My Plans For This Blog

Although this is a Summer Blog, I am thinking of making a new one that I can continue using after this summer is over. The main purpose of this blog, was to post my daily experiences in China. As I am now back, this will continue until school begins. Enjoy the rest of your summer!

Photos from my trip

So, I know I have kept some of you waiting, but I finally got most of the photos up onto a website that I made. Thanks to Preston, other people can actually see it! Visit it here!

Goodbye Beijing

It's been a wonderful 1 and a half months here in Beijing, China. But, as all good things must come to an end, so does this trip. I have some of the most fondest memories here, took about 1529 picutures, and also visited a ton of places.

I came here on June 29, via CA982. The first few weeks, were spent with my Grandmother, as my parents would come on July 25 because they only get 3 weeks of vacation. My grandmother and I, spent the first few weeks buying clothes, and curtains. We went out to dinner on a daily basis, often with my relatives, or her friends. We also went to Beihai Park to drive boats.

June 19 is a day I will never forget. The grand opening of the first Apple Store in China, the Sanlitun Apple Store. What a day that was; liveblogging from my iPhone, standing in line for almost 4 hours, and meeting some truely wonderful people there.

July 25 is the day my parents came. Once they came, we went to a lot of places as my grandmother is too old to travel too much around Beijing, which takes 3 hours to go from the North end to the South end. We started out by going to the Temple of Heaven, and Wangfujing Street, where the Olympic Flagship Store is. We also went to Chaoyang Park, where you can take a boat and go all around the park. Chaoyang Park is also the site of the Beach Volleyball competitions.

The next day, we went to Tianamen Square, and looked around. The Monday to follow, we went to Henan to visit relatives. That is really a true flavor of China. Beijing is all comercialized, but out in the Country, that is where you see true China.

1 week later, we were back in Beijing. After going to the National Center for the Performing Arts, I was able to go to an Opening Ceremony Rehersal. Though I thought the rehersal wasn't that impressive, the actual one was extremely good, except for the fact that some fireworks weren't real, and the little girl in the red dress was actually just mouthing the words as the song was prerecorded by someone else before hand.

After the games started, I went to see a tennis match, followed by soccer and athletics at the National Stadium. These final days have been spent busily packing, last minute preparations, setting up my grandaunt's mac and transferring 3+ gigabytes of photos to my iPod.

Once back in the USA, I will have to catch up on all the things I have missed, do my summer homework, and then create a photobook from the tons of photos I took in China.

CA981 is my flight number, you can track it from the Flight View website.

This is my last post in China. See you back in the states soon.

Almost Time

Tomorrow is when our flight leaves, CA981 (I think). These past few days have been really busy preparing for the trip back. I took tons of pictures from the Birds Nest and also the Water Cube. Look forward to seeing my pics back in the USA

8/8/08

Today is the Opening Ceremony for the 2008 Beijing Olympics. If you have been reading this blog recently, then you know that I thought the rehersal sucked. But, I think that they will make the actual thing better. Some Sarah Brigtman person is singing in it along with this guy who I have no idea where he came from, his name is Jackie Chan or something. (That was sarcasm.) It should be a little better. I will not be going anywhere today, because, the security is going to be really really tight and there will be a lot of famous people arriving today. Meanwhile, I have been visitng some of the famous places in Beijing, the Temple of Heaven, Wangfujing Street, and more recently, Qianmen Market Street. I have yet to go to Tianamen Square and the Great Wall as the torch relay and ever tightening security has made that almost impossible until after the opening ceremony.

Opening Ceremony Rehersal

Yesterday, I attended the Beijing 2008, Olympic Games, Opening Ceremony Rehersal. I was not impressed. I will write exactally what happened when I have the time.

Henan: The Story

Sorry I couldn't come up with a better title. So anyways, these past few days have been a real ball! I got to go fishing and I caught 3 fish although I did cheat a little (it was a fish pound thingy). I also got to go to my uncles paper factory (he is in charge of it) and I took tons of pics. Yesterday, I went to this really beautiful mountain wheie I went swimming, then had dinner there. The air quality here is A LOT better than the air quality in Beijing. Tomorrow, I am taking a 8:02 AM train to Beijing. It is one of the new fast trains, ones that go 350 km/h. This way, it will only take 3 hours, instead of the usual 8.

When I get back to Beijing, there will only be a few days till the Opening ceremony (8/8/08 8:08:08 PM). My grand-aunt has gotten one ticket to the FINAL Opening Ceremony REHERSAL on 8/5/08, so it is almost like the real thing. Too bad I didn't bring my camcorder. However, I will take TONS of pictures. Netherless, I hope you read my twitter blog thingy in the next few weeks, as I will be mainly posting via that in the next few weeks.

Also, to celebrate National Watermelon Month, have a watermelon:

What would Hale do??

So imagine that you are talking to your friend and Hale is sitting right behind you to. As you lean in to whisper something to your friend, What would Hale do? Guess by commenting.

Yeah So...

Hi. Apparently, there IS internet here in Hunan. I just got of the train an hour ago. So yay! Stay tuned for my new series of posts titled "What Would Hale Do?" (Hopefully Hale won't kill me after I'm done with these posts...

Why China Rocks!

Today, I went to a shopping center called Ito Yokado. Apparently, in China, Coca-Cola markets a soda called Smart which comes in a ton of flavors. Apparently, they also sell watermelon flavors. So I bought one and it tasted great. I am writing this in honor of National Watermelon Month! (July) Happy National Watermelon Month everyone!

Eric

Sanlitun Apple Store Pics Are Now LIVE

Thanks to Preston, the pictures I took are safely online. Thanks to Preston for this awesome youtube video he made using my clips:

UPDATE: Newspapers are reporting at least 2,000 people attending the opening. Now 229th in line doesn't sound so bad! Just to tell you, I was 26th into the store. :)

Sanlitun Apple Store

Today was the grand opening of the first Apple Store in China. It opened in Sanlitun at 10 A.M. Beijing time. My grandmother and I got up at five o clock for this event. We got to the waiting room at 7:30, and were given numbers 229 and 230 in line. Apparently, the people at the front of the line came yesterday at 2:00 P.M. 

We waited for about 1 and a half hours inside this huge room, while apple played some new ads for iPod+iTunes on a giant LED screen. Then, we were herded outside to wait in the scorching sun where we waited another hour. Thankfully, the extremely nice Apple employees were there to give us free water and also umbrellas to keep us from dying. 

My grandmother and I eventually pushed up to the front, about 50 people from the front. And there, we waited. Meanwhile, I was spazzing over my twitter feed along with talking to Morgan, a friend who lives in Denver, CO, who is also Preston's friend. Some people came outside, apparently, very important, as people started clapping.

Then, for some apparent reason, the Apple employees inside the two-story building started clapping at us, and we started clapping too. One person shouted, "Kuai Kai Men!" which means, "Hurry up and open" in English.

10 minutes till zero hour, and the entire apple employee staff in the Sanlitun Store came out and high-fived a ton of people. Apple's way of building atmosphere, I guess. Finally, it was time.

At exactally 10:00 A.M. the doors to the store opened and a torrent of people began piling into the store. I got in at 26th in line, not bad for starting out at 229th. The t-shirts they gave out were nice, as are all of Apple's products, Black with a picture of a set of headphones bow-tied on the front, and on the back, white text that said: Apple Store, Sanlitun 7.19.2008. 

While in the store, I video-chatted with Morgan while a TON of people took pictures of us. So, hes pretty much famous now, and so am I. I also got interviewed by YouTube HK, some chinese TV network, and by an Apple person video taping the event.

Pictures are coming soon, along with videos of the event.

For full, minute-by-minute details, go to:

www.twitter.com/eli8527

And look for this post:

eli8527 we're in! and lol. i know 36 min late :) but anyways. awesome place! got free tshirts. gona put vids on utube about 10 hours ago from web

Live blog continues after that post as that is the last post of the blog.

More to come later,

Eric

Cow Farts

I found this article on Digg.com. Hope you enjoy it! Plastic Backpack Bags Cow Farts

Yesterday and Today

Yesterday night, as you should know (if you have been reading my blog), I went to this show that featured 12 acts, that included hoop jumping, and some other cool acts. It was extremely good. My Great-Grandaunt, invited my grandmother and I to there. On the way back, we took the Beijing Subway, which involved a security check (they're really becoming serious about this now). 

Today, I went to my GrandAunt's house, and then we went to this buffet that cost 200 RMB per person. It had a lot of choices that looked good, but tasted horrible. Tonight, I am going to go the the Olympic Green, and hopefully, the lights will be on.

I will be posting photos as soon as Preston gets MobileMe web galleries set up.

Guess What?

Todays my 13th birthday! Can't wait to see what happens today, as Preston tells me MobileMe is also transitioning today, along with some other random stuff.

What I've Been Doing So Far

I've been really busy these past days, shopping and stuff. I also am getting settled down too. Look for postcards in 2 weeks or so.

Hola From Beijing!

Hi everyone! This is my first post from Beijing, China! I am here for the 2008 Summer Olympics! Staying at my Grandmas house, which is only about 1 mile away from the olympics. Our flight (CA982) got humongo delayed so we had to wait about an hour. Luckily, the food is good, but McDonalds here for breakfast is expensive. I had to spend $4(US) for breakfast! ITS A SCANDAL. ITS AN OUTRAGE. Well, all is well, I am posting from my Grandma's friends house as we do not have DSL YET. It's coming tomorrow for me. 12 hour time difference from Beijing and CT. 14 hour time difference between here and Denver. I'll post my pictures from the journey here later.

Track My Plane

Hey Guys,

I know some of you guys might like to track my flight to Beijing. Here are the stats:
Airline: Air China (CA)
Flight Number: 982
Call Sign: CA982

For real time updates when I am in the air, go to this link, and click "Find Flight".

Eric

Wall-E And China

Tomorrow is Friday. The last full day I will be here before I go to China. I'm leaving on a 4:30 P.M. flight to Beijing from JFK. I'm taking Air China. I'll find out my flight number soon and post it.
Tomorrow also happens to be the release of Disney Pixar's Animated Film: Wall-E. Meet us at the AMC Lowes Theater in Port Chester, NY if you can for the 6:00 P.M. show.

Pictures From Preston's Visit

For Security Reasons, The Photo's Have Been Moved To A Secure Website.

For Security Purporses:
For The Password, Please E-Mail: ericyoungli@gmail.com or skierjunk@gmail.com.
Please include your name and also your relationship to me or anyone else that is my friend.

Eric