Last Day of Swimming

I'm happy, I'm sad - Drew's all done!

Drew swam his last event today - 50 freestyle. Drew really likes this event, and was hoping to go faster than his lifetime personal best time of 29.90. He's only gone under 30 seconds once before, so we were really hoping that with the combination of the Water Cube's really fast pool, the new Lazer suit, and the huge crowd, he would find his way to the wall with a good time.

He did not disappoint!



He went more than half a second faster than his best time! We were so pleased for him, and knew that he felt really good about it, too. The field in this event was quite large (and fast), and Drew needed to be under 29.13 to make it into the final, so he just missed it by .27 seconds!

We spoke with Drew after his swim, and he is now going to relax, have fun, and enjoy the rest of his stay in Beijing. The team will be doing some sightseeing around the city, and most will be flying home on Sep 19th. I'm so proud of Drew for all of his accomplishments here in Beijing. He made 3 finals, swam personal bests in almost all of his events, and put the world on notice that he's a force to be reckoned with. Watch out London 2012!

I took some more photo's of the outside of the Water Cube today:



This is quite close up, in the middle of the day.

Further away:


Proof that I was there!



The whole Olympic Green area is always teeming with people:



The main activity in the Olympic Green seems to be picture-taking. I am surprised every day at the enthusiasm of the local people for taking photo's! Whenever we have to walk across or through the area, we have to be very careful not to get in the way of someone's photo opportunity. They're either striking weird poses (two fingers in the air for victory, leaping into the air for an action shot, both arms spread wide, etc.) or looking very stern.

There are literally thousands of volunteers for the Paralympics. They are uniformly young, smiling, cheerful, and helpful. All are dying to practice their English with you! They man the security checkpoints (supervised by dour police officers), take tickets, answer questions, and do all manner of things. They travel in large packs:



...or small:


A volunteer in the Water Cube agreed to pose for a picture, making the aforementioned victory sign:


After the finals session last night, in which Canada won 2 more Gold medals (way to go Chelsey and Anne!), we were planning to go to a restaurant listed in my Lonely Planet guide. However, we couldn't get a taxi (a very strange thing in Beijing), and we had to walk quite a distance. It's Moon Festival now, and I think the taxi driver's were all taking a vacation! The wind was howling, and it began to rain, so we ran into a local hotel and had a very good meal. Not even listed in the Lonely Planet guide!

Tomorrow Emma and I are planning on returning to the lovely spa we went to a few days ago, and perhaps seeing some more of the sights.

We Saw it All

Guess what we did today?



Oh my goodness, I still can't believe that I was actually there - I finally saw one of the 7 Wonders :) Four of us took a Greyline bus tour to the Badaling section of the Great Wall. The tour included a stop at the Ming Tombs, and a visit to a jade factory. But first, the wall. Thomas was our able tour guide - a very nice man who spoke great English. He has been working as a tour guide for 20 years:



He was extremely knowledgeable about everything we saw, and clearly very proud of the Chinese history he was telling us about. He told us that the wall that is most commonly known today is the Ming wall, built during the Ming dynasty about 400-500 years ago. It took 1 million people 200 years to build it. To put this number in perspective, China had a population of 6 million at the time, so 1/6 of the population participated in wall building. The wall has existed in various forms for more than 2000 years, and different sections of the wall throughout China provide good examples of the different eras of the wall.

We visited the Badaling section of the wall, which was 1 hour from downtown Beijing, although still technically in Beijing. This section is the most popular with tourists, and the commercial nature of the wall reflects this:


When we got there, Thomas told us that we approximately 90 minutes to climb the wall, although we should be careful, and take our time. I really had no idea what to expect, although I should have guessed by Thomas' earlier quip about "1000 steps...". For those of you who have experienced the Grouse Grind, I now can definitely relate:



The steps on the wall are of varying height and pitch, with some more than a foot tall. That's Emma's back climbing up, in blue:



We climbed up really high - this was the view from our highest vantage point:



There were battlements all along the way, used by archers for fighting the Mongolians trying to get over the Wall:



Here's proof that Emma and I were both actually there:


I don't think you can see the sweat dripping down our faces in this picture, but oh my god, it was steep! What we didn't realize on the way up was that the climb down was almost as hard:


Needless to say, we had the wobbly legs when we finally arrived at the bottom again.

The Ming Tombs were fascinating. The jade factory had gorgeous displays of every kind of jade one could imagine - it was very difficult to curb my impulse to whip out my credit card and buy everything in sight! If we expressed the slightest interest in anything, one of the sales staff would follow us around the store relentlessly. We also saw cloisone being made, and during a weakened state, I bought the most beautiful cloisone vase. Emma also added to her vast souvenir collection.

Drew swims his last event tomorrow - 50 free. Go Drew GO!

Day 6

Drew swam 400 free today, but did not advance to finals. Despite all accounts, Drew is not superhuman - those were rumours only!


I continue to be amazed by the depth of the field here at the Paralympics. Although I've seen other swim meets with lots of international competitors, they were nothing like the Paralympics. Before each event, the competitors names and the event are posted on the big screen at the pool, as I've shown photo's of before. The screen also shows the current Paralympic and World records for that event. The extraordinary thing is that it is rare that the World record is not significantly faster than the Paralympic record - by as much as 10 seconds! What this means is that the sport has seen a huge evolution in the last 4 years, since the last Paralympics. The swimmers are soooo much faster that in some events, what formerly was a Gold medal time now won't even qualify for a final. What a great thing for the sport!

After preliminaries, Emma and I and the Gotell's (Chelsey and Devin's parents - both of whom are fabulous swimmers) went to Bodhi for massages. Bodhi was listed in my Lonely Planet guide as a great place for traditional Chinese massage and reflexology. All 4 of us walked in without appointments and were all taken in immediately. I guess they must have staff waiting around for people like us to wander in :)

Emma and I had traditional Chinese massage, and the Gotell's had reflexology. The massages were excellent - the masseurs did not speak English, except for the terse phrase each one utterered at the end: "Massage is over!". There was a lot of percussive movements, all performed over the cotton pajamas we were given to wear. I'm a bit sore now as I type this, but I'm hoping it's a good sore. The Gotell's raved about the reflexology too.

The Paralympic Friends & Family reception was Friday night at the BC Canada Pavillion near Tiananmen Square. When we arrived after a long taxi ride, it felt like we had come home - everyone spoke English (without an accent!), and sounded just like us. The Pavillion is constructed out of BC timbers, and there are photo's and short movies inside highlighting BC and the 2010 Games. Petro Canada hosted the reception, and it was great seeing all of the many parents, friends and supporters of our Canadian athletes here in Beijing. We watched Chantel Petticlerc win the Gold in the 400M at the Birdsnest via the many screens in the reception area, and loud cheers filled the room. Highlights from the Games so far were shown, and prominantly displayed was Canada's dominance in S13 (partially sighted) women's swimming.

The countdown to the 2010 Games was a prominent feature of the Pavillion:



One of the comments asked for a picture of the outside of the Water Cube. I took this photo at night:


It really is that beautiful! The colours change rapidly, sometimes all the same and sometimes a variety of colours.

Drew is off on Saturday, and Emma and I are finally going to see the Great Wall. The tour also includes the Ming Tombs and a jade factory. I wonder if Emma will need another suitcase to carry home her souvenirs...

Day 5 - Drew Continues to Amaze

Drew swam 200IM today, and to my utter delight, placed 4th in prelims:



For those swimming novices out there, 200IM is 50M of each stroke in succession. Drew does really well in 200IM because he is proficient in each stroke, whereas some swimmers focus one one or two strokes.

Drew's position going into finals gave me heart palpitations, and we spent some rather nerve-racking hours in between heats and finals, trying not to think about the possibilities.

Emma had been wanting to get her hair cut in Beijing, so we stopped by the local shop:


We had a really interesting time trying to communicate with the staff, because none of them spoke any English at all. We eventually agreed on a price and a style; luckily, one of the girls in the shop had almost the exact cut that Emma wanted. The stylist took about 2 hours to cut her hair, and she looks beautiful! No pictures - sorry!

There are lots of things that are different in Beijing than they are in Canada. One of the things that I keep seeing are ladies wearing short, skin-tone stockings with their sandals or shoes:


Women of all ages seem to wear them, and I've never seen them in Canada.

The footbridges in Beijing are very fancy:



This one is right by our hotel. I love how the traditional co-exists with the modern - we've seen examples of this all over Beijing.

Bicycles, and bicycle-like vehicles are the go-to method of transportation in Beijing.



Bicycles, electric and battery-powered bikes, bikes towing large boxes, scooters - you name it, we've seen it. Hoardes of bikes are lined up on practically every street. There are special bike lanes marked on many streets, yet bikers seem to feel free to ride anywhere, especially through red lights. We've had several near-misses! No one uses a helmet, and I haven't seen a single person wearing anything other than regular clothing while riding a bike. No skintight lycra or technical fabric here.

Our hotel is right beside a market, and we see locals coming to pick up their daily fruits, veggies and meat, as well as vendors picking up truckloads of produce. Yesterday we saw men unloading sides of beef, and laying them right on the road!

We see lions everywhere:



There are always two. One is a male, and one a female, with the male on the right, and the female on the left. The male is always a bit larger, and his paw rests on a ball. The female has her paw on a baby lion. They are meant to keep away evil spirits.

Some things in Beijing are just like in Canada. McDonald's is as ubiquitous here as it is at home:


Beijing Bob (our tour guide in the Forbidden City) told us that mostly young people eat at McDonald's here; the older folks just think it's junk and that it makes them fat. Sounds familiar :)

Ok, onto the swimming.

Before the finals started, a cameraman from the CBC came over to where we were sitting to find out who we were and which swimmers we were there to cheer on. Maybe we'll make it onto the CBC (all 8 hours of coverage, not that I'm grumbling...).

My heart was in my throat when Drew's event was called. He always walks out fully geared up, complete with headphones, parka, and full team gear. The swimmers have a bin to put all their gear in, which is promptly taken away by an army of volunteers.

I didn't manage to take any pictures, although I think I was clutching my camera with one hand and our flag with the other. To sum it up:

DREW is 5TH!

I have no words.

Drew swims 400 free next. Go Drew GO!

Day 4 - Surprise!

When we went into the Water Cube yesterday, we did not expect that we would be seeing Drew in a final that day, as he was swimming the 100 back - he does well in this event, but not usually fast enough to make the top 8 in the world. Well, we were WRONG! Via a stroke of incredible luck and some pretty damn fast swimming, Drew came 8th, and won a place in the finals.

Swimming in a Paralympic final is a real pressure-cooker situation. The swimmers are marched onto the pool deck, the crowd is going wild, the music is blaring, 50 metres of sparkling pool is ahead of you, your name and country are announced and your image is projected onto multiple big screens around the pool - how would you handle it?



Why, you'd smile for the crowd, of course!

Not only did Drew make the final, but both his prelim and final swim were best times by a large margin, which sets him up well for 200IM today. His final placing was 8th.



In between heats and finals, I followed the signs on the Olympic Green to "See the Real Terra Cotta Warriors". One of the things I most wanted to see in China were the Terra Cotta Warriors, but I wasn't able to take the time of out of our trip to Beijing to fly the 900km north to the site where they are being excavated. I was delighted when I saw these signs. There are quite a few sponsor's pavillions throughout the Olympic Green area, and Johnson & Johnson is the one advertising the warriors:


Not bad! While there weren't 1000 soldiers and horses lined up in pits, there were five of them behind glass to look at:



I don't feel quite so bad now for missing out!

Drew swims 200IM today - Go Drew Go!

The Forbidden City

Drew didn't swim today, so we decided to see some of the sights of Beijing. All those looking for swimming news, please come back tomorrow :)

We decided to go to Tiananmen Square, and the sights in that area. The taxi ride over there was very long and the traffic was awful. However, during the ride we passed through one of the historic Hutong neighbourhoods, and we were able to peer into the alleys of some of them enroute.



We finally reached our destination, and were immediately puzzled by the question of which direction to go in. There were no obvious signs, other than the ubiquitous directional signs that give no hint as to specific location or distance. We decided to follow the flow of the crowd, and ended up going towards what we thought was Mao's tomb, as his portrait was prominantly displayed at the front of the building. It turns out that we were heading in to the Forbidden City.


We didn't know where we were until we met Beijing Bob, tour guide extraordinaire:

Turns out that Bob makes his living acting as a tour guide to visitors to the Forbidden City. He approached us (I suppose we looked like we didn't know where we were!), and asked if we wanted to hire him for the day, and after negotiating his price, we agreed, and he stuck with us for hours, explaining every detail of what we were seeing, getting us past line-ups, and generally being an ambassador for this extremely overwhelming place.

The Forbidden City was off-limits to commoners for 500 years; it was the home of the Chinese emperors, the wives and concubines, the Eunuchs, and all of their staff. It is ENORMOUS. It was almost destroyed during the Cultural Revolution, and a lot of the relics and antiques were looted by the Japanese during the 1930's, and by Chiang Kai-Shek and the Kuomintang later.

The whole place is ringed by a moat, and it encircles over 800 buildings and 9000 rooms.

There are three gates to pass through before even getting close to the Emperor's and royal family area. All of it is so beautiful, it's just overwhelming.


The different buildings and halls all have very picturesque names: the "Hall of Mental Cultivation", the "Gate of Heavenly Peace", "Gate of Supreme Harmony", etc. We saw an amazing number of room, including the rooms that the concubines used to entertain the emperor:


At the end of the tour, Beijing Bob showed us the Imperial Gardens. There were really beautiful sculptures made of volcanic rock:




Before we left, Bob took us to a back room where a nephew of the last Emperor had a studio where he exhibited his caligraphy, and would pose for pictures with the public.


We then went to have lunch at a local restaurant with Beijing Bob, and afterwards, he shepherded us (and a large group of young Australian students) off to a bus which would take us to the Pearl Market. Our experiences there are a whole other story!

We didn't realize until later in the day that we didn't actually go into Tiananmen Square! Hopefully we will before we head home.

Drew swims 100 backstroke tomorrow. Go Drew Go!

Day 2 Prelims

Drew swam 100 freestyle today, and while a good swim, he didn't make it into finals. Drew's best events are yet to come (200IM, 400 free, 50 free). We had a brief chat after he swam this morning, and I finally remembered to take a picture:

We're looking forward to the next several days. He's off tomorrow, so Emma and I are planning to see some more of the city. Details to follow!

It's very overwhelming being in the Water Cube amongst so many swimming fans from around the world.

Chinese people takes great pride in every Chinese swimmers' performance, shouting "jyah-yo!" in unison whenever a Chinese swimmer is in the water. You wouldn't believe the noise when a Chinese swimmer wins a medal! There are multiple big screens all around the pool; the (unseen) camera operators are very good at capturing each countries' celebrations when their swimmer does well - we've made it onto the big screen several times while waving our Canadian flag.

Before each session, the Paralympic mascots bounce into the pool area, dancing to their theme song. People take their pictures and wave at them. They're very popular!


All tickets in the Water Cube are festival seating - no assigned seats. This seems to work alright during the preliminary sessions, but during the finals sessions, people are standing in line up to an hour before the gates open, which is 90 minutes before the start of the session. We met up with some of the other Canadians in the line-up tonight, and were able to get seats together, but what a process it was! There are five separate gates to gain access to the venue, all of which are locked prior to the entry time. Today, the person with the key to the locks was having trouble unlocking some of the locks, and this resulted in some of the gates being opened before others. In the midst of loud complaining, the poor fellow finally got our gate unlocked, and we rushed through, most of us breaking into a dead run in order to get into the Water Cube and get our seats! We didn't ultimately get the seats we really wanted, but did manage to get them all together.

The Olympic Green (which is a bit of a mis-nomer, as it's all concrete) is accessed via a long (at least 3 miles) stretch of what is usually roadway, all of which has been blocked off to cars for the duration of the games. All access points are tightly controlled, so the public is herded through a series of controlled checkpoints before getting into any venues. A security check is mandatory, and each person passes through a metal detector and is then searched with one of those wands they use at airport security. Bags are scanned as well, and sometimes searched by hand. We cannot bring any water or food in, and my swiss army knife was confiscated, although I was able to pick it up on my way out.

Following security, this is the view:

That's the Hing Long(sp?) Pagoda in the distance, and a bit of the Bird's Nest on the right. The Pagoda in one of the broadcast centres for the Games.

The locals seem to be mad for taking photo's, so I took a cue from them, and posed Emma in front of the Bird's Nest. Countless people have asked to have their photo's taken with us, even one of the police officers'! I didn't expect this, and I'm not really sure why they want photo's with us, but we're happy to oblige!

This is the National Indoor Stadium, further along the Olympic Green, past the Water Cube:

Our hotel is about a 30 minute walk from the Water Cube, most of it via the Olympic Green area. Most of the guests in the hotel are Chinese people here for the Games. An outdoor area off the dining room is really lovely:



The seating area inside is also really nice:

More Photo's

I've been having some challenges figuring out how to post photo's, but I had an inspiration in the middle of the night, and am hoping that I've got the problem licked!

This photo is taken from one side of the spectator stands in the Water Cube, and is a view of the athlete seating area. The higher area is for the public, and it was almost full on the first day of prelims.





This photo is of the start area of the pool, and Drew can be seen in lane 8, just before the start of the 100 fly.

The tall, white poles at the front have cameras attached, and the pool behind is the dive pool.

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Day One Finals

I've never been so excited as I was tonight at the Water Cube! Drew put the world on notice tonight that he's a force to be reckoned with. Following his sixth place position in prelims, he put in a solid effort in finals and maintained his position, defeating two very fast opponents.

We were finally able to talk to Drew tonight after his race, and he reports that he's feeling great. He was very excited about his improvement in the 100 fly, and was very pleased that he's now faster than Emma in this event! He's hoping to get us passes to the Athlete's Village in the next week or so, so that will be an interesting visit.

The Water Cube was packed to the rafters with cheering fans, and Canada was in fine form. The first final for Canada of the night saw three of our swimmers ranked first, second and third, and that's exactly how they finished. It was a clean sweep for Canada in the S13 (partially sighted) Women's 100 fly! Congratulations to Valerie Grand'Maison, Kirby Cote, and Chelsey Gotell. It was so great to hear our anthem and see our flags flying.

There have been some questions in the comments, and I'll see if I can answer them. Quite a few of the local people speak a bit of English. The hotel staff do quite well, and there seems to be at least one staff member in each restaurant who can speak some English. Emma and I went shopping at a local market today, and haggled by writing down numbers, either with pen and paper or via cell phone calculators, as none of the vendors could speak English. The market was advertised as a mall, but it was not like any of our local malls. Each vendor had a stall or two, in a very loosely arranged layout, and they sold everything you could imagine.

For those knitters out there, I knit half a sock on the plane on the way here, but nothing since. I expect I'll finish the sock on the way home.

Drew swims 100 freestyle tomorrow. Go Drew Go!