Olympic Eventeering

A few people have asked me (now that my trip is all official-like:) which events I'm planning to see at the Beijing Olympics.

I'm flying out on Tuesday, 5th of August (at 1.05am!) to Beijing via Singapore and will land the same day at about 2.40pm that afternoon - giving me a few days to orient myself to Beijing and also collect my tickets from the CoSport ticketing agent in the city (hopefully close to one of the Olympic venues).

I'm afraid I didn't manage to get tickets to the Opening Ceremony (which was going to be a lottery anyway, and the ticket price marked was about $950, yes you read that right, $950); I'm hoping the Olympic Committee and the local government will have erected large screens outside the National Stadium (The Bird's Nest) or in Tian'an Men Square so tourists and Chinese alike can watch that grand ceremony live.

I bet they'll be something in there with Shaolin warrior monks defying gravity, and like, 10 000 dancers and gymnasts performing in unison - a large rippling scale of humanity. Awesome.

Saturday, 9th: Judo - University of Science & Technology Gymnasium

Sunday, 10th: Artistic Gymnastics - National Indoor Stadium

Monday, 11th: Fencing - Olympic Green

Tuesday, 12th: Badminton - Beijing University of Technology

Thursday, 14th: Archery - Olympic Green Archery field

Tennis - Olympic Green Tennis Centre

Friday, 15th: Basketball - Wukesong Indoor Stadium

Saturday, 16th: Softball - Fengtai Softball Field

Monday, 18th: Athletics - National Stadium

Tuesday, 19th: Beach Volleyball - Chaoyang Park Beach Volleyball Ground

Wednesday, 20th: Taekwondo - University of Science & Technology Gymnasium

I unfortunately didn't get any tickets to the Swimming or Diving and inadvertently got a ticket to the Equestrian without realising that it was actually going to be taking place in Hong Kong! (which is a 10 hour train/ A$1000+ flight) While it would have been fantastic to see this event, my $40 ticket is probably going to remain a souvenir of the event I didn't manage to get to :)

And then from the 21st onwards, I'm on a mini tour hitting a few spots in China for the next 9 days or so (via plane as it's too vast to traverse by bus!)