May 17, 2012
After enjoying much needed rest from prior jetlag, we woke up and enjoyed the fabulous Western style breakfast buffet at the Crowne Plaza. Then, we walked around the shopping district surrounding the hotel for a few hours where we observed the locals and their culture. It was interesting to see the popularity of American stores with a Chinese twist, such as Nike, Apple, McDonald’s, and KFC. In the afternoon, we had the opportunity to meet students from Beijing Sport University and tour their beautiful campus. We were able to tour the Chinese Olympic training facilities and even caught a glimpse of the rhythmic Olympic team warming up for practice. Afterwards, we met with our Chinese friend that was in China visiting family. We traveled by multiple modes of public transportation: cab, bus, and subway which were not as bad or crowded as we had anticipated. We ate dinner at a traditional style Chinese food restaurant, Spice and Spirit where I tried delicacies such as duck blood, pig feet, pig stomach, crab eggs and bullfrog. The meal was very interesting as all dishes were shared among the table with community chopsticks and then enjoyed with on your plate with individual chopsticks; also the mealtime was longer than American meals with multiple courses and more time to savor the food. The night ended with a stop at one of the popular local nightspots where we learned to play liar’s dice, a traditional Chinese game.
Nike display in the Beijing location and Chinese Olympic training facilities below!
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