Slowtwitch.com live from The Olympic Games

ST Day 1:
Just a small report to start the week off. We landed Wednesday afternoon at the ultra clean and friendly airport. There are more Olympics volunteers, translators, and officials than I expected. We had no problems getting to our hotel, while on the way out there I noticed the lack of cars on the roads leading into the airport. There are massive banners hanging off sides of building with every imaginable sport. I am not sure if this one is a new Hed or Xentis design that no one on the forum has reported on.

The conditions are muggy and while the smog obviously impedes visibility, to me it is not feel as bad as I thought it was going to be. Many times when you are in Latin America you have the big buses and thousands of motorcycles pumping black smoke right at you, while this type of smog is more evident when you look up at a 15 story building or look at the skyline. We made it down to the main Olympic grounds on the north side of the city where the Bird’s nest and Water Cube are located, but since we did not have tickets to that day’s events we had to remain outside. Today is a full day at the Great Wall so unless I catch some Olympians there will probably not be that much to report on. While cars have overtaken bycicles in the city, it is really great to see hundreds of cyclists on all sorts of bikes riding right next to traffic but having ample lanes – something we don’t have at home.

Till tomorrow,
Hector in Beijing.