The Olympics Have Passed (Thank Goodness!) My Parting Thoughts

Although the Olympics have passed, the Para-Olympics are now in progress. As a result the crowds have thinned a bit, but not completely. Yesterday I asked one of my coworkers, a true Beijinger, if it was wrong of me to ask: "When are all of these foreigners going to leave so we can get back to normal?" He merely laughed and said"Yes!" Seriously though it has been a pain. Traffic has been redirected, taxi's are easy to come by, the subway is even more crowded, I'm required to carry all of my official paperwork wit me where ever I go, and the prices of everything including groceries has almost doubled (my per Diem however has stayed the same)!

We were able to witness the motorcade of one of the visiting countries officials which demonstrates the disruption that has been taking place. Keep in mind that 204 countries were represented, so that's quite a few disruptions that take place over the course of a few weeks:






Notice the stopped traffic



























The lead car passes































The payload























Hey wait a minute, how did this guy get in there?

























Traffic resumes! It really only took about 2 minutes for the whole thing to pass, but repeat that about 200 times a day across the city and see what it does for your daily commute!














Also here's the real reason to watch Sand Volleyball:

Honestly I feel very fortunate and also very lucky to have been living in the host city during the Olympic Games! It was a unique opportunity to observe and meet people from all over the world, and to experience the ultimate in sports competition!