Day 14: Confucious Tea House, Silk Market, Smog Traffic

View from our cab on the way to Confucious Teahouse.

Katie and I forced ourselves out of bed after a late night at the tennis center followed by dinner at a 24-hour hot pot place in Sanlitun. We were determined to get some sight seeing in, and I really wanted to go to this tea house I had heard about near Confucious Temple. We hopped in a cab and made our way to an amazing little tea house across the street from the temple.

We loved the atmosphere at Confucious Teahouse.

 I’m so happy we made it—the atmosphere was so relaxing and it was the perfect way to start off the day.  Our  “waitress” performed the traditional tea ceremony over our tea, and taught us how to use the cups and hold it the correct way. (They don’t like that Katie is left-handed--several people tried to correct her!)

We ordered a wild green tea and a white-flower tea.

The tea ceremony was like every little girl’s dream. After we finished our tea, we looked around at the little shop and bought some tea to take home. They showed us how to use all of the tea paraphernalia and made some black tea for us to sample while we made our purchases.

Never would I ride a bike in Beijing!

We took a cab to the tennis center for a quick meeting at 12:30, but then I had some free time before the women’s match so I decided to go to the Silk Market with Sarah and Travis. Our cab driver dropped us off a few blocks over from the market, and I was starving because we had only had tea all day. I bought a grilled sweet potato off a street vendor for 5 RMB—and it was delicious!

Just walking around Beijing eating a sweet potato!

We bought a ton of things at the silk market—including gorgeous silk scarves. We were just glad to get inside from the smog, it was really bad outside. We stayed at the market for a few hours, browsing everything from Buddha statues to fake designer clothes, then hopped in a cab to try to make it back to the tennis center. 

Stuck on a overpass in smoggy traffic! The taxi drivers all got out to have a smoke. 

We ended up getting stuck in a horrible traffic jam on the way back! It took us almost 2 hours to get back to the hotel. After about 45 minutes we became pretty good friends with our cab driver-we showed him everything we bought from the silk market! 

 At one point, we were stuck on a ramp for over 30 minutes in the smog—after that we were all feeling like we couldn’t wait to get a breath of fresh air! Later we found out it was one of the worst pollution levels ever recorded in Beijing.  The tennis games ended up being delayed because of rain and smog!  We ended up staying late at the tennis center saying our goodbyes to the staff and all of our friends we had made--it was hard to say goodbye!

Day 13: Temple of Heaven, PR experience

This morning we forced ourselves out of bed and hopped on the subway to see the Temple of Heaven before heading to work.  We’ve been exhausted after working such long days at the tennis center, but we decided it was worth the loss of sleep to see the temple...

Leading up to the temple. 

Amazing walkway on the way to the main temple. 

I’m so glad we did because it was completely worth it. The fog around the temple made it seem surreal and it was totally relaxing. My favorite type of place. I also loved the crowds of people around, just hanging out enjoying each other's company.

Love these men playing cards.

The architecture and colors are absolutely gorgeous. It just felt ancient. I felt worldly just standing there and I could have spent all day there if I had time.

Can't get enough of these colors. 

Tai Chi master in the park. 

The clouds/fog around made it seem surreal.

I wish I could have stayed there all day.

We made it back to the hotel after just in time to hop on the shuttle to the tennis center—where we headed over to watch Isner play Djokovic at Lotus. Now that we’re in the semi-finals our press load is a lot lighter, which is nice.

Djokovic getting set up for the game- the Chinese love his shirt because of the dragon logo.

The “smog/fog” was in full force today. It seemed to be moving down into the stadium, and after a while I had a feeling in my mouth as if I had licked the sidewalk. Not pleasant. Katie and I decided to watch the rest of the match in the player’s area to get away from the smog!

After Isner's loss it was sad to walk him to press!

They played a tough match and I didn’t know who to root for—it was my two favorites. But Djokovic won and we still got to take both of them to press after the match.

I knew that something was going on with that reporter who kept asking about the “smog." Today it came to light that he twisted Djokovic’s words in a pretty negative way in a story that ran this morning.  They were not happy about it and he actually refused to comment on anything else that specific reporter asked about him later in press. It was interesting to see the way it was handled with the officer and the player. Definitely a learning experience for me and a tense moment in the press room. 

Day 12: Smog, Signs, "Confirm Me"

Today was just a foggy day.  It was grey everywhere—you could barely see the sun. I’m glad I brought eye drops because my eyes were feeling strange. It really wasn’t that bad for us, but I can imagine it bothering the players. 

You can see a little fog-- but it's really not too bad at Djokovic v. Simon on Lotus. 

The press won’t let it go, especially an English guy for Reuters. He asked about the smog in every single meeting. Most of the players have said it isn’t that bad, but I’ve seen a number of them coughing on the court. 

Djokovic's classic bounce before the serve.

Setting up the serve.

About to win against Gilles Simon.

Djokovic is one of my favorites to take to press—he is always in a good mood and jokes around with the reporters. At the end of the conference today he turns to the translator who is giving his response in mandarin, and goes. “ NO. I did NOT say that last part. I didn’t say that.“  The translator was horrified until he said that he was kidding and that he didn't speak any Chinese. 

Something that I’ve noticed is the signage around the tennis center. Instead of “strictly prohibiting” food or drink, etc, they offer “tips” on how to act. All of the rules are phrased “politely."

Just some "Tips."

Earlier in the media center I overheard one of the volunteers making up a sign. He asked me if the it made sense in English. It read something like: “ To pleasure, health and happiness, enjoying food outside.” What he meant was, “ No Food or Drink Allowed.” But he was very insistant on the fact that he wanted it to sound “ happy.” We compromised with, “For a clean working environment, please refrain from eating or drinking in the media center.”

Problem solved.

I'm not sure why but I just get a huge kick out of communication issues here. Katie and I bought some shoes at a market by our hotel, and it was quite the adventure trying to explain shoes sizes to the non-english speaking girl who tried to help us at a place called "Love. Family. Tree."

Try acting out "Do these come in black?"

It's funny how the communication for our media center has worked out. Our main supervisor is so great-- we get along very well despite the language difference. Her English is excellent, but it did take a day or so to really get on the same page with each other, especially since most of our communication is via the radio or phone.  I can tell that we would be friends even outside of a work environment. Some things such as personalities and character traits are so universal and easy to spot even without using words.  

Anyways, Katie and I are pretty proud of ourselves for getting one of the chinese girls we work with in the interview room to say "TEN FOUR" and "ROGER" over the walkie talkie.