Beijing's Olympic Village

We visited the Olympic Village area in downtown Beijing! Its cool to see the structures that are still around from the Olympics, not many of the structures used in the Atlanta 1996 Olympics are still open for tourists to visit besides Centennial Olympic Park.

Here is the gate to the Sunken Garden, which was the first thing that we saw when we exited the subway stop for the Olympic Sports Area.



I think this was the Olympic torch, but I am not quite sure. It is a large enough structure to have been the torch, but all I got when I googled "Beijing olympic torch" images was the little torch that the runners carried (like the one that I saw at the Lenovo plant tour).



I think its hilarious when I go to public places and find that someone has stolen the "T" :)



These statues were in front of the indoor stadium, I had to wait for the little kids to clear off from the base of the statues before I could take this picture-apparently barriers that say do not climb are just suggestions in China.



We bought some more of those white popsicles that taste faintly of banana. Here is Annie buying her popsicle from the lady who was walking around selling them out of a box. This lady has a moist washcloth over her head to keep herself cool in the heat.



This is the front of the Indoor Stadium.



They had random statues and decorated walls like this one all over the place, I think this one housed an atm.



This statue is really interesting.



However, I had no idea what the statue was depicting because this was all that was written on the little stone block next to the base of the statue.



Here is another random statue.



We walked over to the Bird's Nest, the outdoor stadium used at the Olympic Games. On the way there, we passed a bunch of these signs. I hope whoever came up with this translation got a bonus haha.



Like everywhere else in Beijing, the water was dirty and polluted and green. But for some reason, people still try to fish in it (though I can't imagine what kind of fish live in water like this).



You can see the weird E-shaped IBM building in the distance, someone tried to tell us that this was the Olympic torch.



Annie and I are pretending to swim freestyle in front of the Water Cube. The Water Cube was closed for repairs, it won't reopen until August 9th :( Otherwise it would have been really cool to go inside and check out the pool, though I'm sure it probably looks like every other nice 50m pool.



I'm doing the funky chicken dance in front of the Bird's Nest. Don't judge, it was a long and hot day.



We went inside the little gift shop next to the Water Cube, they were selling the Hi Bao character that is the official logo of the World Expo in Shanghai.



I like how they use the "cute factor" to market events in China and Asia. This is me with the Jingjing character from the Olympics.



Annie thought the other 2 characters from the Olympics were better.



We found some random advertisement on a wall for ramen noodles. It is a little scary, I am not sure why the guy in the ad is making the shhhh symbol but Mark and Evan got a kick out of it.



Apparently in China, camera tripods are made to point to your left while you take photos. This guy was hilarious.



After the long day, we got tired and took a break sitting down in the subway tunnel before heading home. There are always people wearing ja-pris (jean capris) here.