davidnielsen's blog

I had the good fortune – or misfortune – to have guys from “Bob” sit in front and behind me on the bus to the MPC today.

Bob is short for Beijing Olympic Broadcasting. They helped set up the TV production at every Olympic venue for all the broadcasters across the world.

I read there are 4,000 Bobbies here. The two I encountered were a piece of work.

I’ve come to the conclusion that Beijing citizens take their life into their hands whenever they try to go anywhere.

The traffic here is brutal – and we’ve only seen the half of it since they’ve banned half the cars from driving every day based on whether they have an odd or even license plate number.

I learned a little today on how the Chinese deal with all of their strict rules and regulations when I tried to enter a supermarket with an empty water bottle.

I was stepping around an employee who was pushing a long line of shopping carts inside. But before I could get inside, a young security guard stopped me, pointed to my empty bottle, and shook his head no.

A couple of us carved out a little time to venture down to the Hong Qiao Pearl Market today.

As soon as I walked through the doors I wanted to leave. Inside was a nightmare that was part flea market and part carnival midway.

“Hello. Hello, sir. Do you like (fill-in-the blank). Hello. Hello sir. We have. Look. Look here. Hello. Hello sir.”

1) We saw his Mom and sisters on TV all the time during the Olympics. What about his Dad?

The U.S. men’s basketball team looks invincible here and many observers are already penciling them in as gold medalists.

That may yet come true. If I were told that I couldn’t leave China until I picked a favorite, I’d certainly pick the U.S. But I certainly wouldn’t be surprised, either, if they lost.

The U.S. is on a roll now because:

I had heard horror stories about some of the toilets in Beijing. But until I went to the Peking Nine Dragon Amusement Park - the site of the triathlon venue – I had never seen any of the frightening kind.

Michael Phelps is happyWhat more can be said about Michael Phelps and his eight gold

Michael-mania is overwhelming Beijing.

Crowds of people are surrounding his every move, hoping to get a picture, an autograph, a touch, a smile, anything.

Check out these excited fans in the Main Press Center.

Quick. Say “one thousand and one.”

That’s supposed to be one second.

So what’s a tenth of a second? There are 17 letters in “one thousand and one.” So try saying 1/10th of that – 1.7 letters -- O and 7/10ths of an n.

There. That’s 1/10th of a second.

Now try dividing that by 10. What is one-tenth of an O and one-tenth of seven-tenths of an n?