The original half-baked plan was to drive to Beijing in my old Audi A4 and leave it there. Ten of us had arranged to take four cars and three motorbikes along the Silk Route all the way to Beijing in time for the first rowing heats. In retrospect it was never going to happen and by the end of last year the bureaucracy and paperwork of the eleven different countries on the route defeated us. By December 2007 we were down to two cars and two bikes and in the end we had to pull the plug on it. Having recently experienced some of the driving in China has only reinforced the view that we had made the right decision.
I already knew JMB was planning to go out there in August to support the GB rowing team, so in January of this year he kindly said that I could go out there with him. So the 10th August 2008 saw me doing the same journey in one of British Airways' 747's in wonderful comfort and some seven miles above where we had originally planned to be, but this time it only took eleven hours instead of the six weeks we had planned for the drive. By this time JMB was well established in China having arrived via Hong Kong some ten days earlier (ten days prior to that he had been going to bed at four pm and getting up at midnight in order to get himself on local Chinese time, so he didn't miss anything while he was there!). On arrival at the magnificent terminal 3 at Beijing Airport I was whisked away by a Sportsworld driver to our hotel (Sportsworld had the UK franchise for all the ticketing and accommodation for the duration of the Games). When I got there and managed to find Julian in our shared room he informed me that he was just off out to sell my ticket for that day as he thought I was arriving in the evening, I grabbed it back, and off we went to the Shenyui course. Supposedly two hours away, however, thanks to the taxi driver taking us to the wrong bus station it took just over three and half. It didn't matter too much to me as I was asleep on some Aussie's shoulder for most of it, but it mattered to poor Julian as he'd been suffering from the effects of a dodgy beef noodle stew some three days earlier and was beginning to become a shadow of his former self.
The anticipation and the racing was good until about four pm when the heavens opened and we were informed that the heats for the women's and men's eights had been postponed. At 5.30pm we found out why as from behind the stands there was an almighty flash and crash that echoed around the countryside and it started to really bucket down. We duly put on the very essential plastic macs that we had been given at the gate and then stood watching the torrents come down the road while we were in the bus queue to get home. The eights heats took place on the following day and it was brilliant to see the GB crew including of course ex-Monktonian Alex Partridge coming back from third to win very convincingly in a superb time of 5mins 25secs. The GB women came second in their heat and then got into the final the following day, one of 10 GB crews out 12 to do so. What a great week for British rowing.
No trip to China is complete without a visit to the Great Wall, so mid-week, whilst there wasn't any British rowing, we went off to see one of the most fantastic construction wonders of the world along with about 20,000 other Olympic spectators who had also taken the day off! The wall had been closed at Badaling as the men's marathon was taking part along a sector of it; this meant that we had to travel about an hour and a half further north to a much more interesting part that was only accessible via a long steep walk or a chairlift. Needless to say we took the chairlift. The only way down was by walking or on a toboggan in a stainless steel chute, which was great fun until we ground to a halt half way down only to be rammed by a Swiss Delegation from the U.N. Once we got to the bottom we were assailed by incessant pestering from ever optimistic Chinese trying to sell us overpriced 'tat'; needless to say we came away with some.
The afternoon saw us at the Temple of Heaven, just south of the Forbidden City and Tiannamen Square. Now it was estimated that there were some 15 million people in Beijing last August so the chances of bumping into anybody you know from Europe must be pretty remote, needless to say, as we were wandering about, who should we spot at the top of the main steps to the temple but Lionel and Dorata Girard, who were as flabbergasted as we were to see each other. Lionel was there of course in his official capacity in the French team looking after crews and trying to sweeten up all his sponsors for the next four years.
The following three days were taken up with getting to know Beijing and getting to know some of the other Olympic events and venues. We managed to take in women's softball (very violent and physical), men's wrestling (very technical and gentlemanly), athletics in the Birds nest Stadium (very impressive) Water polo (appeared very exhausting). We couldn't get into the swimming, cycling or gymnastics as the tickets were well-nigh impossible to come by. However, we did come across an American tout from Texas who tried to sell us swimming tickets for US$500 (face value £13!) Interspersed with all this, a little bit of shopping was called for. Shopping involved a trip to the Silk Market in downtown Beijing where Julian managed to buy himself a lifetime supply of Calvin Klein underpants for next to nothing and I managed to snap up three polo shirts for £4 amongst a few other goodies! The last time that I went to the silk market was in the 1990s and then it was actually a market in a street that went on for about a mile and was all great fun. Needless to say, now it has all been redeveloped into a massive five storey block with about as much character and charisma as a house brick - I suppose it had to happen!
We managed to take in Tiannamen Square that evening just as the sun was going down and the full moon was coming up, all very impressive and full of families out for their evening stroll taking in the sights of some enormous sculptures and models all related to the various stadiums and venues for the 2008 events.
A little mention about food and sustenance throughout our stay. The food at the venues was universally dreadful; we managed to survive throughout the day on a diet of beer, ice-cream and crisps and, apart from water, that was all that was available whilst we were inside the venue security zone. Come the evening though our 'youth hostel/hotel' was situated in the middle of the city and right in the middle of the local restaurant area where we did pretty well on a diet of Peking Duck and many other wonderful Chinese dishes, the main speciality of the area was referred to as a Steamboat, where you were presented with a large bowl of what looked like washing up water which you then had to boil up on a gas ring in the middle of the table and then proceed to cook your dinner in it, all pretty daunting at first but generally turned out to be fine and certainly tasty. It certainly was a test for JMB's stomach problems and thankfully by day 3 he was off his diet of cashew nuts and on the road to a full recovery tucking into his favourite prawns and seafood.
Saturday and Sunday saw us back at the rowing lake for the finals. Enough has been written about them, but suffice to say the atmosphere in the grandstands was amazing with large groups of British, Canadian, Dutch and New Zealanders interspersed with isolated pockets of Greeks, Finns, Slovenians, Poles and many others. The overwhelming majority of course were the Chinese who went mad when any of their crews were racing. We did manage to get them to cheer for GB when they didn't have a crew in the race; they did it with much gusto but there was a certain amount of confusion for some of them, especially when we asked them to cheer for the Canadians as well! It was quite inspirational to watch GB perform in the way they did, especially the two Monktonians Steve Williams and Alex Partridge. Let's hope we can bring some more on from the school into the international arena over the next ten years; we certainly have plenty of talent available. There was a bit of local interest for me in the form of Zac Purchase and his gold in the lightweight Men's Double - he used to come to my village, Bratton, to see his grandmother while living in Corsley just outside Warminster.
All the racing took place in the afternoons and on so Sunday morning we decided it was time to join some of the locals in a walk around Behai Park which was a short bus ride away, we managed to purloin a rickshaw and as you can see from the photo, a boatman does have his uses for senior coaches. We ended up in a very original and old local teahouse for what we thought would be a very civilised mid morning cup of tea, we sat down and decided to try a tea that had been recommended by the waitress. The whole procedure was a work of art, warming the cups, the pot, pouring the water from a great height and then drinking it very delicately. It wasn't until we got the bill that we realised what we had been drinking was some of the most expensive tea in China. Two cups cost us 380 Yuan, some £30! The situation wasn't helped by the fact that for some reason someone kept coming up and taking pictures of me and ignoring Julian; apparently I was the spitting image of some European TV Show presenter. The whole morning was put down to experience! The most we ever paid for one of our very good evening meals was 100 Yuan each, so that was seriously exotic tea, either that or they thought here come a couple of gweilo mugs!!!
Talking of being well looked after and treated like the ancient Brits which we were, everywhere we went on the buses or the Underground we were offered seats by the local Chinese, some of whom appeared to be older than us, and they wouldn't take no for an answer, I think we both felt very guilty about it, but certainly at times, with the heat and the long days we were extremely grateful.
Sunday night after the finals saw JMB invited to the Team GB party for the crews and their coaches to celebrate their all-round excellent results. He came in at about midnight having had quite an eventful taxi ride back from the course only to get up again at 5am in order to get to the airport for his flight to Guangzhou in the South, and then on to Australia a couple of days later. Fond farewells were said, I then went back to sleep until 9am, before going to the women's beach volleyball in the centre of the city, very interesting and very popular! A trip to the Hockey that evening once again in the torrential rain saw me back on the 747 homeward bound the following morning, a fantastic 10 days never to be forgotten.