Susan Jackson

The final day of our BOCOG-sponsored tour brought us to the western part of the city and Summer Palace. In modern times, this would be known as the Emperor’s house in the Hamptons. It is an amazing collection of intricate and well-preserved gardens, chambers, and temples. Even though it was a Sunday, and the grounds overrun with people, it was still peaceful and gorgeous. Covering more than 700 acres, most of which is water, it was originally known as the Garden of Clear Ripples. Being a Cape Cod native, those ripples were my favorite part. The large lake that sits in the center of everything hosts dozens of paddle boats and several full-on dragon-boat ferries. I wouldn’t call it swim-able, but on my paddle around I did dip a foot in the water (I took that typhoid vaccine after all, I figure I should get my money’s worth) and found it to be quite nice. Fortunately, I didn’t loose any toes to an ornery koi or some sort of Chinese Loch Ness Monster.

If I make it back to Summer Palace, I think it will have to be with a cooler of cold light beer and enough money to paddle around until they are drained. And, a few friends of course.

Check out the gallery for more photos.

The Great Wall was, well…wait for it….no. I’m not going to do it. We had a very nice time on the wall yesterday. Even though we visited at Badaling, the point known the world over for sweaty, khaki-coated tourists (there was even a battery recycling bin for digital camera refuse), it was quite amazing. Fortunately for us, it was a blue-sky day, something I’m still baffled by and thankful for.

As I mentioned earlier, we’ve been touring with a police escort, but yesterday, we weren’t the top dogs on the Wall, which BOCOG apparently wasn’t happy about. The President of Mexico arrived before us and enjoyed a private stroll as the rest of us poor slobs (sweaty too, some khaki) waited it out in a courtyard. That is, after we played a vicious game of elbows with the locals to get in the door. Pushing through people isn’t rude in China, it’s the way of life, and we got quite the welcome.

The Wall itself is beautiful and surprisingly steep in places. Despite the pitch, we saw many older men and grannies hoofing it up. Very impressive.

The Ming Tomb was also on the agenda yesterday and while a lesser-known place the world over, it was well worth the trip. The only emperor’s tomb excavated and open to the public, it is a peaceful and beautiful place.

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.

A little background on all this. I just finished my master’s in writing and publishing from Emerson College. This Olympic experience is courtesy of Emerson being selected to send students to work for the Olympic News Service. You can read more about it here, and if that is enough info for you, you can enjoy the photos below of our dorm at the International Center of the Communication University of China (CUC). Note to those with an upcoming bathroom remodel: the shower set-up is extremely efficient for maintaining toilet cleanliness.

CUC is located just outside Beijing’s fifth ring. The city is built on a grid, with important places like Tiananmen Square and Mao’s mausoleum on points of the main access. The concentric circles of the ring roads surround the axis. Being outside the fifth ring puts CUC in the “countryside” of Beijing, though it still is technically the city, and very much an urban area. Think of it like Tufts University in relation to Boston.

As you can see, our dorm rooms are very nice, but almost deceivingly so. While walking to dinner off campus last night, a group of us got a peek into a regular dorm and it was far barer than our accommodation. Once out of the campus gate, we came across a staggering amount of transition. For every storefront on our side of the road, there were three abandoned buildings in the midst of refurbishment, most housing squatters. Assimilating to our new environment, none of us mentioned the varying smells of human waste and construction chemicals.

All of us are very interested to see if these projects will wrap up and transform the area by August 8, the start of the Games, which appears to be the goal. It would be a massive turnaround, but I’m sure there are areas in far worse condition.

This morning we traveled to that mecca of Chinese culture—Wal-Mart—for some essentials. For about $35 USD, I purchased an insane amount of stuff. While I am psyched about the super-plush pillow, faux bamboo bath mat, and lime Chicklets, the highlight had to be seeing the live turtles…in the produce aisle. I hear they are tasty.