Day 4

Sunday we decided we needed to see Olympic Park since the Olympics will be in Beijing in less than 3 months (8-8-08). We took the subway (very cheap transportation – roughly 30 cents) and walked around the park. It’s very closed off as construction is still very heavy in the area. It’s amazing how much is yet to be completed and it starts in roughly 80 days! We were able to get pretty good views of the Bird Cage and the aquatic center – two of the more heavily visible stadiums. At least now when it’s on TV we can say we were there!

Afterwards, we caught out flight to Shanghai – fairly uneventful, but the trip there was interesting. Since we had 3 people and the cars are so small, we asked for a minibus. The hotel arranged it, but the guy spoke no English. He would try to talk to us in Mandarin, we'd reply in English. He'd try again, we'd try again. Suddenly we start to drive and get a bit nervous since he obviously doesn't know where we want to go. Suddenly he hands his cell phone to Christine, she reluctantly says hello only to find a woman who speaks English on the phone. She translated and we were on our way feeling a bit better about getting to the airport. We get on the road and suddenly we're off the interstate and on some side streets. Apparently, he was running out of gas so we had to stop in the middle of our trip - think that's the first time any of us have ever seen a taxi stop to get gas in the middle of a trip! Anyways, after lots of laughing at each other (he at us, us at him), we got there safe and sound.

Overall, Beijing was great. We did have problems getting taxis to drive us places. We’re unsure if it was us (Americans) or our destination. They seemed to stop, but once we showed them where we wanted to go (our method of communication is pointing to business cards we get from our hotels), they deny us. We walked many, many miles during our time in Beijing. I have blisters in the oddest places! We quickly learned the subway – very easy, and got in a lot of walking!