First post from Beijing

Finally, WordPress is unblocked in Beijing, but I still need to go through a proxy service to write this post.

Anyway, the city is great!!!  There has been so many changes made over the last couple years. Unfortunetaly, I wasn’t able to see any blue sky until Aug. 1, and the fog was back on Monday again.  And the weather has been unbelieably hot, comparing to Vancouver.

One of my dream came true on Aug. 1 when I got up at 3 AM and witnessed the flag raising ceremony in Tiananmen square. It was a moment I’ve been waiting for years.

Flag raising ceremony in Tiananmen square

Ticket to the rehearsal for the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympics

On the next day, another dream came true.  Even though I didn’t get the ticket for the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games, I was lucky enough to get a ticket to the second rehearsal of the ceremony.  The whole night was simply AMAZING!!!  Chinese culture was raised to a new level as it is being shown to the world in a way that’s beyond anyone’s imagination.  The incrediable feeling of sitting in the “Bird’s Nest” and watching an Olympic event was nothing like watching TV, including HD’s.

Even though it said on the ticket “no camera allowed”, I still found so many cameras around me.   But it wasn’t able to ruin my night, not even close.

There’s a gun pointing at my house!

There’s a gun pointing at my house! A really huge gun! And as big as an airport. Well it is an airport; it is a military airport called Xijiao Airport in Beijing, and its runway extents right through my house…

I never knew this interesting and powerful scene until I rotated the satellite image 90 degree CCW in Google Earth. (click here for full view of the image)