Is China ever ready to host these games? You can take that one to the bank! I have seen preparation for the games in the past in several host cities, but none surpasses the work that the Chinese people have put forth to bring a set of games to a host city. You will not see what I am referring to in the states. You will not see the huge number of enthusiastic volunteers on hand to welcome the people of the world. You will not see the infrastructure of the city that moves hundreds of thousounds of people efficiently through a city to the venues. You will not see the thoushands of people who are on hand to welcome you to places such as the metro entrances and stops - they all have an enthusiastic greeting and broad smiles. You will not see the city in total preparation for the games - ie: decorated buildings, banners hung from every possible place, and the cleanliness of the city. Despite the haze, (smog if you prefer), Beijing is ready.

Yesterday, we toured the Forbidden City. What an awesome place. The sheer size of the city is overwhelming. We gave it about 3 hours of walking and listening to the audio tour and we did not see the entire area. It is unbelievalble to think of the history of the city.

Last night we spent away from our 5 star hotel. In the mayhem of booking ourselves into lodging for the games, we inadvertently missed one night. OOOPS! The best laid plans...
So, to fill in the gap, Christina went onto the internet to find us a room. All of the "Western" hotels were booked, so she tried to get us an overnight at The Great Wall in a hotel but it was cost prohibitive. We found an International Hostel in one of the hutong areas of the center city section near the Forbidden City. We left our 5 Star accomodations in a taxi yesterday morning for a trip to an area of the city that was "extremely" less exclusive. I have to admit that I was very reluctant for this transition. We arrived in a "back" alley type of area in one of the hutong areas and disembarked from the taxi. We were greeted warmly by one of the attendants at the hostel. We were introduced to an American who worked there and was in China for the past four years studying the language. As we played the six-degrees of separation games with him, it turns out that his mother was a high school classmate of mine, lived in Springfield, PA, and went to Central ES, ETR MS and graduated from Springfield HS the same year as me. What a small world. The difference between the two lodging environments could not have been greater. While at the Shangri-La Beijing, we experienced some of the world's best cuisine and service in an environment of ellegance. When we were at the hostel, we were surrounded with people from all over the world who just loved to be in Beijing for the games. The hostel hosted a make-you-own-chinese-dumpling party that night. We made dumplings with people from India, Australia, Sweden, Germany, and England. What an international group. When the dumplings were served, we all sat and ate and drank and shared Olympic stories.

Friday morning was a private tour to The Great Wall at Mutianyu. We hired a taxi to take us there. It was about a 2 hour drive. We took the cable car to the top. In either direction, it looked daunting. What a magnificent structure. It is hard to imagine the (person) power it took to erect this wall. We were told that those who died during construction were buried at the wall. We decided to walk in a direction that looked, to Christina, to be unencumbered in its ascent/descent to tourists. We originally intended to walk on the wall with Christina spending more time than me. Most of you realize our age difference and she would be able to handle this trek. After a while, we separated and she intended to walk down while I returned to the cable car for the descent. Much to my dislike, I had to walk up-hill back to the cable car. Wow! It was quite a challenge. We had arranged to meet at the bottom and I arrived at the walk-way ready to wait for Christina to arrive. I waited, and waited, and waited, and finally walked down to another area, all the time harrassed by sellers of "priceless" memorabilia (yes, Chris, we did get you a t-shirt), and I waited for her to arrive at the bottom. I heard her voice call to me from down the path to find that she had taken only fifteen minutes to descend because she rode down on a "sled-like" ride. So much for "taking-in" the wall.

We are now watching the Opening Ceremonies on big-screen TV in the apartment. I hope you enjoy them tonight. They are spectacular. Let the games begin!!

Rick