Forbidden City- Take 2

With today being Opening Ceremonies day for the Paralympic Games, security has tightened up significantly. Unless you're a credentialed athlete or coach, it's near impossible to get into the Paralympic Village. With lock-down in full swing, axillary staff like Kim and I are left on the outside. I've had full access to the Village up to this point, but today I had to run errands for Team USA outside the gates.

After the errands were completed, Kim and I made our way to Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City. I had gone there on a previous trip to Beijing back in April 2006 and posted my adventure then.

We arrived in the Square and passed through the mag & bag (magnetic baggage screening) fairly quickly and took in the recently added landscaping. Although beautiful, the cranes in the background of just about every photo op and the heavy pollution made it hard to fully appreciate the scene. This picture overlooking the Forbidden City shows how thick the the pollution was; it was truly hard to enjoy the afternoon of sightseeing with my eyes and throat burning so much. We've heard that the even-odd license plate driving protocol is still in effect, but today was some of the worse pollution I've experienced in my four trips to Beijing.

The lack of any color in the sky made for drab pictures, but you can still get a feel for the remarkable architecture and paint schemes. It was great to see all the disable access that has been added to this city due to the Paralympic Games being held here. All of the Olympic signage has been switched over to Paralympic and the city seems fully engaged in the upcoming competitions. In fact, the whole city seemed to be shutting down to get ready for Opening Ceremonies tonight.

Although I had the option of going to the Ceremonies tonight, I'm watching them on TV from the hotel room as I'm writing this post. I'm not a huge fan of large crowds, especially for such an extended period of time. I can see the "bird's nest" stadium from my hotel though and I'm excitedly awaiting the fireworks display that I know will be the finale.

That's it for tonight. I hope you will go to the IPC website (International Paralympic Committee) to watch live coverage and learn a little about Paralympic sport.