Jaunted

My family and I started the day off early with a visit to the Great Wall of China. We thought we were getting a head start arriving at 8:45 am, as we had gone to the Great Wall at Mutianyu, which is usually less crowded and more scenic than the Great Wall at Badaling. But instead, we found an unusually big crowd--due to the Badaling area being closed for an Olympic cycling race on the roads nearby.

It's my family's first full day in Beijing, and it's not as smoggy or hazy as we had expected. I heard that the conditions were so hot and humid that quite a few cyclists in the race on Sunday pulled out because of the tough conditions. Rain on Sunday evening might have helped clear the air over yesterday and today.

I thought I would be seeing this intense layer of smog, however, it's just hazy. Instead of checking out the Olympic events, we toured the city. We have a terrific private guide, who makes navigating the city so much more manageable!

I arrived in Beijing with my family early this afternoon and we went to our first event: the Women's 58 kg Class Weightlifting. It was amazing to see these women lift up to two-and-a-half times their weight. China's Yanqing Chen won the gold.

But that wasn't the first Olympic event we attended, as we were lucky enough to get tickets to the Men's Preliminary Football event on August 7 in Shanghai Stadium, where some of the soccer matches are being played. We saw an exciting game, sitting next to 50,000 other fans: The sold-out match between Argentina and Ivory Coast.