A confession — the Olympics were not an event I “seized” in the traditional “live life to the top” sense.

In many ways, I might as well have been in Siberia watching it on a small black and white TV screen. I didn’t fling myself into the mob at Tiananmen Square and witness the fireworks during the opening ceremony. And I certainly didn’t crowd in at Wangfujing to watch it on the big screen.

Instead, I went out with friends, hit the Saddle, and came back to watch the opening festivities at home.

And then I went to the light-weight and light heavy-weight boxing matches the next day. A friend hooked me up with two tickets. The other “cool” venues were out of my price range. So all in all, I got to watch 21 matches.

Russia whooped on Sweden. The US beat out Argentina. The Irish kicked ass because, well, they’re Irish and this is boxing. And China barely won against some small country I can’t even remember.

(The Chinese guy wasn’t good, but the People carried him to victory. He had no choice but to somehow win. For that matter, the People carried all of the Chinese athletes to victory with a force I haven’t before witnessed in my life.)

But anyway, boxing was fun until I got bored and uncomfortable sitting in chairs designed for someone two feet shorter than me.

That’s it really.

All attempts at politicizing the games aside, the Beijing games went off flawlessly. The plan was sound and the people rose to meet the occasion with a sense of diligence and honor rarely seen.

I was impressed. The sincere kind of impressed, not the one laced with cynicism and the word “but.” And this from a guy who hates pageantry and “feel good” events.

And if you were to press me further, I would have to say the 2008 games were most remarkable because for the first time in several hundred years, the Chinese people, as a whole, had something to be genuinely happy about.

Something to be proud of that wasn’t tainted or contaminated. Something they earned for themselves in the wake of rebellion and unforgiving natural disasters.

To understand the Chinese mentality, you only had to watch the opening and closing ceremonies.
No one stood out. There were no individuals. Instead, there was a force of people moving in synchronized coordination to accomplish something grandiose.

That was China moving at its best. It is also China’s strength and its most staggering weakness.

And in the coming years, I’ll be keen to to see if they’re able to keep their footing together.

The current situation on the ground:

• Today, a new Olympic-centric rule goes into effect that effectively removes half of the vehicles from Beijing’s roads by prohibiting cars with even and odd numbered license plates from driving on the same day.
  (Hint: More people are pissed off about this than you read in the news.)
• Hundreds of factories around Beijing and Tianjin have been ordered closed to further reduce air pollution and will remain “turned off” until the end of September.
• The internet censors who man the Great Firewall are burning the midnight oil — websites of all flavors are randomly down, garbled and outright blocked more frequently than normal. This is a major grievance.
• Quasi-security check points are emerging around the city. Some reports of people being hassled, but nothing really substantiated.
• Areas of the city (specifically Gonti, Sanlitun) geared more toward ex-pats are being turned into zones that are cryptically called “limited access.”
• Visa extensions until October for student visas are more than 6500RMB (1000USD). Visas are being revoked randomly depending on the make of your jib. Clean cut, shaven = greater odds of not being denied entry.
• For a Chinese L-Visa (tourist) you need proof of return air ticket and evidence that you have at least $3000 (that’s USD not RMB) in financial assets to ensure you can “afford” to be in China.
• Construction efforts are reaching fever pitch, with parks emerging overnight from debris fields — complete with grass and grown trees. This is a freakishly surreal sensation; waking one morning to a neighborhood that’s magically changed literally overnight.
• Every pirated DVD shop and brothel has been shut down. There isn’t a single one left.

Speaking of surreal, the weather is nice when it’s not raining. When it is raining it’s still pleasant. Smog is down considerably. Gray skies are blue.

Astounding to few, but Beijing residents know otherwise.

You gets the feeling that the entire city was forcibly dragged through a make-over TV show and spat out with new clothing that doesn’t quite fit as snugly as it should and walks as though it really doesn’t belong wearing it.

Let’s hope that they don’t slide off too quickly.

The eye-soar in Sanlitun known as “The Village” — under perpetual construction since my arrival — is starting to look done.

And much to my surprise, lo and behold, an Apple store!

This is mainland China’s first official Apple retail outlet.

The store is two stories — first floor is the show room. Apple lets us play with all their products with minimal documentation or sales pitches. Just a table with the stuff for our grubby hands to fondle. The second floor is a multi-lingual “Genius Bar” where free advice and tech support can be had.

Do note that Apple products are considerably pricer when purchased in China than America. For instance, a 15″ MacBook Pro costs roughly RMB 17,500 (2,600 USD) compared to the $2,000 (RMB13,600) it costs back in the States.

Also note that the majority of Apple products are manufactured in Shanghai. Go figure.

Pictures of the store and the Village area galore:

Word coming out of Chengdu of a 7.9 magnitude earthquake.

Initial reports had a few dead. Hours later the number exploded.

The number is just going to get higher.

Here in Beijing we felt only a brief tremor — rattling. I thought it was the crazy old woman who lives beneath me banging on the pipes again.

The only damage I’ve seen in Beijing was a small pedestrian bridge in South Third Ring. The government was quick to block it off and a day later the affected segments — pure concrete mind you — have been completely removed and carted away to wherever it is that pedestrian bridges go to die.

The rest of this nation’s capital remains largely isolated, or really insulated, from the tragedy out west.

No matter how far away we are we are always a world away.

Add to the ever-growing list: The Hmong, China’s second largest ethnic minority.

I think you’ll agree that my justifications are understandable after reading this excerpt from NPR:

In a clearing surrounded by mountains in southern China’s Yunnan province, members of the Miao are celebrating the new year with the Flower Mountain Festival. Would-be lovers court each other through song. Legend has it that the Miao’s distinctive piercing tones carry far in order to attract distant partners outside their own kin.
…
“Han Chinese don’t sing mountain songs,” he says. “They look at a partner’s talents, their figure, their weight, their family property, etc. But we find a partner through singing. Even if someone is very ugly, the main thing is if they can sing, then they might be able to show love. People who are too good-looking just love themselves.”

The women would run from me in mass. Children would wail and cry in fear. The men would gather pitchforks and torches and pursue me into the far flung regions of the Gobi Desert until my gravely, almost-tone-deaf voice was silenced forever.

So, the current “Cultures that Christopher Wouldn’t Thrive In” list looks something like this:

• Indian Bollywood
• African American Gospel
• North American Polyamorist Pod
  
• Any American High School Theater Department
• The Polar Bear Club
• Pentecostal (Snake Handlers)
• Jediism

And the beat goes on.

From the Associated Press:

Senior administration officials said Thursday a consensus is building for a proposal to shut Guantanamo Bay and transfer detainees to one or more Defense Department facilities, including the maximum-security military prison at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, where they could face trial.

The signs at the border entrances instead of saying “Welcome to Kansas” should be re-scribed to say “Abandon all hope, ye you enter here.”

Dante Alighieri himself couldn’t think of a crueler fate.

The strikers were out in force at Turtle Bay over the weekend. It is my sad duty to report to you that they obstructed traffic and delayed our weekly game of volleyball by a whopping five minutes.

Some pictures:

Controversy and Turtle Bay have been good companions over the years.

Read the rest of this entry »