A Three-Hour, err, Day Tour
The Beijing Organizing Committee of the Olympic Games (BOCOG) is treating us and about 300 other volunteers to an extensive three-day tour of Beijing. Yesterday we started off with a trip to the city’s new state-of-the-art wastewater treatment plant…
Yes! Just the place all of you were asking when I would get to! Kidding aside though (and really, when you’re at a sewage plant, there is going to be a certain amount of kidding), the sites the showed us left many of us intrigued, yet confused. The country wants to show us her best face, and in the effort to do so, what we’re seeing has the tang of inauthenticity. I believe the tour of the plant was to show us the strides China is making to combat pollution, yet the sky all around us is still filled with thick smog. After the plant we traveled to a “rural village” that was so Disney-i-fied that at times, it felt more like a stroll through Epcot Center than anything real. The tour took us through a temple, a nursing home, and into someone’s home—all 300 of us. Pointing our nine tour buses and police escort in the right direction were large blue highway signs saying things like “Reception Village of Olympic Country Tour.”
The day finished up at a famous Beijing restaurant for Peking duck, which was indisputably delicious.
More on the tour to come, and pictures. Now though, I’m off to the Great Wall. And, the sky is blue today! It is unbelievable. I didn’t think I’d see it for two months; the pictures should be great.
Check out a video of the nursing home staff singing to us about how wonderful nursing homes are.
Your Comments
hi auntie susy,
how is china
how was the great wall of china
is your website done
i love it so far i’m on the contact
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