by others looking for a ride. So much to the amusement of onlookers, the six of us began walking to our hotel – as I say about a mile away. It is hard to look inconspicuous when your rolling suitcases sound like a thunderstorm.

The bottom of Xidan Street is a very busy shopping area. We must have looked like Snow White and the five Dwarfs as we walked one behind the other in a straight line dodging people. I started humming “Heigh ho, heigh ho, it’s off to work we go” to pass the time. While telling the others it wasn’t far to the hotel, I was unclear myself how long it would take us. But soon enough there was a street sign saying Bingmasi Hutong. We turned left into a strange new world.

I am no expert on hutongs – I only know what I saw for ten days. But hutongs in our area were long alleys contained on both sides by one story buildings painted in grey interrupted only occasionally by a courtyard or parking spot. We walked for approximately 300 yards with everyone staring at us like we had three heads. This was their neighborhood containing apartments and several small restaurants and store fronts. I am guessing everyone knew everyone else.

For the second time in a few days my wife and sister in law were wondering what the hell I was thinking. I had memorized the map which helped a bit as it looked to the others like I knew what I was doing. We made a right turn into a very narrow alley with grey walls on both sides close enough you could almost touch both at the same time. There was a sign in English that instructed visitors to report to the police. After 100 yards of that we made the final left turn. Now the alley was very narrow and home to a couple of small dogs. It ran very visibly into a high wall after about 100 yards. There would be no where to go. I had apparently reserved three rooms in a dead end alleyway. But with about five yards to go before the final wall there it was – a nice big brown door on the left. We rang the bell and Zheng the owner ushered us into his little oasis.

I cannot articulate the contrast between walking through the alleyways (which to be fair where quite clean but obviously very old) and the renovated courtyard hotel we were now in - Kelly’s Courtyard Hotel. It was beautifully designed and furnished. A central common area was covered by a glass ceiling. The common area was surrounded by nine rooms about the size of small motel rooms. The second story was reached by a circular staircase that lead to a lounge with a television and an outdoor deck. It was a beautiful place to stay for ten days.

What added to the atmosphere were the other guests. As no one spent much time in their rooms we all got to know one another either eating, drinking and or watching the Olympics on television. There were a couple and her parents from Germany, four guys from Belgium, and couples from England and the US. Each day we would compare what events we were seeing and then late at night talk about what we had seen. We exchanged tips on transportation (which became a major topic), where to eat and what to visit. Zheng and his wife Kelly were very helpful and extremely nice. If you look up reviews of Kelly’s Courtyard you will see how people rave about the place. It is well deserved.

I won’t dwell too much on the staring but again it bothered me for the first couple of days as we would enter and exit our hotel through the hutongs. By the end of the trip I noticed that in each of the three Chinese cities we visited I was uncomfortable the first day or two and then began to feel more relaxed. Indeed by the end of ten days in Beijing I felt like challenging people I had not seen before in the hutongs as to who the hell they were?

colduphere

PS Shanghainese - I can write now as I have seen enough of my family for awhile. I learned a lot from your posts so thank you.

goddesstogo

Hi cold,
Regarding the staring in Korea, I experienced this too.

We were there because my SO was at a conference in Suwon, which is more or less a suburb of Seoul. Everyday when he went to his meetings, I'd hop on the train and go into Seoul to walk around. It wasn't very long before I realized that everyone on the train was looking at me. Then I realized why. Everyone on that train car each morning was Korean and I wasn't.

I know that seems odd to remark on -- you'd expect them to be Korean, wouldn't you? Only my whole life I've lived in a multicultural city. When I step into a subway car, I'm riding with a rainbow of people. I've never lived in a country or a city where there's only one nationality or race of resident. It was a very unusual experience for me. I'm pretty sure I was an ususual experience for them too, at least judging by the stares.

colduphere

Hi GTG - yes you don't see that staring in TO.

I am having a tough time piecing the staring story together. It was also partly that there were six of us. It was partly our nine year old who drew an enormous amount of attention (as predicted here). It was partly our daughter who was inspected in great detail by middle aged men. And perhaps staring is more acceptable in some societies.

Others have told me that they are surprised as the vast majority of Koreans and Chinese have now seen plenty of westerners. But you would not have known it from our experience.

goddesstogo

Well, we didn't experience it in Tokyo but that's a much more cosmopolitan city than Seoul, I think.

colduphere

I won’t go through each day and/or event in Beijing. Readers might never emerge from the resulting deep sleep. But there were a few interesting tid bits.

After arriving late on the 13th, we had to get up very early on the 14th to make a 9 am volleyball game between the US and Bulgaria. I had carefully plotted the route in advance ... subway line one to subway two to special Olympic bus number 7. Except that when Zheng asked how we were getting there and I told him, he said forget it. Take bus 808 and it will bring you right by the venue.

I had read advice here on different issues where experts such as Peter N H would say take bus x or y. I always had the same reaction … excellent advice but not for us. Too much chance of error. Well we accepted Zheng’s advice and took bus 808. And it did take us right to the venue although it was a touch difficult to figure out when to get off the bus.

And so started our affair with local buses. We took several of them each day. At times it was difficult to match the name of the stop as we had written it in advance with how it appeared and sounded in the bus. But overall it was close to a breeze.

When we arrived at the volleyball venue we were greeted by many happy smiling volunteers. It is true that perhaps only China could recruit the number of volunteers they did. Regardless, the volunteers were the story of the Games in my mind. They were everywhere and invariably polite and helpful, with every one of them trying very hard to speak English. The volleyball venue, like all other venues we visited, was first rate.

On our second day of attending events we were at a weightlifting competition where it was obvious from a half mile away that a Chinese athlete was competing. Whenever a Chinese athlete was in contention, there was a buzz around the venue. More Chinese flags were being waved and many more scalpers (yes scalpers in China) were working the streets.

While the crowd was reasonably fair to all of the lifters, I did see something I have never seen in years of attending sporting events. Before the Chinese lifter’s second last lift, the ushers all came out together and took up positions in front of the crowd. They then lead the crowd in an organized chant of “China, China”. I can’t imagine the ushers at a Red Sox game leading the cheers for the Red Sox. It was not fair to the other athletes.

The Chinese weightlifter was successful with his lift and thereby locked up the gold medal. The crowd went nuts. Yet why was there a spirited conversation going on at the judges table? The “jury” overruled the panel of three judges that had initially ruled the lift good claiming the weightlifter had not remained steady for the required three seconds. We could see what was happening but the rest of the crowd was too busy celebrating their gold medal. Sure enough when the announcement was made that the lift was not good, the crowd went ballistic. It was the only time in 18 days in China I was worried about our safety, as were others around us. After all, the ushers that were there to maintain order were just as incensed as the crowd.

Fortunately, the Chinese weightlifter made the lift on his last attempt and joy was reestablished.

The only real issue we had with the Games was the time it took to get to and enter certain events. On our third night there, our Belgium friends did not arrive back at the hotel until after 2 am. One of the special Olympic bus drivers had stopped her bus at 1 am and indicated that everyone should get off. In the middle of nowhere. With no buses or subways still running. Our friends tried to wave down taxis but were ignored, only to see the taxis stop further down the road to pick up someone else. The fear of being similarly stuck encouraged us to leave a couple of events early. I missed my favourite event – the men’s 10k - as I did not want to be out on the street at 1:30 am with three kids in tow.

Other than that, the subway system was excellent. Buses were good. I have often read here the debate about tour groups versus independent travel. In Beijing at least, getting around is simple if you don’t mind crowds. Conversely, I think we missed some of the famous sites because we did not have a tour group to push us. On several days when we had a choice of what to do with our down time, we didn’t do much.

Reisender

Excellent report colduphere. Thank you.