Olympics Day 4

Went to Cao Chang Di a new-ish art district near Beijing's famed 798 Art District. It's an area that's off of the Airport Expressway and its an series of hutongs and low lying buildings, though more on the outskirts of Beijing. Walking through the hutong, it was clear that daily life had not changed, not even on a temporary basis.

When eating lunch, I noticed that I was the only one in the restaurant besides 3 waitresses and a cook, who were busy cutting chili peppers and watching a daytime drama on TV. I asked the waitress why they weren't watching the Olympics, instead.

"We watch it at night, sometimes," she said.

I went off to see some art galleries. It was in one of them I met "Mary" who was working the front desk. After looking at the art, and discussing with her our favorite pieces, I started asking questions: where are you from, what did you study, etc, nothing unusual. Then I asked how the Olympics had affected her daily life in Beijing thus far.

"Are you a journalist? You seem to like asking questions."

After assuring her I was not a journalist, and that I am asked questions in China all the time (usually the same ones), she said that there wasn't much time to watch the Olympics, maybe on occasion when at home. Because of her two-hour commute and only one day off per week, she didn't have the chance to watch the games. Mary did mention how her commute has been affected for the worse due to heavily increased traffic since her route to work goes near/past the Olympic Complex. Besides that she said the games had not really affected her daily life much.

I walked onto other galleries. At another one, I met "Shelly." She also didn't have time to watch the Olympics, though she argued, her commute to work was better given the automobile restrictions.

I then crossed the street to a complex that was currently being constructed to house additional art galleries. Two men were mixing cement with another watching on, as I walked in. The work was nearly done, save for some final touches and interior finishing and a pile of trash and rubble in the middle.
I was informed by one of the foremen (both pictured above) that if I was to sign a contract today, the interior could be finished along with electricity, water and internet/telephone in less than a month. Although the two men stating the complex was nearly done they informed me that full blown construction would not start again until October, after the Paralympics.

"Not only do we not have migrant workers, we cannot get materials, since they come from outside Beijing (something I will cover in tomorrow's post), there's a ban on construction and we're not even allowed to get rid of our trash," the manager explained. "I mean if we were to pick up all this trash/rubble and take it away to dump we'd be stopped." He then went on to show me how thick the walls of the place were and welcomed me to take a look around.

Finally I stopped in one last gallery and asked the two women working the front desk about the Olympics and its effect on their daily lives in recent weeks. While their responses were the same as I had heard from others, as in not having enough time to pay attention to the Games, and their lives not being affected by it, one pipped in and mentioned, " my commute is far easier." When I commented that Beijing was different, given the lighter traffic and the clean air, one of the women noted, "well not quite so clean today, is it?"

Though I had to agree, the air, as a "black cab" driver pointed out, was far cleaner than it usually is. When asked about the effect the Olympics had on his personal life, he stated "oh everything." When I pushed him to give me an example, he grinned, "well I get to rest every other day!"


My "rub it in" Olympic photo today is that of Usain Bolt, the Jamaican sprinter who broke the Mens 200m world record (by .02 seconds) and took gold with his nearest competitor half a second behind him.