As promised, here we are with another
visit to China before the Olympics begin today (08-08-08) - [original
blog version was a couple days earlier]. If you're an Olympian or a
spectator, the adventure of experiencing China's opening on the world
stage promises to be nothing short of thrilling. The infrastructure,
including Qingdao Olympic Village, has been ready for the influx of
athletes, officials, and journalists, and Beijing and Hong Kong are
welcoming spectators. Since Olympic Village opened two weeks before the
Olympics, many of the photographers, journalists, TV networks, as well
as officials and athletes, have already been on site for a few days to
a week or more. Rehearsals for opening and closing ceremonies have gone
well. Everything looks wonderful!
However, China's outward shine is understandably lacking a bit
of luster, in the minds of journalists and a few IOC officials, at this
writing, because of Internet access restriction issues for journalists
reporting and recording the events. This, coupled with the recent
handling of the unrest in Tibet, has tarnished the otherwise (mostly)
glowing sheen of China's entrance onto the pageant walkway, as it were.
For China visitors, in any
capacity, none of this should change the spirit of adventure, though,
in the next weeks and months. Adventure, good or bad, positive or
negative, is still adventure, and should be viewed and experienced as
just that. My adventures have not all been positive, but they've all
been adventurous! I wouldn't expect it any other way. If all
experiences, and outcomes of those experiences, are known in advance to
be comfortably positive, where is the sense of adventure?
Predictability is generally the opposite of adventure. "Indiana Jones"
knew adventure had no bounds, and he left predictability behind in the
classroom!
So, if you're going to China anytime soon, will it be
for the Olympics? Or will you go after the Olympic torch has been
extinguished? Or will you opt for other adventure travel - to more
far-flung parts of China - even during the Olympics? We've
previously mentioned a few possibilities, and will discuss more distant
destinations sometime after Olympiad XXIX is history. China is, after
all, a very large country, even if we don't consider the large semi-autonomous regions such as Tibet or Mongolia.
Of
recent interest to me was the transportation across large expanses of
China, from one city to another, one province to another. There is no
infrastructure of four-lane divided highways connecting distant cities
like the Interstate Highway system (begun under President Eisenhower in
the 1950s) does in the U.S.A. Rather, Chinese President Hu Jintao has
opted to connect his country by a gargantuan expansion of the air
travel infrastructure that dwarfs anything ever attempted by any other
nation until now.
The recent (February) opening of the world's
largest airport terminal, in Beijing, is only the beginning; the main
terminal - of three - is nearly two miles (3.2 kilometers) in length, covering approximately 10,000,000 square feet (929,030.4 square meters).
To meet demand, 97 more new airports are being built (and another
planned for south Beijing within ten years). And 3,200 new jet planes
are being purchased.
If your adventure includes traveling to more than one main location in China - and why wouldn't it? - your travel can be the non-adventurous
part of your itinerary. With all new planes, new airports, courteous
agents, free luggage check-in, flight hostesses who provide excellent
service - with a smile!, and good food (yes, they have meals!),
what could be more - well, mundane? Ha-ha! On top of all that, ticket
prices - when bought in China - are a fraction of comparable distance
flights in the U.S.A.! Does it get any better?
