Jottings from the Granite Studio

Just got back from Tianjin where we we watched the women’s football preliminaries between Argentina/Sweden and China/Canada.  The crowd–to put it mildly–was supportive of their countrywomen.  I’ve been in Fenway during playoff games with the Yankees and that’s a boisterous crowd on its worst day, but the partisan boosters of the Chinese women’s soccer players were something to behold.     I gotta say: the crowd behaved pretty well though Chinese spectators do have a habit of…not quite ‘booing,’ more ‘wooing’ when the other team has the ball.  Overall it was an excellent game, a fun time with YJ’s parents, and even though players wilted a bit in the 90 degree heat and high humidity, the match went down to the wire with the Canadian women staving off a final desperate flurry from the Chinese squad as the match closed to a 1-1 draw.

We had a small problem with the hotel in Tianjin.  YJ’s mom booked us at the Home Inn (如家饭店）near the family homestead, she called to confirm several times, each time reminding them that I was, after all, a foreigner.  Not a problem.  Not a problem.

When we got there: problem.  We were told Foreigners can’t stay at that hotel during the Olympics.  No explanation as to why, not really much by way of apology, though there was some vague mumbling about ‘certification’ not being in place.  Needless to say, this information would have been more useful LAST WEEK so as to avoid a last minute scramble to find accommodations.

At the risk of repeating myself, I’m not sure how segregating hotels on the basis of nationality really fits in with the Olympic spirit…

One last thought on the weekend and then no more Tianjin stuff: We took the new high-speed rail service from Beijing to Tianjin.  Other than the fact that the South Train Station is a 30 RMB cab ride away with no subway connection as of yet, the train itself is superb.   The trip is so quick (about 30 minutes station-to-station) there’s no time to enjoy very comfortable seats with a lot of leg room.  The South Train Station is, as I mentioned, a work in progress, but I will commend the design of the taxi queue and vigilance of the station staff which avoid the complete and utter chaos that frequently plagues the queue at the old Beijing Rail Station.

We heard about the unfortunate attack on Todd and Barbara Bachman while we were in Tianjin, the family and friends of Todd who are mourning his passing this day are very much in our thoughts this day, and our best wishes and prayers go out to Barbara and their guide (who was also injured in the attack) hoping for their swift recovery.

It also seems that–after a telling interval–the Chinese press and government is going ahead and reporting the story, though coverage here in the PRC has hardly been overwhelming.  Clearly there has been a directive to play down the incident and the scuttlebutt through the hutong is that the Neighborhood Committee quickly reminded residents around the Drum Tower area NOT to talk to foreign press.

This could have had (might still yet) the potential to devolve into the classic Chinese government screw up.  Something bad happens, it’s tragic but not necessarily embarrassing to the government, but what does the manpurse brigade do first? Why…figure out a way to hush the story and thus ensure that when word DOES leak out (as it invevitably does), all the newspaper articles lead with the fact that something tragic happened AND the government tried/failed to cover it up.  Hopefully the Chinese government and BOCOG learned from their experience with the deaths of the construction workers building the Olympic venues and is forthcoming with ALL the information and assistance it can provide on this horrific crime.  I also hope that the foreign media shows a little restraint as well.  From everything we know so far, this was an isolated incident of a mentally disturbed person acting out tragically.  Beijing is still one of the safest cities in the world for foreign travelers.

Finally, despite a fair-to-moderate amount of snark during my running diary, I was very impressed by the opening ceremony.  True there were cheesy bits and even a few cringe-worthy moments, but I think those watching it overseas would be quite moved by the spectacle.