The End...of china that is

today may have been my last day in china, but it was definitely my favorite day. ya, we were chased by security a couple times and almost arrested, but how many people can say that they have been inside both the olympic stadium (birds nest) and the aquatic center (water cube).

ln, jfk, sn, and me after our first failed attempt

our trip down to the new olympic center started out very poorly. the first 2 gates we visited turned us away before we could even begin to ask about touring the stadium (our inability to speak any chinese didn't help the situation). finally we took matters into our own hands. by this i mean we jumped a fence and became trespassers. for the next hour or so we inched our way closer and closer to the stadium. it was during this march that we were confronted by security/police on more than one occasion. thankfully, every time we came in contact with their blue and white van there was a barrier between us.

just about every side of the stadium

at about noon time the entire construction site emptied for lunch and the boys and i were left to roam the site with very little threat of being removed. it was at this point that we decided to make our way into the stadium. all i can say is that i have never been so excited about architecture in my entire life. for lack of better words...the olympic stadium is the most beautiful building i have ever experienced.









when we finally had our fill, we decided to try our luck at the aquatic center. ln and sn worked their magic and before we knew it we had convinced 2 sets of guards to let us enter the building. this experience didn't last long. the workers were back from lunch and insisted that we could not tour the building without hardhats. as we walked out we snapped as many pictures as possible.




this was the perfect way to end a great experience in china. i'm off to england tomorrow and then i'll be in spain the following week. not sure how often i'll be able to access the internet, but i'll do my best to post whats going on. Zhi jian...