Bird's Nest

Okay, so after all that, I went out and bought an Olympic ticket. It was an impulse buy. I was walking outside Beitucheng subway station, which has become a kind of scalper's bazaar, when I heard this Western guy shouting, "Athletics tickets! Athletics!" I thought he was trying to buy some, so I doubled back to tell him there were more people around the corner. It turned out he was selling. He was a Canadian guy from Fredericton - he's even going to McGill in the fall for a master's in law, small world - and some of his friends couldn't make it. I paid him RMB 1300 (US$189): 800 for the face value and 500 he said was a service charge from CoSport. This seemed like a reasonable purchase because a) I felt like I was buying from someone who hadn't deliberately bought extra tickets to flip them, and b) if his own ticket was a few seats away and we entered the stadium together, I could be sure he hadn't sold me a fake. On the train on the way to the stadium, he told me he had met an American girl at the women's gymnastics all-around the day before who had put a ticket for the same event on eBay and sold it to Donovan Bailey for $1,000.

I have to say, the seats were worth it - in Tier 1 next to the starting line for the men's 100 meters. It was also worth it to get close to the Bird's Nest and neighboring venues, especially lit up at night (photos here). I don't know what Beijing is going to do with these buildings once the Olympics are over, but they sure look spectacular now. From there I was able to walk home.

China Fun Fact: There are 21,600 journalists (at least!) in town to cover the Games. Canwest News Service has 28 reporters here, four for each medal Canada has won so far.