Fair and Balanced Olympic Reporting

The following article from ESPN talks about some issues I've touched on and about other issues that I dared not talk about for fear of having our website shut down. I've wanted to write about these things for a complete picture of what I've been experiencing during these Olympics.


As I read this article I was wondering how this article was getting through the Great Firewall of China with all of those "hot button" issues it mentions, without being blocked. Then I realized something ingenious... The article on the ESPN website is actually a picture, in .jpg format. So in order for this article to get detected, somebody would have to actually read it and report it. Take that Firewall!


Here's the article, it's worth reading...

The Olympic Green

The Olympic Green is the main site for the Olympics where some of the big, new stadiums were built such as the Bird's Nest, Water Cube, and the National Indoor Stadium. You can only get into this area if you have a ticket for an event that day, but once in the compound you're free to wander the entire area. I think the name of the area, The Olympic Green, is an attempt to focus your thoughts on natural "green" things, and away from the reality of how polluted and "non-green" the Beijing air really is.

Here's a picture with some people I met. I actually was trying to buy the shirt of the guy who is taking this picture. It was a shirt that was given only to some group of volunteers, I wanted it because I thought the back of it was great. I offered to buy him another shirt, but no deal. At any rate, we did get some pictures out of the interaction!

A picture of the National Indoor Stadium, where I watched the gymnastics meet:

The Bird's Nest and the Olympic Flame:

The facility where fencing and some other sports are being held. I like this picture because of the three ladies holding their umbrellas... this is SO Chinese. There are two types of umbrellas in China, on for when it rains to keep the water off you, one for days like this to keep the sun off you and keep you cool.

Most Chinese women fear the sun because they don't want to get dark, so many Chinese women carry sun umbrellas throughout the summer. Probably a great idea, actually, but we Americans somehow got confused and think that having the sun damage our skin looks healthy.

A picture outside of the Water Cube, where Michael Phelps won his 8 gold medals, by day....

and the Water cube by night:

Yeah, ok, this "night" picture is really in front of a picture, but at least the torch I'm holding is a real Beijing Olympic Torch.

This area is still in the Olympic Green area, it's a demonstration area to show the traditional homes of Beijing, called "hutong." My friends and I went to a renovated hutong area of Beijing for dinner one evening, it makes for a great traditional environment.

And now a word from our sponsors... This is "sponsor row," where the sponsors of these Olympics each had their own building to demonstrate some things from their company and show various Olympic items of interest.

NBCOlympics.com covers... ME! ;-)

Well they didn't really cover "me," but I was part of a story that was aired. I was walking around one of the tourist spots here in Beijing, the Temple of Heaven, and I see a camera crew that I think must be from my parents' area back in America. So I asked them and sure enough it was. The reporter and I chatted a bit,then she asked me to say the name of the city we are in (Beijing) and I said it like the Chinese do and not like Americans do (at least "more" like the Chinese do, I'll probably never say anything just like they do!).

She was doing a report on the proper pronounciation of "Beijing." So she then asked if she could put me on camera and I agreed. The report finally aired on Sunday. It was fun for me and my family to get e-mails saying that they saw the report on TV.
I originally couldn't see this website, because NBC is restricted from showing their Olympic coverage to only TVs and computers that are in the US. But I have since upgraded my internet that gives me a "virtual" connection from the US, so I now I can watch this and other things that are normally blocked outside of the States.

The video can be viewed here:
http://www.nbcolympics.com/video/player.html?assetid=2939&channelcode=st_ksl

Just so you know, there are two mistakes in the report. One is the way that my last name is spelled and the other is that they say that I speak "fluent" Chinese... haha!!

I'm hungry

One big shortfall of these games has been the food at the concession stands. It's not that it hasn't been good, it just "hasn't been," meaning that food at concessions stands has basically been non-existent.

This was at the 80,000 seat soccer game... the stadium is divided up into four quarters, so this is the concession area for one-quarter of the stadium. It consists of two tents with "food" and a couple of stands to purchase drinks:

With the Chinese inability to stand in lines, you could literally wait forever to get anything.
Since the water supply is not drinkable, they can't use fountain drinks at these venues without large filtration systems. Then, so as to prevent bottles from becoming potential projectile-weapons, they're poured into cups, which really slows down the process.

So you're "stuck" at the venue for at least 5 hours, if won't be readmitted if you leave. So here's the standard menu at all the venues:

On the bright side, at least it's cheap!

Lack of concessions isn't just an Olympic issue, but it's a Chinese issue in general. It was like this for the Women's World Cup Soccer here in Shanghai last September, and was also like this for the Team USA basketball games at the beginning of the month. If they only realized how much happier they could make the spectators, and more importantly for them, how much money they could make, if they offered more items for sale...

The only exception at any of the venues that I've seen (and eaten at!) is there is one McDonald's on the Olympic Green compound where the Bird's Nest and Water Cube are located. McDonald's in China must be the best-tasting McDonald's in the world! Either that, or I'm REALLY hungry when I end up resorting to McDonald's...
The upside is that the food outside of the venues has been wonderful!

Here's a couple of pictures from when Daryl and I went to eat authentic Peking Duck:

A picture after an awesome dinner in a great location, in the outside courtyard inside of a Beijing "hutong" (the traditional housing for the area) with Air Force Olmsted Scholars Jade (left) and Phoenix. I stayed with Phoenix and her husband Cliff... couldn't have asked for better hosts. They really gave me an inside look of the good life in Beijing!

Here's a picture of Cliff (right) and Phoenix's brother Zack, with the hutong courtyard in the background.

For those Air Force folks that may be reading this and think Cliff looks familiar, he's a USAFA grad, class of '99 who just recently separated (might not be able to tell with that goatee!)

Beach Volleyball

I went to beach volleyball with fellow Air Force Olmsted Scholar, Brian, his wife Akiko, and parents. He is finishing up his time here in China, having studied in Guangzhou (you know, that small city of 15 million down by Hong Kong). It was fascinating talking with Brian and Akiko about their unique experience of living in China and the prejudices they faced because Akiko is from Tokyo. There is still a lot of hate among the Chinese toward the Japanese...

Talking with Brian, who is moving to his next assignment in Honolulu next month, reminded me that this experience will one day come to an end, so I had better continue to enjoy every day of it! (Although living in Hawaii is hardly a hardship tour)

This was the first match of the evening, the stadium did fill up completely later

Beach volleyball may be the best entertainment value of the entire Olympics. The stadium seats 10,000 spectators, so tickets were pretty plentiful, and there are six one-hour matches to watch.

I thought I knew what to expect of a beach volleyball event, but I had no idea! This is an adrenaline filled, action packed, entertaining event. The music during the event only stops from the time the ball is actually served, until the ball goes is called out. Then the music starts and the spectators start singing and dancing. I got a kick out of watching people from all over the world singing along with pop songs such as Bon Jovi's "Living on a Prayer" and Men at Work's "I Come From a Land Down Under" for the Aussies. It took me back to the good days of the 80's... something about that music that makes people happy!

I forget who was playing in this picture...Oh yes, it's Brazil!

This "sport" is all about advertising... from the music commercials used in the game to the hats and sunglasses they wear, it's all about pushing their sponsors... and aggressively pushing them.

Later in the men's competition, the American team wore sunglasses with no lenses. Since this was late in the evening, I at first thought the lenses were just clear lenses to reduce glare from the lights or perhaps to help prevent sand getting into their eyes, but no, the sunglasses in fact had no lenses. I was confused! I only found out later that they do this to advertise the brand of their sunglasses during their night games... are you serious?!

The cheerleaders at this event have actually been generating their own headlines in the news.

To quote this video on NBCOlympics.com, "An already party-like atmosphere, cheerleaders use a variety of dances to make sure the beach volleyball fans stay rowdy." http://www.nbcolympics.com/video/player.html?assetid=0815_bvbgirls_ja228&channelcode=sportbv

This was actually hilarious: so the two teams were warming up while the cheerleaders were doing their dances on the sidelines and then... they moved onto the court itself, effectively kicking the players off the court.

You can see the players at the bottom of this picture just looking at the cheerleaders, I think in disbelief, because they totally invaded and took over the court while they were warming up. After watching for a couple of minutes, and realizing the cheerleaders weren't giving up the court, the players left the court.


So while we were completely entertained, we also wondered if this was really worthy of being an Olympic sport. I'm not saying that these athletes aren't world class athletes, but I really felt that you could almost leave from this event after six hours of watching it and think that you had been to a dance contest and not a sporting event.

Regardless, go USA, we need some gold medals to catch up!

China loses "face," Milli Vanilli Style!

If you haven't seen this article from the Olympics, here you go....

Here a picture of the cute little girl that sang in the Opening Ceremony last week:

Turns out, she didn't sing, she lip-synched. So what, a lot of people lip-synch their songs in concert, right? Turns out that she didn't even record the song, this girl did:
So come to find out, China pulled a Milli Vanilli on the world! (Morgan just told me she didn't know what "Milli Vanilli" meant. I guess if you don't, you can google it!).

So China couldn't find a girl who was "cute enough" and could sing?! Maybe if there wasn't such a strong preference for boys under the country's one-child policy there would be more of a selection of girls to choose from.

You have to read the quotes from the various Chinese officials defending their actions. My favorite quote is "the reason was for the national interest."

What's your favorite quote?!

Here's the link to the article, and I've pasted it below as well...

Olympic girl seen but not heard

http://edition.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/asiapcf/08/12/oly.kids/index.html

A little girl and her song captivated millions of viewers during the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympics. But what they saw was not what they heard.

Games organizers confirm that Lin Miaoke, who performed "Ode to the Motherland" as China's flag was paraded Friday into Beijing's National Stadium, was not singing at all.

Lin was lip-syncing to the sound of another girl, 7-year-old Yang Peiyi, who was heard but not seen, apparently because she was deemed not cute enough.

"The reason was for the national interest," said Chen Qigang, the ceremony's musical director, in a state radio interview. "The child on camera should be flawless in image, internal feeling and expression. ... Lin Miaoke is excellent in those aspects."

The decision was made at the highest levels, Chen said.

"We had to do it," he said. "We'd been through several inspections. They're all very strict. When we rehearsed at the spot, there were several spectators from various divisions, especially leaders from the Politburo, who gave the opinion it must change."

Few who watched the Olympic ceremony realized the deception. "Tiny singer wins heart of nation," read the headline in Tuesday's China Daily newspaper.

"Lin Miaoke might be only 9 years old but she is well on her way to becoming a star, thanks to her heartwarming performance," the article gushed -- without mentioning she never sang a note.

But as word has gotten out on the Internet, some Chinese bloggers are outraged.

"If you're not good-looking, no matter how well you sing, you'll not be onstage. Do you know you're twisting a whole generation?" read one comment.

Another said, "If foreigners found out, they'd think we can't even find a girl who is good at both."

As for Yang Peiyi, she's been quoted as saying she was honored to have had a role in the opening ceremony, even though few realized just how big her part really was.

---------------------

All I can say is... unbelievable!

Another side of Beijing

These games have been wonderful games indeed. It's been a great place to host an event such as the Olympics for multiple reasons.

Visitors can come here to watch/participate in the games and other activities, but then can also take travel within the city to see some pretty incredible historical/tourist destinations, some of which I've visited and detailed.

The other great benefit to the games being hosted here is that despite the high prices for hotel rooms (my friend's place being a wonderful exception to that), everything else is very inexpensive.

The tickets, if you could get them were comparatively inexpensive. My beach volleyball tickets are RMB 120, or about $17.50. Transportation is cheap: you can travel anywhere on the subway for 2 kuai, or about 29 cents. Taxis are plentiful and cheap as well. The food is good... and cheap. No matter where you are, from being in an event to being inside a top tourist destination, the price for a 20 oz bottle of water is 3 kuai ($.44) and a bottle of Coke is 4 kuai ($.58). Compare that with the 3 to 5 bucks (or more) you may pay at a major sporting event or tourist destination.

These plastic bottles bring up a related topic... where do the plastic bottles go? Everybody knows that China's rise has been due to China opening up it's economy to foreign investment to take advantage of the large, cheap labor supply. When you only have to pay a construction worker RMB 1,000 ($150) per month, you can build a lot of big buildings, stadiums, roads, subways.

Some people actually survive in China by collecting recyclable items and selling them. Shanghai is the same, you'll see very poor people digging through trash cans to find bottles to collect. Beijing has been the same. Some bottle collectors were so bold as to come up to us and ask us for our bottles while we were still drinking from them.

It is a striking contrast to see the glitz/glamour of the new in the big cities being built/maintained/cleaned by the extremely poor migrant works from the surrounding areas.

Wherever I/we were, these bottle collectors could be seen "working." Here are a couple of examples:




If you look hard enough, you can see the Olympic flame burning on top of the Bird's Nest in the distance (not the closer stadium, but stadium further back). I just think it's such an interesting contrast to see this in the shadows of the Olympic flame.

Women's Gymnastics Team Final!

There were two events that I definitely wanted to see during the Olympics: USA vs China in men's basketball and the women's gymnastics team final. Odd combination, I know, but ever since I watched Mary Lou Retton win the gold back in the day I've been a women's gymnastics fan.

As you know, I watched the game on TV since the $1,000+ for tickets was way too much. So it was time to try to get a ticket for the gymnastics final.
I put an ad on the Beijing expat website requesting one ticket for the event. I got a phone call last night someone wanting 200 Euros ($300+) for a ticket. I offered half that and he said no way...

I went to the Olympic park entrance this morning where there were plenty of people selling all sorts of tickets. Gymnastics tickets were going for RMB2,000+ (~300+). So I called the guy back from last night and asked if he still had a ticket -- he did, and we agreed on RMB1,500 ($200) .

He took forever to come to the location, and we kept in touch on our cell phones. The longer he took, the lower the price went. So when he finally showed up to make me 30 minutes late for the two-hour event, our price had dropped to RMB 400 ($58)!! ;-)

This was a very exciting day. The Americans came into the event trailing the Chinese by 1.5 points, but well ahead of the Romanians & Russians. After a Chinese gymnast fell off the beam, the US pulled within one point.

But then disaster struck:

This is a picture of Alicia Sacromone after she fell of the balance beam. She was docked points both for falling off the beam and for not being able to do one of the flips she was supposed to do because she had to hop back on the beam rather than use the platform to jump on. This definitely gave China breathing room...

She was able to put the fall behind her and completed a very strong routine other than the fall.

Then disaster struck the second time. Apparently Alicia wasn't able to put the fall off the beam completely behind her as the next (and last) event was the floor exercise. On her first tumbling pass she fell on her bum and then her back, then on the third tumbling pass she stepped out of bounds:

And just like that (and some other mistakes on the first day that put the US in the hole to begin with), the heavily-favored US team, with the two best gymnasts in the world, took silver as a team.

One question, however. The minimum age for competition is 16. Does anybody think the Chinese girls look 16? Just look at the body types: the Americans are fit young women, the Chinese are undeniably girls:

For more on the age controversy you can look at this Time magazine article: http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1832312,00.html
The article says that this American team is on average 3.5 inches taller and 30 pounds heavier than the Chinese team. If in fact the Chinese girls are 16 (highly doubtful), maybe gymnastics can divide itself into divisions like boxing and weighlifting... you know, weight classes. The Chinese can compete in the super-light weight class and the Americans can compete in the healthy-weight class ;-)

Some other random pictures from the event:

Even the Olympic mascots, the "Fuwas," do gymnastics!

Great day, great event... incredible to see this in person. There is so much going on and it's amazing to see the athletes compete in my favorite Olympic competition.

Scorpions, Silk Worms, and Starfish

What do these three things in common? Yup, they all start with the letter "S." What else? These are three of the critters that my friend Darryl and I ate on Wangfujing Street.

Scorpions, silk worms ans secadas:

An entire block of every creepy/crawly... on a stick!

Starfish, sea urchins, octopus and other seafood

This place is just fascinating. The vendors seem to love the astonished faces we foreigners give them looking at their menus. I took some comfort in talking with several Chinese there who don't like eating these things.

The street takes on a feeling of "Fear Factor" or a game of dare. Nobody really wants to eat anything here, yet everybody does to push their limits. When somebody makes a purchase, several other tourists gather around to watch them actually eat it. When that person doesn't die, then some of those who watched are emboldened enough to try somethng.

Darryl and I ended up "teaming" up with a German couple we met while eating silk worms, and we moved on to eat the scorpions and starfish together. Isn't it great how we can all get along?!

Oh yeah, we didn't touch these:

Lamb parts including testicles, hearts and livers, and "other" parts

Coincidentally, there is a cnn.com report on this area of Wangfujing Street, filmed during the Olympics. I didn't get into this video, but here's the link...
http://edition.cnn.com/video/#/video/world/2008/08/10/smith.china.beijing.food.cnn