Welcome to Beijing!!

We arrived safe and sound to Beijing yesterday morning, and have been on the move ever since we arrived in the city. We’re staying in Xuanwu district which is 1km north of Tiananmen Square. The Olympic Village is 20 minutes north of us, but thankfully a taxi ride is no more the $4 - $5.

We struggled to keep our eyes open on our first day. With a whole city to see in just under a week, though, we didn’t waste any time. We ventured to the Silk Market, a huge building filled with vendors selling anything from electronics to tea sets to fine silk clothing and bedding. Bargaining is the name of the game. The starting price is always ridiculously expensive. For example, when Graeme asked the price of a Wii video game the woman typed in 250 yuan on her big size calculator. This translates into over $30/game. We bargained them down to 5 games for 60 yuan which is less than $2/game. Not too shabby.

After the silk market, we attempted to go to the Lama Temple. It was closed, so we wandered down a neighboring street filled with Buddhist stores and stumbled upon The Confucius Temple and Imperial College. There were numerous pavilions, tall Cyprus trees and a statue of Confucius himself. Like many of the temples in China, the details of the temple were magnificent.

After a cold beer in a neighboring coffee shop, we decided to check out the Bird’s Nest, the site of the Opening Ceremonies. Unfortunately there is a fence .5 km away from the stadium protecting it from eager Olympic visitors like ourselves. Nevertheless, we walked around the circumference of the stadium before heading to a restaurant to eat dinner and watch the opening ceremonies in a comfortable spot. Our jet lag resulted in a 9:30am bedtime, but we were awoken a couple of hours later by loud blasts. Sleepy-eyed and confused, Graeme and I climbed over to the window and were welcomed by beautiful fireworks. Let the Olympics begin!