Since today (Friday) is the opening ceremonies for the 2008 Olympics, I thought I’d let Ryan do another guest post on his impressions of the Olympics in China (since he’s already seen them). Here’s what he says:
We’ve had a little change of plans, and instead of going from China back
to Hong Kong tonight, we took the ferry from Zhuhai to Shenzhen, where our
contract manufacturer is. We’re staying in Shenzhen tonight, and we’re
going to visit them tomorrow morning, then return to Hong Kong for
tomorrow night’s hotel.
3 different hotels (and 4 different rooms!) in 4 nights — Hong Kong,
Zhuhai, Shenzhen, Hong Kong… It’s been quite a trip.
The drivers we’ve had (which have all been employees of partner companies,
except for a single taxi in Macao) all drive like NYC taxi cab drivers,
but with many more pedestrians and bicyclists and motorcyclists to
possibly hit.
So after the ferry, Kordon and I met with the employee of our contract
manufacturer who had been sent to the ferry port to pick us up and take us
to the hotel, and the ‘company car’ wouldn’t start. He checked fuses,
tried putting it in gear, pushing it, etc. for a good 20 minutes.
If I’d been on the Amazing Race, at that point, I would’ve gotten a
replacement car, since due to no fault of my own, that one was going
nowhere! Our driver then got a screwdriver, put the floor mats on the
ground, scooted under the car, and 10-15 minutes later, it started up
(while he was still under it! — I’m not sure what he did to fix it, but
cool! He fixed it!).
Our driver tonight spoke *NO* english, so it was somewhat of an awkward
ride. He drove us for about an hour to get to the hotel, which is right
by their factory.
After checking into the hotel, Kordon and I went downstairs to the
restaurant to get some food. Note for the future: Service isn’t the best
when you’re in a country that’s hosting the Olympics, 20 minutes before
the said Olympics are about to start, in a restaurant with a big TV. The
wait staff were all out watching the ceremonies, and Kordon and I didn’t
get our food until well into the ceremonies.
The Olympic Opening Ceremonies in China are:
1. Mandatory… This note was in my room here: “Dear Guest: We maybe
fail to get all the international TV signal during the date 6th
August-10th August for the TV program limit by the government. We regret
to bring inconvenience into your stay and thank you very much for your
understanding and cooperation”. You can’t get any other programs on the
TV, but there’s about 10 stations broadcasting the Olympic opening
ceremonies, none in English…
2. Awesome! I’ve been watching them, and the opening presentation
(before the countries present) is incredible! I’m taping it at home, so I
can see it on the big-screen TV, but even with the Chinese announcers,
it’s pretty dang cool.
3. Psychedelic. I’m sure if I were the drug-enhancing type, that these
opening ceremonies would be among the best to watch ‘a bit enhanced’.
4. Expensive. You can tell from the opening ceremonies that they’ve
spent a lot on the games, I read somewhere that it was in the 10’s of
*BILLIONS* of dollars, both on infrastructure (roads, etc.) as well as on
the stadium, opening ceremonies, venues, etc.
Very cool that I get to see it 14 hours before the US…
Thanks, Ryan! We’ll watch it tonight, but we appreciate your preview. We love you and miss you and hope you get to see more interesting things before you come home.
Those opening ceremonies were FANTASTIC – poor Ryan, however is he coping without Bob Costas’ constant chattering about Madona and how she relates to some country in Africa? I would prefer to only hear Chinese and be able to enjoy the show. Hope he makes it home safely and quickly.