Monday's Adventures...

Greetings, again, from Beijing!

Monday started off with a volleyball match between Cuba and the United States. It was a very one sided match with Cuba taking all 3 games with some ease. With some of the morning still left, we decided to take in some sights and possibly do some shopping. Throughout the day, we attempted to contact “Brian” who had our field hockey tickets for Tuesday and Thursday. Because we decided so late to come to the Olympics, it was virtually impossible to actually get the tickets in hand to bring with us. We had one other adventure of tickets to be delivered to the hotel but ended up traveling to downtown Beijing to pick them up. This story will get more interesting later.

As most tourists would want to do, it was off to Tiananmen Square. It is most impressive and it has been really dressed up for the Olympic Games. As was typical in Beijing when I visited in 2005, there were lots of people attempting to sell things on the streets. During the Olympics, the government decided, perhaps decreed is the right word, that there would not be this activity. For whatever reason, Sharon attracts people in China. Strangers talk to her no matter where we are. Since our Chinese leaves a great deal to be desired, we look for a younger person to help with the translation.

Sharon was stopped by a young woman who wanted her to buy a hat with the Olympics logo on it. I walked away not really interested in a hat and thought that Sharon would follow. Instead, they continue to talk, Sharon tried to walk away several times, the young woman pursues the conversation. She hands Sharon a hat, because there is now a policeman approaching the young woman so she said to Sharon “I give you as a gift.” The policeman takes her away and then the young woman walked back to Sharon and got her 20 Yuan for the hat. We talked about how long the woman would be in prison because of this act. The officer took her off to a waiting vehicle, she was smiling. Sure enough not ten minutes later another woman enters the Square with the same kind of hats…free enterprise reigns.

The next adventure was a visit to the Olympics Store in a very famous shopping district. The store was jammed with people; see the photo in the photo gallery. We encountered the Wal-Mart way of selling things in the grocery store the other day and it was the same at the Olympics Store. You ask for what you want and the quantity, it is written in Chinese along with the price, totaled and then you take it to a cashier to pay the amount due. There were two lines, not identified as to whether cash or credit were taken as no English translation was provided. We managed to pay for items purchased and then you need to return to the counter you ordered it from and pick up the items. Bags are not given with anything purchased, those are extra. At least the shop had air-conditioning but only slightly noticeable. It was a hot day and the coolest place was in the doorway. China is a lot better off economically as of Monday.

Much has been made of the air quality in Beijing. Except for fog like weather, which could be the air quality issue, the sun has not been out.

Back to the ticket pick-up adventure mentioned above. Brian says he will be at the Old Town Roses Restaurant late into the night and we can stop by and pick up the tickets in the evening. We begin this adventure by asking the cab driver to stay with us; he was uncomfortable with this, which should have been the first sign. We get to the restaurant, find no one in the place except an English speaking well dressed man in the door way. I walked into the restaurant toward two people with laptops. Thinking this will be a simple transaction, we had hoped to return for a nice dinner back at the hotel.

Sharon overheared the conversation with the well dressed man and realizes this might be Brian. When his conversation is finished with a young woman, Sharon says to him, “Brian?” He responds, “Yes, oh the staff has just closed things up for the night and I am going to my hotel room.” Sharon said. “We have a cab,” and he pointed to a building not far from the restaurant and said, “Its right there.” Sharon then said, “Get in the cab.” She is not only responsible for life imprisonment for the lady at Tiananmen Square, she now has kidnapped someone!

Brian gets into the cab with us, and we travel a very short distance to his apartment complex. Brian gets out and pays for the cab fare and we accompany him into the complex. He tells us that this has been very difficult and the Chinese have controlled all of the ticketing. We wander to the third floor, enter an apartment and find seven other staff people working on laptops. By this time Brian has responded to half a dozen cell phone calls from people wanting tickets. He continues to talk on the phone and another gentleman tries to get us our tickets. Locating the tickets was interesting as the office was just moved to the apartment from the restaurant minutes before we arrived. Evidently, the operation continues to move from place to place because of the government regulations governing the distribution of tickets,

The scene was a little difficult to describe unless you are watching a movie about the mofia. There were literally thousands of Olympic tickets in the apartment. There was lots of cash and an electronic bill counter which was in use. A second man started to talk with us and asked if we thought this was bedlam. Having experienced move in day on a college campus, this is fairly calm. The Brian that we met in the restaurant continued to receive phone calls and a second Brian began to help us. We identified the tickets we had purchased from a British company and got one of the two dates we ordered. The question was about the tickets for the August 12 event. They had tickets for the event but they were not ours. So Brian #2 got on the phone with the British agent to confirm delivery of our tickets. The British company confirmed that the tickets would be delivered within 45 minutes to our hotel. I called the hotel and was not able to confirm this. Sharon was not leaving without tickets… or one of the “Brians”! After about an hour, we left with two sets of tickets for events we wanted. We estimated that there was several million dollars worth of tickets in suitcases in that apartment. It was unclear who we dealt with as the company in that apartment is actually located in Las Vegas. As we were leaving, I asked if you had to be named Brian to work for this company. Brian #2 smiled and said no, there were only two of them … probably. I am certain Brian #1 is accustomed to being told to ‘get in the cab’ but not by the Athletics Director at LHU.

We decided to have dinner at the restaurant that we were supposed to meet Brian because it was about 9:30 pm and we had not eaten since breakfast. It was time to sit down and relax after an all too busy a day. The restaurant had outside seating as well as indoor, air-conditioned seating. We selected the indoor option. There was one other table in use in the restaurant, for food not tickets. Back to the hotel for some much needed rest. Not certain what was really going on in the building we had left but there were more cabs available than any other site in Beijing. Most cab drivers have been very cautious in driving in outrageous traffic. The driver that took us back to the hotel had to be practicing for the Indy 500. It took us about 15 minutes to return when it took at least a half an hour to travel there. Where might he be when we need to get somewhere fast?

Stay tuned for more later!