I’ve been shuttling to Beijing, Qingdao and Hongkong in the last 7 days and im finally back. I went there to find out more about their on site preparations and I actually found a worldwide Paralympic family.
In Beijing, where the hotspot is, everyone works 24hours around the clock for the games. Its less than 100 days to go and there are facilities to test, programs to be fine tuned, structures to be built and policies to be implemented. I doubt their activity level ever stops, it’s a beehive of activity at their BOCOG office that houses thousands of people and people operate on shiftwork basis, with office staff coming in for work at 6pm. The hotel I was staying in had fantastic service, knowing that we were here as officials for the Paralympics, upgraded me to their suite and arranged for us to dine at their restaurant. But what’s fun wasn’t the ultra big suite but braving the cold and heading out at night with henry and danny to find food or places to visit to make our stay here worthwhile.
The scale of the games left an impact on me in Beijing, but it was Qingdao that was an eye opener. It’s a coastal city, with the coastline winding through the little townhouses. European styled houses dotted the city centre and by the slopes that leads down to the sea, you see bungalows with living rooms on the 3rd storey because that’s the level where all pedestrians and cars access and bedrooms will be down the slopes on the 1st level which opens out to the coastal walk by the sea. How cool is that, if I had 1.5million, I wouldn’t spend it on housing here, I would give it a go at Qingdao. If big houses aren’t my thing, I fell in love with a small one room apartment which I stayed in during my time there, very good use of space and its definitely for someone single.
Anyway, sailing will be hosted here and Qingdao has the best games publicity going on with equal coverage for not just the Olympics but the Paralympics as well. You cant say that for Beijing which the main focus is on the Olympic games. Having reached the Olympic Sailing Center, what first hits you is that the staff wears uniformed windbreakers, red for the men and lime green for the women, from management staff to the technical people to the drivers they wear them on the job. Everyone seems to know everyone too. Their workplace is dynamic, temporarily situated in the games village which is a 6 star hotel, which is by the competition venue which in turn will definitely be by the sea. So basically, they work in a 6star hotel by the sea. The concept here is different from Beijing where competitions is held at different venues. In Qingdao, it is really a village. Accomodation, competition venue, broadcasting center, sail boat’s berths, boat repairs and spectator stands are all at one place. Athletes from all over the world are gonna come, sail and stay at this 6 star hotel whose architecture takes your breath away.
And I thought nothing could beat Qingdao, until I reached Hong Kong, where Equestrian is going to be held. Their team of experts from ALL fields sat on the organizing committee, it took them more than an hour, to tell me in detailed the role of each person and the kind of expertise they bring along with them. In the meeting room, sat managers of each department and the deputy chief herself was there to give her presentations. Well, I guess I didn’t know what to expect from a team of experts but the 3 hour meeting couldn’t be more detailed and informative down to floorplans of each room and even the use of each door for the games. Wow. I was pretty much intimidated at all the precise information, I mean I didn’t get that kind of information in Beijing, much less qingdao and over here, their presentations would have taken hours of work to be put up. You don’t mess with this team. My questions that I posted to them seemed rather puny in size as compared to the information that they fed me with. Whatever they couldn’t answer on the spot, the managers put calls through to the different people and made sure that they got back to me. I was pretty much overwhelmed, these are very important people who just spent the morning sitting together with me just waiting for me to ask questions and to give me an idea of the kind of work they have been doing for this game.
Even lunch was hosted by the deputy chief at a restaurant, which turned out to be a much more relaxing affair as compared to the meeting. Over lunch, it was where it felt like lunching with family members I didn’t know that I had, they welcomed you, they bring food from the dishes to your plate, we talked about work, school, sports, our different countries and I found out that I had this bunch of people that is working overtime with me even through different geographic locations for this one game that we’re gonna pull off. Basically, for everyone that I met I will ask about their lives before this games, because they were teachers, students, government officials, event managers and the list goes on who came together and their work has became a part of their identity ever since they knew that the games were coming to their home.
Next up, was the visit to the Olympic/Paralympic village for the athletes and officials in HK. It’s the same concept used in Qingdao because its another hotel except that unlike Qingdao, which built one from scratch, this is one that is in operation at the moment. Once again, from a team of experts, I found out that they do nothing but amaze you. The whole hotel is going to undergo major transformation to become a work, play, sleep and leisure 16-storey building for the likes of the games. Beds, drawers, furnitures, dining tables and chairs are gonna be taken out and fitted with desks, handicap friendly facilities, office equipment, internet stations, media rooms, interview rooms, retail outlets, games room and many more. Everything will be transformed in one week for the Olympic games and for the Paralympics they have one night to do so. Its gonna be magic. Throughout the tour, she had all floor plans ready and could tell me exactly what each room would be turned into, where everything is going to be, how we should go about getting payments and passes done up and the operation hours of each facility. Its jaw dropping, especially when all I see is a hotel now but she’s talking like the games will be happening tomorrow, when I mentioned that, she said that she will be in trouble if she didn’t have all this plans up because its 89 days to the games. Talk about being efficient man and everyone delivers their presentations in damn good English, no hongkie accent.
That’s it this is my update for the games that I’ve sold my soul to for the next few months and well, I cant say that it has been a bad thing eh. a