The Better Way?

There's not a lot of news to report yet, as the Opening Ceremonies aren't until tomorrow, and I haven't been able to venture out anywhere interesting yet. I am fighting the time-change, and some sniffles that hopefully won't turn into anything worse. (Bird flu, anyone? Don't worry, I'm sure it is just allergies or the smog)

This morning, I had hoped to get up early and visit either the Summer Palace or Tiananmen Square, but when I woke at 6:00am, the skies were grey and the smog was thick. Visibility was terrible and would have made for really bad photographs, so I went back to bed and slept to 10:30, hoping to try and fight off this cold.

I still wanted to do something different today, so I decided to skip the Media Shuttle Bus and take the Beijing Subway to the IBC. This actually involves eight stops, on three separate subway lines, and took me about an hour, but is was worth it to be able to familiarize myself with the system, and admission is free for Accreditation holders like myself.

There is a subway line (actually an elevated train) that runs through the Media Village, but the nearest stop is about a 500m walk from my building. In the image above, I start at Beiyuanlu North on Line 5, come south to Line 10, then west to Line 8, and north to the Olympic Green.

As you can see, the stations look brand new, and are extremely clean, and well decorated.

That's actually a glass wall that separates the platform from the track, with sliding doors, so that you can't accidentally fall onto the track. The subway line map is displayed above the doors, with station names in English, and each of the transfer points to other lines are also indicated with arrows.

I did not get a seat on the first two lines, but the third line up into the Olympic Green was nearly empty. Now you can really see how clean it is. The TTC is pretty good in Toronto, but the New Yorkers here are in absolute awe of the cleanliness.

While the subway ride was easy and convenient, walking outdoors is a real chore. There is absolutely no breeze, and it is hot and humid. It feels like walking through soup. I only had to walk about 1km outside, but the sweat was dripping off my forehead before I got into the IBC (which is about 30 degrees cooler than outside, not helping with my cold).

Olympic Footnote:

Even though the Games haven't officially started yet, Canada has already started the competition with a 2-1 win over Argentina in Women's Soccer.