Olympic Park

I don't know if you are as big an Olympic nut as I am, but I love, love, love the Olympics. And even for the non-nuts in the crowd, the iconic Birds Nest Stadium and Water Cube of the Beijing Olympics became familiar sights to the world. Our guide Wanda still reminisced about the great accomplishments of American Michael Phelps and his eight gold medals. We were a bit concerned that the rain would wash away our hopes of getting a good look at these structures. But as we neared the city the rain slowed to a drizzle and the sun began to peek through.

Beijing is built on a central axis which runs from north to south. The Olympic facilities lie on the northern parts of the axis, while Tianamin Square and the Forbidden City lie to the south.

The Stadium and the Cube are enormous structures. These days the stadium is used mainly for concerts while the Cube has become a vibrant aquatic center. The area around the Olympic Park has seen lots of new construction as well.

One of my favorites is this series of Office buildings and a hotel which combine to form a dragon. The "head" building on the left has a huge electronic signboard on the side and guess what I found?

Some things you just cannot escape!

Elin took some time to buy a set of kites for her four sons back in Malaysia. I know they will enjoy flying them in the tropical breezes.

We left the Olympic Park and headed back to our hotel after a long and incredible day. But we were not done yet. Ken had a business dinner so we ladies opted to see a show, "The History of Kung Fu," which was in a theatre across the street from our hotel. The show was performed by the Monks of the Shao Lin (sp?) Temple and the show was as well done as most Broadway Spectacles. We were so glad we decided to add this to our itinerary. Ken had a wonderful dinner with Thunder Rae (Rae means Thunder in Chinese so I secretly call him Ray-Ray), but missed a truly wonderful show. 


Then it was off to bed to get ready for our next day's adventures.