olympic venues

me playing in the musical fountains in front of the iconic stadium

With a few days off because of the holiday, it was time to get out and be a tourist.  We had heard that the Olympic venues were being opened up to the public for free that week, and since I had promised a friend back home to visit and take a picture of the water cube for her, off we went.

It was just the three of us, nobody even close to being fluent in Mandarin, so we just kinda winged it.  Taking the subway there was easy, except we couldn’t figure out how to transfer from line 10 to line 8, but the transfer station looked close to our destination so we just decided to walk it.  This was easy enough, there was a map when we got out and really you just had to follow the crowd.  When we got to the National Sports Center there were guards taking tickets, so we got in line to purchase some of our own.  Guess our source who mentioned ”free” was incorrect.  So we went into that area, went inside the stadium, which wasn’t all that exciting because it was where the equestrian sports were held.  Our experiences with horses being what it was, none of us had watched any of those events.  So we were in and out, continued walking around, not recognizing anything, and wondering what happened to the birds nest that had looked so close before we walked through the gates.  Eventually we saw it again and realized that to get there we had to exit the area we had purchased tickets for.  Unhappy about this and upset that we had most likely wasted 30 Kuai, we started walking towards it only to find that it was on the OTHER side of the large busy street.  So we walked, and walked, and walked.  It was right there, we could see it, we just couldn’t seem to get there because of the fence surrounding the area.  But we were not deterred and thanks to the swarms of people we were able to locate the entrance.  Luckily we didn’t have to pay again.  So it WAS free afterall!  The line through the security check moved rather quickly, but once inside… OMG the people!  All I can say is that if it was this crowded during the Olympics I am really glad I wasn’t in attendance.  And I didn’t have to worry about feeling like a silly foreigner doing touristy stuff because almost every person there was Chinese.

There in front of us was the water cube, I saw people going in, I saw lines and people with tickets, but I could not find a ticket booth.  So over we went to the birds nest (stopping to play in the fountains) and found the same thing.  Lines, people, tickets, no ticket booth.  At this point, the one of us who speaks the best Mandarin asked a volunteer where we could buy tickets.  She told him there were no tickets for sale.  Totally bummed, but there was hope when a scalper approached!  Unfortunately, my companions were not ok with the idea of paying more than face value.  So that was it.  That was our tip.  A few photos, A LOT of people, and we left.

I don’t know what is going to happen with these places now.  In the time that I am here, I am sure they have got to open up again, or be hosting some event I can buy tickets to.   Somehow it just seems lame to go out there and not go IN if there is the possibility to do so.