Beijing Memories: Part 1 of Many

Ni Hao!

We are back from our trip to the Olympic Games in Beijing.  We really had a wonderful time... and now that we have been home for about 24 hours and watching some of the Games on television, I think it is starting to sink in of where we just were... sometimes hard to get perspective on that while you are in the middle of it all!

One thing that will be a theme in these Beijing/Olympics blog posts is that there will be a "big picture" / "small picture" thoughts on all this... in the big picture, we were (and are!) grateful and truly astounded by the week we just had... in the small picture stuff, there were disappointments and bumps in the road that will make me sound anything but... so if you find yourself reading some of these thing and thinking that there is too much whining (which btw I have permission to do thanks to the name of my blog!) or ungratefulness... that's not the case... well maybe it is... but even amongst ourselves we had a hard time walking this line... so bear with me!

... and the trip did kick off with a very big disappointment... at around noon time on 08-08-08 we were told that our group did NOT have tickets to the Opening Ceremonies.  The event company contracted out with another company for tickets to the Opening and to the sporting events... that company had a supplier or contract with two different entities... one for Opening, another for the events... and to make a long story short(er), whoever was supplying the Opening did not come through with the tickets... all despite an alleged contract and other verbal assurances.  Our group of about 20... along with 300 others who were expected to get tickets through this second company were all left ticketless... the guy in charge, who had to personally tell each of these 300 people this news pretty much looked like he was going to jump off a building...

... and, admittedly many of us would have given him some help... granted in the months and weeks leaving up to the trip, we always thought that attending the Opening was too good to be true or to believe... but as we prepared to leave for Beijing and certainly once we arrived, we did allow ourselves to believe... so it was hard to not be devastated over the loss of what was truly the centerpiece/crowning jewel of the entire trip. 

Likewise, it was a particularly cruel twist that this was so badly mismanaged and mis-communicated to us... particularly to the employees who were being reward for excelling in their jobs and avoiding or allowing things like this to happen... the fact that no one ever had physical possession of the Opening Ceremonies tickets in the days (or heck, even weeks!) leading up to the big day should have been a huge red flag.

Again, while we were still thankful and amazed to be in Beijing and at the Olympics... but it tainted our first few days... and heck, even now it is still a bit difficult to swallow as we now tell this story over and over to the many people who were so thrilled for us.

Even without Opening tix, another source of frustration was the difficulty to even catch a glimpse of the Olympic Stadium (better known at the Bird's Nest) and the other showcase venues of the Water Cube and Indoor Stadium.  All are part of the Olympic Green area, but you could only enter the Olympic Green or take the brand-spanking new Olympic Line of the Beijing Subway system... if you had a ticket to an even in any of those venues.   

It will come as no surprise that I was anticipating taking oodles and oodles of photos of both buildings, and while it took many days to get there, I did get pix from a distance or while on our private bus transportation to and from other events.  While we expected challenges and/or high security, we were still silly enough to think that there would be general public access on the Olympic Green.

That's enough bitching/whining for now... believe me it gets much better... though part of the immediate "recovery execution" for this Opening Ceremony fiasco managed to piss us off even more... but we'll save that for another time.

Comments

[vuboq]

that totally sux about the Opening Ceremony, but, still YOU WERE IN BEIJING! OMG. so lucky! i loved my time there, and i'll bet it has changed so much :-) I can't wait to see all your pix and read more posts!

*smooches*

[Scott K]

I can understand your disappointment. It probably would have been easier if you never thought you were going to get to go to the Opening Ceremony than to have it taken away from you. Such is life.

I'm curious, what did you do while the Opening Ceremony was going on? Were you able to watch it on TV or anything?

[Kenna]

Ed - haven't visited in a while but remembered that you had the trip to Beijing and checked in to see what you had to say about it. Bummer about the opening ceremony ... I tried watching on television but I fell asleep. No reflection on the spectacle, I was just tired! I'll check in again to hear more about your trip.