The 7 Star hotel near the Olympic venues. Not finished yet, although Bill Gates supposedly is staying o
n one floor. Tons of Vegas sized hotels were built for the Olympics. Over a million + visitors were in town. 99% were from other Chinese cities. With over 100 cities of 1 million+ residents, that's not that hard to do. Most people were just there to be a part of the festivities and weren't going to events. My guess is that Beijing hotel rooms will be pretty cheap in about a month.
I was told that only 5-10% of the ticketholders were from outside China. That seemed about right to me. Americans were few and far between, even at American featured events. A lot of ex-pats were sent home in the last few months to make more room. The Europeans that I met in Beijing universally ripped the Chinese at every opportunity - which was pretty funny. Even the longhaired, left-leaning Euros were relentless ...
Caught the eventual gold medal winning US men's team in beach volleyball action earlier in the week. Besides the game itself, there was a lot of action including a dancing girls, mascots, and a German DJ. Not for sports purists.
To answer loyal reader John C.'s question, woman carrying umbrellas on sunny days were everywhere and given my height relative to the average Chinese woman - poked me in the face constantly. The IOC had enough and posted these signs at beach volleyball...
On to regular volleyball, which was probably the best/loudest thing I saw. People in China LOVE the wave, btw. Uniformed guards force people to sit in their seats until the wave comes back around. They call it the Mexican Wave.
Flat screens showing events in the subway...
Great to see the Cromptons down at the Shore before Labor Day. Jimmy and Sheila hooked us up with a great dinner and some funny, funny conversation. Many thanks for the great hospitality! A shout out to Danielle, who we missed by about 8 hours- next time we'll hit the beach!
