One World. One Dream. One Night in Beijing.

One of my favorite world cities is the Chinese capital, Beijing. The thick haze engulfing the airport this evening may be an indication that Beijing has the worst air quality of any city, but call me crazy but there is just something I like about this city. It may be the sheer scope and history that has taken place at locations like Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City; maybe the fine art of wheelin' and dealin' at locations like the Pearl Market or Silk Market for knock-off Rolex watches, Polo shirts with the Polo player a little too close to the armpit, or Swiss Army brand wheely bags; or it could simply be the ability to day trip out to multiple sites of the Great Wall of China. How much time will I have in this great city on this trip? One day, all work, no time for fun. Yep, Tuesday will be all school visits and then boarding a plane for Shanghai. To say I am disappointed would be an understatement.

If you were under a rock after 8.8.08 then you might not know a little event called the Olympics was hosted in Beijing. The slogan was "One World. One Dream." and it is still found all over the airport:

What you may not know is from September 6-17 the city is hosting the Summer 2008 Paralympics. There are currently 4,200 athletes from 150 countries here in Beijing competing in the Paralympics. This is the thirteenth paralympic games for athletes with physical, mental, and sensorial disabilities. Categories for the games include amputee, cerebral palsy, intellectual disability, wheelchair, and visually impaired.

My Beijing experience, even though less than 24 hours, was saved due to the Paralympics. At the Beijing airport there were information tables all over with official staff in familiar Olympic shirts. I was drawn to the table because of the impressive (and creative) stacking technique used for certain booklets and struck up a conversation with the two volunteers. This all matters because they had some extra Beijing 2008 Olympics "Official Spectator Guide" booklets left from the August games and the guys (pictured below) gave me a copy as we waited for our luggage (and a colleague interrogated at customs). This Guide is a pretty sweet little souvenier considering I missed the summer games by a few weeks.

Today was a full day of school visits in Seoul, sitting on busses to and from everywhere, and an hour ride out to the airport and then a two hour flight over here to Beijing.