Waiting to exhale

Mark writes :

A funny thing happened after last night’s WHYS , which we did from the rooftop of the Fish Nation restaurant here in Beijing. As we were leaving – at 3 in the morning local time (when even in Beijing not many people are about) – there were two men standing opposite watching us leave.

They weren’t going anywhere, they weren’t on their way to somewhere, they were just waiting for us to leave. As we walked towards a main street to find a taxi, they monitored us, while at the street corner another bloke (one of our team thinks he was wearing a wire but maybe that only happens in films), watched us get into our taxis (licence fee payers note : there are no trains at that time of night).We were definitely being watched.

At first you start to think if we’d done something wrong, had we jeopardised the safety of our guests or of our interpreter. We’d sought permission from everyone in sight ; we checked and double-checked how people wished to be referred to on air, we even asked the owner if he was happy for us to say on air that we were here. he was.

Then you think that as much as I love WHYS, we’re pretty small beer, a little speck on the radar of the security services.

All the same, under the page in the rule book that reads “better to be safe than sorry”, I ran it by one of our top people here, someone who works here all the time. His opinion was blunt and to the point : “it’s normal. As long as you didn’t trash the bar wearing a Free Tibet flag, your interpreter will be fine “.

Another day, another day feeling like a mug then. But the rumour mill I referred to yesterday is still working a treat. Our interpreter told us yesterday that today the city would be in lockdown. “no taxis will run”, she said “nothing will move because of the security”.

So it was surprising to walk out of the media village this morning and be able to hail a cab and then get down here to Fish Nation in double quick time on blissfully empty roads. Ok, it is a holiday here, but the misinformation worked.

The street that this restaurant is on is a little narrow straight lane packed with shops and restaurants. Two days ago, nobody had a television on display, now everybody has. The one in our bar is so new it still had the manufacturers stickers on the screen. The mood has changed – the feeling is that after all the fuss and the protests, all the money and the disruption, let’s just have an Olympic Games eh ?

One of our guests on the World Today said that the bloggers in Beijing are almost tired of it before it begins.

The volunteers though are as indefatigable as ever – every time i see them, which is often, I think how London will be, and I have to admit I worry.How could my city live up to this ?
The volunteers here have been distributing books to Beijingers telling them – alright then, asking them- how to behave with us foreigners. Apparently they’re not to ask me my age (probably a good thing) and if they shake my hand they are not to do it for more than 3 seconds.

This attention to detail is remarkable, and a major reason for people’s optimism that the Games will work and work well. One of the plum jobs for a volunteer is to be the person who brings the medals out at each ceremony. They are to incline their bodies at 15 degrees while presenting the tray and must smile – ideally revealing 8 teeth.

James – (who presented WHYS rather well last night Ros and Chloe…!)-is off to an apartment on the outskirts of the city to share the opening ceremony with a Chinese family, while Rebecca and I will be reporting on the atmosphere at the bars and restaurants in this area. We’ll be watching a lot of new televisions. It’s a tough job but i’m sure we’ll dig deep…

Selena, Nelsoni, Vijay ,Bob and others : thanks for your questions to our panel last night. Despite our unofficial observers at the end, I was proud of the programme and the way it sounded. Thanks again. Worth another one next week ?