An Olympic Appetizer

I finally had the chance to see the future Olympic site of the 2008 Beijing’s summer games. I had a meeting some clients and it just so happened that their office was on the 25th floor of a building adjacent to the already famous and so called “Bird’s Nest”. I was all excited when I first saw it emerge from the horizon while driving towards it in a taxi cab. It truly was gigantic.
After my meeting and dinner, I came as close as I could to it. The proportionally large construction site surrounding it was of course boarded by a construction fence. However I was able to find a section of it that was temporarily down. I, of course, took advantage of that to take many photos. This was an incredibly unique so ‘’avant-garde” structure that it almost seemed unreal. It gave the impression of being in a Sci-Fi movie. I was not able to touch it to verify if whether or not it was a mirage but that day will come...
Immediately juxtaposed to the Olympic site, there was yet another mega habitation complex still being built for the most part. I went in to take a break from the sand flurries. Apparently sand storms are rather common in Beijing. There I met a young Chinese man who was somehow in working on the marketing aspect of this project. From him I learn many interesting figures. The nicest of these apartments are supposedly amongst the most expensive real-estates in Asia and selling at 10 000 US dollars per square meter. So if any of are interested, you can buy yourself one of these penthouse suites for a reasonable 7 million dollars and I could point you to the right people. If that is still a bit too shabby for you, the roof is reserved for a few big two stories tall self contained suits with and interior open air court ward and swimming pool. Those are not for sale since their value is simply too difficult to estimate. They are thus only for rent at the staggering amount of approximately 140 million per year. Apparently one of those is already reserved for one of Bill Gates daughters who want to come here to learn mandarin next year.

Amongst all these rather ludicrous figures, the one the surprised me the most concerns the “life expectancy” of the Olympic Stadium. Only 50 years. After which, it will be destroyed. I’ m no expert concerning these matters but it seems to me that it’s really short for a building that will most likely cost several billions. But then, if we compare with Montreal’s Olympic Stadium which could very well end up with a similar destiny, maybe 50 years is “normal” for such structures.

It was at the same place but a few days later, that was held the 2008 Beijing Marathon. I got up before dawn in order to get there on time to witness the start. I arrived early and confident, as prescribed, but at the wrong place. Bu the time I realised that, after all it was my first time and I didn’t really know what to expect, I was rather late. I had 20 minutes to get 5 km further. I jumped in a taxi and after that ran the rest of the way. Once arrived and out of breath I was in for a bad surprise. A special accreditation was need in to get close to the start line, and of course I should have known. Thankfully, just before the actual start, I turned around and saw an old pick-up truck full of well equipped (and accredited) photographers ready to follow the action. I went towards them with a huge smile and camera in hand. That’s all it took to get onboard. I could not believe my chance I was on the front row, so to speak. It was a dodgy ride but how exiting.





















To my own amusement, but at the expense of the other photographers, the truck suddenly broke down half way into the race. Quite embarrassing really... They picked us up in a minibus full of what seemed to be officials. They forbid us to open the windows for some unknown reason and it didn’t please everyone. Sometimes it’s better not to try to understand. As for me well, I considered myself lucky enough to be there at all.
















So thanks to that minibus, I was able to go through the first security gate. For the others, I simply kept close to another (accredited) photographer, looked confidant, and kept my camera high and my stare away from those of the numerous security guards and police man. That way I was able to sneak my way in to the finish line inside a stadium through several security gates. Other photographers told me that they had difficulty going through even with their accreditation pass. Strangely, the stadium was almost completely empty. There again, it’s better not to try to understand. Finally, I was able to immortalise the radiating huge smile of intense satisfaction of Nephat Kinyanjui, from Kenya, as he first crossed the finish line.

Summer Palace

It’s been just over one week that I moved in my new apartment. I feel comfortable so far maybe with the exception of the renovations going on directly under or maybe beside my bedroom. It resonates so much that I lose my morning sense of orientation. Almost every morning, at around 7h30, I wake up with the sweet symphony of a drill into the concrete wall beside my bed. Heavenly!

The bright side of that is that I’m forced to get up at a decent hour which is a good thing. So on one of those days following such a wakeup call I decided to make the most of it by going to visit the Summer Palace in the North West edge of the city. It used to be the summer residence, garden, and playground of the Emperors of the Old. There were lots of people but no shortage of space. It was easy to imagine how magical a place it must have been when it housed none other than the imperial court. I spent my whole day there wandering around until sunset and there remains much more to be seen.

It was rather amusing to look at him go. He was using his net not only to pick up algae and trash but also as a paddle. I thought that was pretty smart.

Today, Thursday the 18th of October, I started my very first official Mandarin course. It will be held 3 times a week, 2 hours each time with speech classes on Tuesdays and Fridays and writing classes on Thursdays. I will take it one class at a time since it’s promising to be daunting challenge. According to some people that I have met and that have been here for a few years already, that’s what it takes, a couple of years of intense training before being fluent in Chinese. Well, we’ll see in time. Whatever I can learn can do no harm. It’s time well wasted.

A sunset nearby my home...

Home Sweet Home in Beijing

The time to part from Stefanie, and her couch, was coming rapidly. I thus spent the last week-end looking for an apartment. The fourth one that I visited was the right one for me. Affordable and most conveniently located rather near a subway station, the bar street, and the CBD (Central Business District). It would be the equivalent of Rene-Lévesque and Crescent Street for those of you who know Montreal. It is small but cosy. I also have a roommate, Maggie, a young Chinese girl from whom I hope to learn some Mandarin.

Monday morning, I packed my bags and expressed my most sincere gratitude with Stefanie who had the extreme generosity to house me for 3 weeks. A few back packs around my shoulders, a taxi cab and I was there.









My bedroom with a little "greenhouse" which is also going to be my wardrobe.





I also have a nive little desk from where I'm writing these few lines.






Here is our bathroom/shower/laundry room. When you want to shower, all you have to do is lift the toilet seat up, cover the laundry machine with a plastic sheet, and turn on the water heater half an hour earlier and there you go. Come on... admit you are jealous ;-)








There we have a great big mirror in the main room which makes it "bigger".






Here are the entrance is on the left and the kitchen on the right.

The kitchen

It just so happens that my new apartment is directly across that very trendy and cool cafe/library/restaurant which I earlier told you about that rumour was that they were serving poutine at. So for celebrating, I went to verify. I had some difficulty finding it on the menu since they named this very exotic dish, ”Félix Leclerc”. The word “poutine” was in the necessary description that followed. It came with a choice of 3 different kinds of gravy: traditional, bolognaise, and pepper. Wanting to figure out the deepest origins of this piece of my home land, I went with the traditional one. A good 20 minutes later, this parcel of happiness was sitting under my nose in this fancy plate. First Impression: graded cheese. Second impression: the fries seemed good and crispy. They were. However the grave was rather rare and somewhat cool. In fact it was as if the cheese was resting on a bed of fries and the whole on a thin base of gravy. Nonetheless, the experience was generally positive. It was good to eat poutine.



Speaking of exotic meals, here are the scorpions and sea horses on sticks that I was talking about earlier. Looks delicious doesn't it?

A sea of people

It was National Day holydays this week. The whole country was off work and on the move towards Beijing, the capital and obvious destination of choice on this occasion for God knows how many thousands of people. Thanks to Stéfanie, who agreed to let me stay a while longer, I had a place to stay because it would have been practically impossible to find an available bed in town.


The festivities reserved me a rather rough start last Saturday as I got scammed by a trio of Chinese girls. I admit that I should have caught up earlier with it but it’s also partly I would have never even imagined that tea could be that expensive. They wanted to go have a drink so why not? They brought me to a traditional tea place. I could see that the prices were relatively high (50 RMB = 7.15$) but that was that high and it was going to be a new and rather charming experience. The pretty girl all dressed up with a red silk traditional uniform was serving us the most minuscule cups of tea no more than half the size of a shooter glass. A first serving than a second and then I simply ask if it was 50 RMB per “cup”? They answered that it was per kind of tea not by cup. After one or two more I realised that we had been having pretty much all different kinds for each “cup”. So then I asked how many kinds were we to try? While she was serving the next, they explained me that people that usually went there tried 8 or 10 kinds but that we were only going to try 6 since it had to be a pair number and 4 supposedly being a unlucky number in China. After not even 20 minutes, it was already too late. The bill arrived and she of course gave me the total... (2000 RMB = 285$) Of course that was no way I was going to couch up that much for 10 small sips of tea. I argued it down to 800 RMB which id approximately 110$ still a bloody rip off though. It was the first and the last time I get conned like that.

Another couch surfer landed in Stefanie’s flat an English lad originating from Hungry. An awesome bloke he is. Together, we went visiting the Fragrant Hills Park on the North West extremity of Beijing. It was very crowded from the base to the top of the small mountain. It was a rather beautiful and sunny day. We were quite popular and many people asked to have their picture taken with us. The return trip was a bit more challenging than the way there. All the busses were packed and paralysed in a dense sea of people. After 1 or 2 hours of walking, without really knowing where we were going, a bus finally stopped to pick us up. It was so packed there must have been two people per square foot, or almost... We finished the evening with a beer in a dodgy pool hall at the back of a small alley not far from Stefanie’s. Being probably the first white people to play pool there we didn’t go unnoticed there either.

This was not the actual pool hall. Ours was an interior one.





























The next day, Wednesday, wanting to “relax” from the hike at the park, I went to Tiananmen Square. It is the center of Beijing and where the Forbidden City is located, at least what is left of it. It is also where several tens of thousands, for not saying hundreds of thousands, go pay a visit and for a stroll during this National holyday. I took advantage of the view point offered by the main gate building of the Forbidden City, to look at the immense crowd.



The Lowering of the Flag Ceremony coincided with Sunset in front of a dense crowd. Militaries did their best to make the first 50m of the mood surrounding the mast to sit down.