Day Three - The Olympic Park, some jade shopping and a Kung Fu show

In the afternoon we visited the Olympic Park where the 2008 games were held. Seeing the structures was fascinating even though it was still rather misty. You see these places in the media but don't think you'll ever actually see them yourself.

The National Stadium (The Bird's Nest)

The National Aquatic Center (Water Cube)

The Torch 

The Torch is now an enormous sculpture but during the games it was actually the Olympic torch and was fitted on top of the Bird's Nest stadium.

The stadium is very large and very clean (like everywhere we've seen in Beijing) and the extreme cleanliness is down to the efforts of all the orange-clad cleaners usually seen wielding witches-broom type besoms. The Olympic Park is such a large area they go about on motor scooters!  

A scooter-riding cleaner heads past the Bird's Nest

After lunch we headed to a jade gallery - gallery is quite a good term as it was certainly more than just a shop.  The statue pieces are full of impressive for their detailed carving. 

Check out the size compared to the man!

And compared to the fire extinguisher

Some are large - some are just massive! 
These end up in restaurant entrances.

Others are just beautifully made. Who wouldn't want this pair of bulls? Or the traditional Chinese dragon and Pixiu dragon?

Bulls

Pixiu is on the right

Pixiu - pronounced 'pea-shoe' is believed to be the youngest child of the dragon (male) and the phoenix (female). He has a dragon's head, a horse's body and a unicorn's feet. Most importantly he has no anus and is therefore a wealth-giver taking everything in and letting nothing out again! Apparently the pixiu is very popular with casinos (and gamblers) in Maccau who take the superstition seriously. 

Steady hand required

Other jade items include small pieces for the home like this 'family' ball being carved from a single piece of jade.

When complete it will consist of three or four  interlocked spheres. Larger ones can have up to nine spherical layers!

All the items are wonderfully carved but we had a sneaky feeling that out of their milieu the statues - especially the large ones - would appear a bit kitsch in suburban Europe. 

Huge jewellery saleroom

The jewellery however is a different matter. Jade jewellery is lovely and acceptable everywhere and they did have one or two nice pieces for sale! It took me a while but I managed to choose a wonderful birthday present. It would have been a shame to miss such an opportunity!

The character means 'longevity'

Neither lunch nor dinner provided a weird dish but as we were leaving the restaurant after dinner we passed the fish tanks full of the evening's menu offerings and saw something completely unidentifiable. Local guide Cathy said it was 'sea sausage' but Jason informed us that was known in the West as 'Chinese Penis Fish' - and not even he fancied eating that! I know you're thinking traveller's tales - but check it out on Wikipedia 

After dinner we went to the Red Theatre to see the Legends of Kung Fu show which proved to be much more entertaining than we might have guessed. 

No idea why it's called the Red Theatre!

Kung Fu show

Not only was there Kung Fu but also stick fighting and sword fighting and acrobats. There was even a ballerina! All very theatrical.

It's fast-moving

Theatrical

Altogether a pretty good show

We finished the evening with a glass of French red wine in the hotel bar. It cost a similar price to a glass of wine at home and the quality was actually very good. You can get Chinese wine, but apparently most of it is not of a very high standard. Chinese people are newcomers to wine made from grapes and although it's gaining in popularity among the newly wealthy their viticulture is in it's infancy. Anyway this French wine made a nice change from beer.