As Beijing makes its final Olympic preparations, we are making ours. Our major Olympic event will be the birth of child number three, with the tentative English name of Melissa Anne Allio and a Chinese name of 巢 where the first character is Yang's Chao and the 2nd isn't something I quite have a handle on yet. In addition to number three's arrival, I do have a single Olympic ticket, for the closing ceremonies. Here is the story of how "easy" it was to obtain such a ticket. But first, a couple of Aidan/Lydia pictures just for fun.

Ok, back to the story. My first step, last August, was to register with the official Olympic web site for the tickets I wanted. I was allowed to pick up to 10 or so events with primary and secondary choices. I ended up placing requests for a bunch of events including the opening/closing ceremony, basketball, baseball, swimming, and gymnastics. Each event differed the amount of tickets you could request. For an opening round baseball game you could ask for eight tickets, but for the opening/closing ceremony you could only ask for one. They web site then picked the lucky winners through some time of lottery system and I was notified on September first that I was the winner of one closing ceremony ticket.

A few weeks later, I was informed that the online payment method I used (a Visa Card) was not accepted and I would need to visit a Bank of China branch and pay. And so we did, waiting in line for over an hour in order to pay the 150 kuai ticket fee.

A few months later, I got an email from the ticketing agency stating "_To ensure security, eradicate fake tickets, control speculative ticket reselling, and safeguard the lawful interests of the majority of the buyers..." _which meant I have to take passport photo sized pictures along with my passport to a Bank of China branch. Yang was nice enough to go on my behalf, but the branch had some complaint the details of while have long passed through my head, but overall effect was Yang had to make a 2nd trip to the branch in order to provide proof that I am who I say I am. Curiously, I did not need to go.

In the meantime, the city's preparation continued. Friends and acquaintances who were expecting to rent spare apartments for big money only to see demand vanquish. All the work done years in advance in order to milk the rich Olympic visitors overlooked some basic facts. First, Beijing is a tourist hub for China and less tourists were willing to come to Beijing this summer due to real/perceived difficulty in getting a fair deal. Business travelers will stay away from Beijing during August. Lastly, maybe not so obviously, the Chinese government afraid of terrorists or simply a taiwan flag in Tiananmen square has clamped down on visas, making it more difficult for foreigners to visit.

The city also kicked out the beggars and the mongolian women who asked for money via other means. Downstairs of our condo, the beggar woman has been gone since May. In the bars we sometimes frequent on the weekend, the women in the corners who you do not want to look at least they think you want to buy them a drink, have been sent away as well. (The bar owners must have been threaten with hash consequences, at Cafe DelMar -- an establishment downstairs from our apartment --  they initially refused to let Yang inside even though she was eight months pregnant)

Three new subway lines are about to open and English signs have gone up all over town. One could question the need for the pervasive English road and locations signs when I don't suspect any Olympic visitors will be driving themselves -- and if they do -- well good luck with that.

Anyway, I digress. Back to my ticket. I never received notice that I should pick up my ticket and I knew that friends had already received theirs, so Yang checked and it seemed my ticket was ready for pickup. All I needed to do was go to the other side of town to another Bank of China branch and get it. This being China, we sent Yang's father's driver to do the work. He got lost, called the number on the ticket confirmation form, found himself unable to communicate with some guy who was speaking English (it was me), and when he finally did locate the branch, was told my application had a problem. Seemed some piece of information said I was Chinese or that my visa/passport was issued in China. The driver not knowing how to handle this, gave up and left it up to Yang to solve. A few phone calls later, Yang had downloaded the application correction form and sent it along to the ticket agency. We then drove across town yesterday and picked up my ticket without incident.

Here it is:

And so far I have not lost it.