Pandas/Olympics

From Susan 10/10/08

Friday AM we went to the International Hotel to buy our train tickets to Mongolia and our plane tickets from Shanghai to Guilin. We decided to lunch near the zoo, taking Subway Line 1 to Line 2 and exiting at Xiamen station. For a good map of the Beijing subway system go to www.5starbeijing.com/SubwayMapBig.jpg. This site also has an audio clip of how to ask for directions to the subway that can be downloaded to your bipod for reference.

The first restaurant we could find was called Golden Hans, a German beer garden, with Argentine style Churasco serving and a buffet. We paid our 40Y after scanning the picture-menu. A promise of 21 different meats/ items awaited us.

Our servers wore lederhosen and beer garden frocks. A scorecard was offered and each server stamped the appropriate item after shaving the steaming flesh from the two skewers. Most of the items were listed in Chinese and English, but some were handscrawled in Chinese. We could identify squid, shrimp, tounge, beef steak, pickled steak, banana, fungus, chicken, hearts, lamb, pork (2x), eel, and several unidentifiable. Buffet items were vegetables and deserts, with plenty of lichi and dragon fruit accents. Late 60s and early 70s American pop tunes were musak while Chinese feudal war films played on the flat screens. Fortified we left the building.

To our left I saw a woman with a zero Haliburton style briefcase. She was soon engulfed by four men in camo paramilitary fatigues, carrying automatic carbines. She was escorted to a gray laundry van type truck. Leah missed it; it was just that fast. I didn’t want to leave the entry before the van.

We then ambled down a sunny street to the zoo. I bought commemorative stamps for the new year and small wooden carved animals. Arriving at the zoo, we made a beeline for the great pandas. It had been planned for pandas from the Woolong sanctuary in Chengdu to come to Beijing for the Olympics, but 30 were brought after the 05/12/08 earthquake. We saw about 16, sleeping eating and hunching.

After seeing the lesser red pandas, Leah and I planned different afternoons. She wanted to collect her puffy coat, I wanted to see the Olympic Sports Center. We hailed a pedicab strapped to the back of a motorcycle to the Subway Station. This made me wish I had finished my will. Leah bought some crochet handwork on the street and I began my Subway trek. I entered Xianmen station after a bag x-ray, but no human x-ray and made the transfer to Line 13. It was a longer hike than switching from the 1 Line to the 7 Line at Times Square. On to Line 10 transfer and Line 8 transfer. Each of the lines was progressively more modern and cleaner. To remember that none of these lines were here three years ago was amazing! Lines 10 and 8 had Plexiglas the entire of the platform; sliding doors were available for cab entry. Station cops roamed with bullhorns: no loitering, no graffiti, no track jumping. I exited Olympic Sports Center station.

The Olympic Sports center is a promenade at least 10 km in length. The water cube, bird’s nest stadium, and tower are the shiny trinkets. The rest of the space is open plaza, treed esplanades, and lesser competition venues. Small times vendors sold fruit and soft drinks. My favorite was the couple who would photograph you in front of the water cube or bird’s nest, with a digital camera and print a 5x7 on their portable Canon printer in less than four minutes for 20 Y. They were gracious and took several photos from which I could choose. Contrasting this was the kite vendor, who seeing my blue eyes stayed on my sleeve for 30 meters trying to sell me a 50Y kite. I also saw a black cocker spaniel in pink silk pajamas.

I had walked far enough that I knew I was near the next subway station, Olympic Park. I asked a kid breaking down a food cart how far I was from the station. She said go up the plaza until I heard the red. See the red I asked? No, hear the red, she said. Then you will hear the subway or Ditijie. I went to hear the red. The steps to the bandstand were where she said. I descended. There was a wind park below the main promenade ten 20 foot brass flutes were impaled along the walkway. A wall of different diameter red rimmed drums was on the other side. When the train entered the station, the drums hummed. I got on the train and returned to my hutong, at Andingmen Station, Line 2.

Here’s something I learned: If you have a GPS transmitter, don’t put your subway fare card in the same pocket.

I heard the collar of Leah’s puffy coat purr.