Zai jian, China

Yes, I know I'm technically back in Perth, but I thought in the interest of being a bit of a completist, I should finish off my travel blog properly :)

I actually thought London's section of the Closing Ceremony was pretty cool and it was entertaining to have a funky piece amongst all the Chinese fanfare. Watching the news, Boris Johnson (Mayor of London) had accidentally been referred to as Boris Yeltsin by a local commentator in one instance, oops... if any Londoners caught that I'm sure they would have smirked at the thought that their current rep for the city looked like a dead white Russian!

Yao Ming, the Team China basketball player towered over everyone at the after party of course, I think he hugged Australia's own amazonian Lauren Jackson at one point and she barely made it to his chin!

Anyway, I left lovely Chengdu and headed to sunny Guilin, flying into the city in the early evening and getting a chance to wander through their downtown markets and pass as a local (yes, it can be handy to blend in, the market sellers here can be mightily persistent when spotting a foreign tourist even glancing at their wares!)

I was after something quick for dinner and decided it would be interesting to see what their McDonald's had on the menu. Now, before you ask why I would even think about walking into the American fast food icon, I counter with the fact that I've noticed that food multinationals in Asia always seem to adapt to regional tastes, and you can sometimes find some appetizing (and amusing) hybrids.

Sure, there were the staples like Big Macs and a chocolate sundaes that you get on menu boards everywhere, but they also had a separate section close to the front door simply for desserts if you just wanted to nip in for a sweet treat. And sundaes were definitely for the local palate with pineapple toppings and sweet corn flavours! It was kinda fun to note the local input into the familiar menu.

It was a relatively early start the next morning on my Li River Cruise to Yangshuo. As it had been raining overnight, the vapour hung in the air and the karst hills wore a translucent shroud, making them look almost mystical and medieval. My guide had never seen them look so photogenic, and she was constantly trying to drag me outside to take yet another picture. I took a fair amount, but I mostly just enjoyed the ever-changing view and imagined sword fights in bamboo groves and mysterious warrior monks on inscrutable quests.

Yangshuo is described as a 'small highway town at the end of the Li River Cruise' and while a large portion of their income is courtesy of tourism (annoyingly so sometimes as a lot of the locals seem intent on selling you something - to the point of chasing you down with a notepad of various prices!); you can escape that a little by hiring a bike and cycling outside the town to a small village on the Jima Road which offers serene views of emerald paddy fields and bucolic buffalos.

A stop close by also had narrow river boats made of large bamboo available to rent, and simple food stalls advertising the speciality of the town, beer battered fish. Very picturesque.

Zhang Yimou, director of House of Flying Daggers and the Beijing Olympic Opening Ceremony, had been very taken by the beauty of the region and created a theatrical performance for the town which utilized the spectacular natural surroundings. It's a must see if you ever go to Yangshou and well worth the ticket price. I'm afraid I have a quibble about the Chinese tourists though, despite the announcement about no flash photography and to respect other patrons, cameras were swarming from the moment the show started and some people even stood up to get better vantage points! But really, a basic camera would get nothing but blurry images, just sit down and watch the show!

This pic is from the online travel guide website by the way.

http://www.yangshuo-travel-guide.com/liu-sanjie-show.html

The next day we drove back to Guilin and stopped off to see a Han and tribal village replica/ theme park, complete with animal skinned warriors and traditional folk craft; the fairy-like Reed Flute Caves; the Guilin City Park, where a decent climb offered gorgeous views of the city within the hills; and the Elephant Truck Hill Park, theme inspired to give its tourist planners the go ahead for Babar craziness in the surrounds of the natural rock formation. Cute, though.

Soon I was off to Shanghai, and looking forward to walking around the cosmopolitan city dubbed 'Paris of the East'. I saw the Oriental Pearl TV Tower on the way to my hotel after the flight, and had earlier read about The Bund, the heart of colonial Shanghai where the current architecture decorating the Huangpu River with hotels, offices and clubs gave the city it's notably spectacular skyline.

Unfortunately, I awoke Friday morning to a heavy downpour, which quelled a little after breakfast, but continued, intermittently, but persistently throughout the rest of the day. I had my trusty (though slightly broken) umbrella though and was determined to find the Bund.

I had been told it was within walking distance, but the map I had in my DK China book was a little vague and the hotel mini map on the back of my check-in card, pretty basic...

I was enjoying my walk around the city, but after a couple of hours of looking like I was heading in the right direction (the Oriental Pearl TV Tower was in sight!), I ended up getting turned around and lost when I caught what I had thought was a mostly above ground subway link (it promised a view of the Bund!), and ended up in an area that had forests of tall apartments... I seemed further away from my goal then ever.

I usually ask for help, but despite Shanghai having hosted the soccer at the Olympics, unlike Beijing, I could see no helpful volunteers in blue and white polo shirts anywhere, and the local subway staff ended up directing me onto a completely different line. (We were talking via sign language though...!:)

A cab ride later, I found the Bund. The walkways were deserted but for a few hardy tourists decked in wet weather gear, keen to try to take photos despite the rain. The Pearl still looked retro futuristic and strangely Bollywoodesque, with it's sparkly pink hues (pretty); but as I don't think my camera could put up with too much of the wet stuff, I walked over to Nanjing Lu, Shanghai's foremost shopping street for some lunch and window shopping.

Later that afternoon I also stumbled across the Yu Gardens Bazaar which totally caters for the tourist trade, having new shops housed in nostalgic winged pagoda buildings. A lot of intriguing items, but only consistent haggling would get you anywhere close to a good price for the vastly inflated merchandise.

I think I ended up walking for about 7+ hours that day. And I almost got my wallet stolen at one point (cue to me yelling at the pint sized perpetrator as she hurried off with her minder? dad? boyfriend?) But thankfully, no other dramas.

So Shanghai? Not as much fun as Beijing. But I got to ride the super fast Maglev train to the Pudong International Airport on my flight out - top speed 430kph!

Then back to Perth via the Singapore (overnight at Changi Airport's luxurious Terminal 3 - best mall in the world right there:)

So it's zai jian China, and if you think you can get to know a country from just what you read and watch in media, bear in mind this famous Chinese quote, "If you spend a month in China, you know enough to write a book... A year? maybe a page... And a lifetime, nothing. " I guess the more you find out about this country and live amongst it's people, the more it can defy your expectations of what you really think China is about, or how it should be, and where it's headed, and ultimately the impact it's going to have on the face of the world.

So see it for yourself.

Chengdu - home of the Panda

I'm staying at the nicest hotel! An average hotel is not worth writing about, but a nice one is always worth enthusing over!

It's not one that was listed on my itinerary, but it's the Sichuan Minchan Lhasa Grand Hotel, and it's practically brand new. That and the slightly depressed tourism economy here due to the earthquake earlier in the year has placed me in a room which I wish I could almost take with me - even back to Australia! It's got one rather unusual thing though, the bathroom, which of course is adjoining the bedroom has a clear glass panel which means that if you're in the bedroom you can see right into shower...and vice versa ;) Fun for couples, I bet...!

Anyway, despite Jane (my guide in Chengdu and our driver Mr Lee) insisting that it never rains in the city during the day, this morning brought steady showers as I caught up with them outside the hotel.

I had met them last night when they had picked me up from the airport and we had gotten a chance to get to know each other over a typical Sichuan banquet of spicy tofu, fish, sliced pork with greens, slivered steamed potatoes and small noodles. Seriously, there was enough food to feed a family and with just the three of us I thought it was almost too much. But in China, it's considered good manners to leave a little behind in your plate, it means that the host has done a good job of providing enough for you to eat. If you clean your plate, it means the host has been negligent and deficient in their duties. So don't clean your plate when dining with Chinese friends!

We drove to the Giant Panda Breeding Centre and as we had chosen an early start we caught a bunch of 4 years olds (teenagers, I guess!) having their regular breakfast of bamboo all together. They were awesome! It was amazing to see them so close!

We also saw some newborns in their incubators (so small and twitchy); and one year olds hanging out with their keepers. They were seriously cute balls of fluff and loved to play. You can have your picture taken with one for about 1000yuan, but I didn't need to do that, I thought it was fantastic to just be able to see them so close.

There was also enclosures for the big pandas (mostly hiding out from the rain!) and the smaller, though no less cute red pandas, who have quite a reputation for being very naughty but fun, as they jump from tree to tree and play and tumble with each other. They are actually not a bear at all (unlike the panda which is related to the brown bear) but is closer genetically to raccoons (which explains their naughtiness, as raccoon are intelligent but mischievous scavengers).

Wenshu Temple was next for the morning; a beautiful and very high ranking Buddhist temple in the heart of Chengdu, it had fragrant incense offered free for burning, and a constant reminder that this was a practising temple by the presence of monks praying, working, studying and walking through all of its sections and buildings.

I had a lovely jasmine tea in a seating area close to the central courtyard, very relaxing!

Jane had asked me about lunch yesterday for today and I had said something typical of the region, but maybe not a banquet! So we stopped in at the Lanquoshou Tea House and she said that Menu A had some Sichuan snack-type food, which would give me a overview of the specialities of the province. I loved the little bite-sized portions of everything and was easily able to get my fill without feeling guilty about leaving so much behind.

The final stop of the day was at the poet Du Fu's Thatched Cottage, which is really a series of pavilions, pools (containing turtles or koi), bridges and picturesque trees. The gardens contain a much larger and more impressive model of the actual cottage that one of the Tang Dynasty's most celebrated poets was said to have resided in when he was living in Sichuan. Du Fu often wrote of the plight of the common people in contrast to the aristocracy and of the turmoil of contemporary life. Chairman Mao is famously said to have visited the gardens (there is a picture of him looking at some mosaiced characters close to the entrance) and there are also pictures of Henry Kissinger (former US Secretary of State and Nobel Peace Prize laureate - he was actually in Beijing for the Opening Ceremony!), Jacques Chirac (former French President) and intriguingly, a photo of the leader of the Australian arm of the Communist Party and his wife, from a visit they made here in about 1950.

Tonight I'm looking forward to watching the Closing Ceremony of the Beijing Olympic Games and very curious as to what London is going to come up with for their section!

History lessons

As you know, I'm in Xi'an at the moment, which is literally the birthplace of what the West perceive as ancient China.

I had a chance to look at the Bell Tower in the centre of Xi'an yesterday and it's comparatively new, having being first built in 1384AD. It offer spectacular views of the town's main road, though you could hardly call Xi'an a town having roughly 4 times the population of Perth, with 8 million people calling the locality home.

Xi'an is in the Shaanxi province, at the heart of China and it was here that the First Emperor, Qin Shi Huangdi, unified China and standardized the country's language, currency and instilled Xi'an (then known as Chang'an) as the seat of political power. If you've seen Zhang Yimou's movie Hero, you'll be familiar with the story - how ironic that in that film, Jet Li played a character who seeks to assassinate this emperor, but in the upcoming Mummy film, he is actually playing a version of the despotic ruler himself! :)

I'm missing movies, I happened to switch on the TV here and Nottinghill was on one of the channels with Hugh Grant and Rhys Ifans chatting in Mandarin :) At least they got close to the timbre of the actors actual voices in the dubbing!

So today it was a visit to the spectacular Shaanxi Museum, which has relics from prehistoric China, through to their bronze age and up until the Ming and Tang Dynasty periods which reflect Xi'an's rise and decline as the former seat of power. I don't know if there were big crowds in general or because the weather lent itself to tourists, but there were multitudes of people eager to have their photos taken in front of the displayed terracotta warriors in the museum and the amazing (though hard to discern due to lack of light) terracotta miniature chariots with horses.

Another Xi'an must see is the Great Goose Pagoda, established during the Tang Dynasty (AD 652) and which has an interesting section documenting the chronicles of the monk Xuanzang, who travelled to India and returned with important sutras, said to immortalised with the tale of the Journey into the West (but I thought that had Monkey, Pigsy and Sandy too...or maybe I'm just nostalgic for Monkey Magic :)

We then headed off to see the much advertised terracotta warriors themselves. The countryside surrounding their location was beautiful, green hills in the distance and the centre surrounding the pits built up in a classic style to support the ensuing tourist industry.

Pit 1 is spectacular. Containing the main infantry, the large silo structure houses over 6000 warriors in battle formation with horses amongst them. There are still fragments to be assembled, and in raised sections of the pit you can see evidence of what restorers have been painstakingly working towards for over 30 years.
Pit 2 is just as fascinating, but less worked on as they are still excavating; and Pit 3, rumoured to the the command centre is unexcavated due to archaeologists wishing to wait for better restoration techniques to be developed, as the soldiers in Pit 1 and 2 had initially displayed colours upon their first discovery, however these paints have subsequently oxidised and faded with exposure to the air.

Rebecca, my guide was reasonably helpful with her local knowledge, but really so much has been written and documented about the terracotta warriors (there's even a kung fu/ acrobat/ opera spectacular currently playing in Beijing all about them!); that I already knew most of the information from my DK book and the notes at the museum.
I did get a chance to buy some jade earlier in the day though, and I was happy to get the real thing (totally worried I was going to ignorantly buy a cheap hard plastic knock-off!:)

Here's a pic of some warriors in the latest leisure wear in Xi'an :)

The Road to Xi'an

I had been told a few days ago that cab to the Beijing Airport from my hotel at Beijingzhan East Liu (street) was going to cost about 120yuan.
Now in the grand scheme of things, that's about AU$20, but you know what happens when you start living in a new country... you get savvy to the prices that the locals pay for everything, and despite spending close to that amount to get from the airport to the hotel when I first came into China, I was now goldfishing about the extra 20yuan it was going to cost to get back out there.

In my crisscrossing subway adventures, I had noticed that there was an airport express line which was very conveniently just one transfer from my main line to get to. I had intended to catch a cab anyway to Dongzhimen station and just go straight onto the Airport Express to Terminal 2, but when I checked out this morning it was pouring so heavily that taxis scurried like beetles to avoid the rain and just about all of them seemed to be heavy with passengers who would normally be either walking, cycling or catching one of those lightly covered motorcycle one person taxis, that to my mind I've never really seen yet anywhere else in the world.

So I was grateful to have the fallback plan of taking the subway all the way to the airport and that my luggage, though heavier than I would have liked (I blame the sturdy but dense case more than anything) was compact enough for me to levy up and down stairs without having to resort to drastic measures (Lian knows what I'm talking about!:)

I think I must have flown into Beijing's Terminal 3 when I first arrived, because Terminal 2 was not familiar at all.
More domestic flights seems to be on the arrivals and departures screens and at first I was confused as to where I needed to go to check in, as my contact from China Odyssey Tours had only given a flight number as my booking and said that all I needed to do was show up to the counter with my passport and I would be issued with a boarding pass.

I managed to find the correct series of counters, and right before I was up to see the check-in staff, a woman with a tall tween age son, walked right in front of me and started waving her tickets in front of the woman behind the counter.
When it became clear that this wasn't an emergency and the woman behind the counter could do nothing to help her, I had to speak up and really, I was pretty indignant to her face as to why did she think that it was perfectly fine for her to push in right in front of not just me but everyone else in the line to think that she should be served first?! She looked embarrassed, but didn't really say anything, and while I stood glaring at her, she grabbed her bags and walked away. Honestly!

On the whole, the Chinese people I have met here and chatted with have been great. Friendly, helpful and eager to talk about their country and the world; but there have been a few things...
The mad crush to be the first inside the subway, even if people are trying to get out... absolutely no rules for drivers and the pedestrians who risk their lives trying to cross busy intersections... and yesterday someone referred to me as a banana (!) though I think he meant to be lightly teasing, it kinda made me sad to think that even here I could be discriminated against.
I guess in Australia at least I could be vocal in my rebuttal, at the time I was almost too shocked to utter anything more than a "Hey...!" before deciding I'd be better served by walking off into the Tae Kwon Do venue.

For the most part though, it's the younger Chinese that have been the most open and welcoming - the high school student studying to be a teacher who was shyly envious that I had been to Japan and was hoping to one day go himself; the dual US/ Chinese college student who chatted to me about movies and how even though he had taken Tae Kwon Do as an sports option, couldn't figure out the winning moves any better than anyone else in the arena yesterday; and my Xi'an guide, Jung Shing aka Rebecca, a sweet girl who met me today at the airport and who upon showing me around the city's restored South Wall and classical Bell Tower told me her dreams about travelling and her lack of knowledge as a tour guide :) She's right, I got more information on those structures from my DK China book :)

But it's okay, it's a little funny having you own personal guide about town. I feel like she's my kid sister and as she's done tours with far older participants, she's not used to having someone reasonably active (!) In response to whether or not the schedule was too much, I told her that having climbed the Great Wall at Mutianyu, I should be okay taking the steps up a three storey building. Heck, my room in Beijing was on the 4th floor of the complex and there were no elevators. I've been in stair climbing training for over two weeks!

So at this hotel I have access to the Internet, but no USB drive on the Lenovo set up, so I can't add any pictures for a bit, maybe at Chengdu :)

Tae Kwon Do and my last full day in Beijing!

Well, it all ended pretty much the way it began.

I headed back to the Beijing Science and Technology University Gymnasium for my last event of this Olympic season, the Tae Kwon Do, which ironically was having it's first day of competition.

It was the Women's Under 49kg and Men's under 59kg weight classes, and while the women may have been small, the Chinese and Kenyan fighters especially had an attitude (and in the Kenyan's case, quite a war cry) that made you want to clear a very wide berth around them. It totally psyched their opponents out :)

I'm a local now when it comes to using the Beijing Subway, and so had none of the problems I experienced trying to get here the first time for Judo; and it felt satisfying somehow to see how reasonably I'd adapted to the day to day of living in this city.

In a way Beijing's kinda been at the centre of the world during this amazing sporting event, and soon the rest of the foreign visitors, like me, will move on. Athletes will lick their wounds, winners will pack their medals, losers will set aside their pride, and all will begin to focus on London in 2012.

(Though if you're into winter sports, Vancouver is now practically around the corner! But Australia doesn't do so well in the Winter Games... :)

It was back to my humble abode to finish packing and this write up. I'm not sure if I'll have as much of a chance to post any future missives with the hotels I'll be staying at for the next week or so, but I'll try to make notes and see how I go.

In the meantime, thanks for all your comments and for reading my blog. I've had a great time putting it together and I hope you enjoyed my view from China.

See you soon,

Athletics and Beach Volleyball

I'm never travelling without Echinacea again!

Those who live with me know I have been religious about having some of the herb as a tea (which comes in a yummy blackcurrant flavour), right before I go to bed pretty much ever since I started rehearsals for the last show I was in; and I kept up the practise ahead of my trip to China.

However, I was worried that Customs over here might hassle me about bringing foodstuffs into the country so decided against packing any with me just in case.

I thought I had been getting better, but I spent an inordinate amount of time yesterday sneezing and trying to stem a runny nose. I was taking things easy, just visiting a couple of temples ahead of my Athletics session which was due to start at 7.00pm in the evening, the weather was warm, but I guess when a virus catches ya...!

The Bird's Nest interior was impressive, yet surprisingly intimate. I don't know if I was expecting it to be larger, as it's imagery has dominated the representation of New Beijing for so long, but seeing as it seats roughly 91,000 people at any one time, you could hardly call it a small venue :)

I was up in the third tier, but still had good views of just about all the events taking place, and with my trusty binoculars I managed to get close enough to see the expressions on the athletes I focused on - though the screens on either side of the stadium were quick to take you straight to all the action.

So I was there when the US won it's first discus gold since 1932; when Russia took out the gold for the highest women's pole vault and set a new world record; and I also saw Kenya dominate the men's 3000m steeplechase.

I got to see the fastest man in the world, Usian Bolt (how fitting a name!) run in a qualifying round of the 200m (he sailed through and appeared to look back and smile at his opponents, nearly a whole body length behind him); and stand up for the Jamaican national anthem as the Olympic podium received the three extraordinary women who won the one gold and two silvers for the 100m sprint.
All in all a fantastic night. Except for my nose, of course :)

It would be remiss of me if I didn't mention how fantastic all the volunteers were on the stadium field. From the team who patiently and with dedicated precision set up and dismantled the hurdles and steeplechase for those events; to the flag bearers, athlete equipment handlers, even the guys who worked the remote control toy cars that would be sent out to bring back each discus after it was thrown (that was cute!)

While they will never been seen by the audience at home, I know for a fact that the sportspeople here have appreciated immensely just how smooth the Olympics have been progressing due to the time and effort of the quiet and practically invisible crew.

Earlier in the day, I had taken in the grandeur and then spiritually of the Temple of Heaven and then Yonghegong Lama Temple. The former was situated in a park, and though the main attraction of the Hall of Prayer and Good Harvests still had the tourist photographer's singular attention; I was surprised to see that the surrounds still functioned, as a park.

A few people were practising tai chi, some were just sitting and having a meal with their family, a lot were watching Olympic events on a giant screen set up close to a walled intersection, and here and there groups of locals and foreigners alike were playing impromptu games of hackey sack (or the Chinese version) with bought toys from the local vendors.

Yonghegong was set up more for active prayer, with retailers leading up to the lamasery selling incense in all it's forms as well as other local arts and crafts. It is believed to be the largest Tibetan Lama Temple in the world and houses a giant sandlewood Buddha carved from one piece of wood that has been certified by the Guiness Book of World Records no less :)

No pictures within the interior of temples themselves, of course.

After my evening at the Bird's Nest, I was anxious to get back to my hotel as I had an early start this morning for Beach Volleyball for 9.00am at Chaoyang Park. Unfortunately, just when I closed my eyes at around midnight, a Polish group who are obviously in residence for the Games, began to gather in the courtyard - which is central for all the inner hotel rooms - and shout! sing! drink! for the next 3 hours.

At around an hour in, I called the Front Desk to try to get them to please do something about the noise, they apologised but said that the group didn't seem to listen to them and that they had already had about 15 complaints about the noise from other guests. Arrgh!

I was aware that I had set my alarm for 6.30am and was seriously debating whether to head down there myself to tell them to just shut up, but really, drunk people very rarely listen to sober ones trying to sleep unless they happen to be wearing a badge.

I stuffed cotton wool in my ears, put a pillow over my head and cursed the lot of them to lose their voices for the next few days.

I was puffy, but awake for Beach Volleyball and it was a hot day at the stadium, perfect for recreating the summer sport - all you needed was the ocean on the horizon with a smattering of surfers and the vision would be complete!

I was a little disappointed that I had a ticket to a Women's Final (reigning champions USA vs Brazil) as with all the bikinis on show, a few fit and muscled male physiques would have balanced out the winsome but generic "cheerleaders" that bounced throughout the game breaks. At least the Fuwa were fun, the number of times they tried to do some complicated jump in those inflatable suits only to fall on their faces having misjudged how much softer sand is to land on...hilarious :)

The game was over quickly and Team USA emerged triumphant, despite strong support from a vocal but much smaller contingent of Brazilian fans.

I thought I might head over to Tain'namen Square proper for a bit as it was now open to the public, and took some pictures of those imposing and determined statues before gazing with disbelief at the great wall of people that made up the line into Mao's Memorial Hall. (It's free to go in with ID and the man himself in there under glass - like a macabre version of not-Snow White).
Um, pass!

I realised that I actually needed to pack as I have a morning flight on Thursday and a late evening finish to my last event of Tae Kwon Do tomorrow night.

Much as I've enjoyed seeing all the events and exploring Beijing, it'll be good to see a few other parts of China (and yes, I'm looking forward to Chengdu and the panda bears!:)

The tail end of my Olympic adventure

I decided to take it a little easy this weekend, as I have invariably caught a mild virus from riding on numerous squishy subways.

I'm mostly okay though, and headed off yesterday to the Softball at the Fengtai Sport Centre Field to take in a game which finally gave me a chance to fly my Australia flag! :)

It was Australia versus the Netherlands, and from the onset the Dutch didn't really stand a chance. While they were a strong enough team - with a hell of a pitcher - the introduction by the commentators when both teams were warming up that Australia had earned the bronze medal for the sport at both the Atlanta and Sydney Games and a silver in Athens, might have psyched the opposing team out.

Australia won easily and I was happy that I had a chance to wave my flag and clap enthusiastically through the 7 innings afforded on this Olympic event. My ticket also meant I had entry to see the second game of Canada taking on Venezuela, and they seemed initially more evenly matched, despite Softball being more widely promoted in Canada.

It was interesting to see all the Australian fans in their green and gold livery (and headgear!) depart the stands after the first game, to soon be replaced by the white and red flags and costumes of the Canadian supporters. I guess when you barrack for a team, it's way more fun when you're there en masse! :)

As I had time earlier in the day for a bit of a wander, I noticed that the Military Museum of the People's Republic of China was on my way, so stopped in to have a look at China's proud Communist legacy.

As expected, it was an overview of the giants of China's 20th century regime, with whole floors given over to the vehicles and instruments of war that remind you that what has been achieved here has sometimes been at the point of a gun.

But on the higher levels there were sections devoted to art, calligraphy and the philosophy of Sun Tzu, author of the prodigious 'The Art of War' which despite it's title, also advocates diplomacy and the cultivation of positive relationships with other nations.

There was also a veritable treasure trove of gifts from heads of state from around the world to China; I spotted items from Bob Hawke and Kevin Rudd in the Oceania section and Richard Nixon and Yasser Arafat in the Americas and Middle Eastern sections respectively.

I had no events today and so just walked through the Wangfujing centre mall and dropped by a Christian event in Liangmaqiao, as it had been advertised that multi-sport former Olympian Carl Lewis was going to be there.

However, I left soon after the highlight of seeing one of the Harlem Globetrotters and hearing an inspiring former Olympian runner speak about her relationship with Jesus. While she was cool and so were the other sports people there, (I had gotten the invite from Dr David Smethurst, a likable chaplain for the athletes who happened to sit with his group at my table in McDonalds a few days ago - the people you meet on Olympic Green!); my lapsed Catholic reticence and general secular attitude made the whole white gospel atmosphere of the event a little too much for me to take.

But hey, to each their own, and what is amazing it that the Chinese Government, who less than a decade ago disapproved of any outward form of religious worship (one of the tenets of Communism); is now quite supportive of the Christian ministries that seem to be springing up all over China.

Tomorrow I finally get my chance to see the Track and Field events at the Bird's Nest, so I'm very excited about that! :)