Whenever you travel to a new destination—especially, it seems, major cities—you need to be aware of the tricks that local scammers pull on unsuspecting first-time visitors. New York has its Three-Card Monte and shell games; Bangkok’s tuk tuk drivers might ignore your wishes, taking you instead to their preferred hotels or jewelry and silk shops where the owners pay them for each tourist they bring in; Beijing has its art students.

Con Artists

If you are an obvious tourist in Beijing, it is nearly inevitable you will be approached by someone who claims to be an art student. They will tell you about a special one-day only exhibit of their work, or will offer to take you to their studio where they can be had for a special price—just for you. In reality, instead of discovering the next Chinese Picasso, you will be subjected to mediocre to downright awful paintings and sketches, then pressured to make a purchase at exorbitant prices. Tiananmen Square is a popular place for these scams.

I knew about this con heading to Beijing, and on my first day out and about on my own, I asked someone for directions at a busy business intersection nowhere near Tiananmen, and after pointing me down the right path, he proceeded to tell me he taught calligraphy on the side and would I care to see his and his students works that he keeps in his nearby office.

I’ve learned during my travels that not all scams need turn out negatively—if you’re careful. Having spent the past 25 years living in major metropolitan areas, I have a pretty well developed sense of con (though that doesn’t mean I’ve never been taken, cause I have). However, if you’re aware of the deal, it isn’t obviously dangerous and you can stay firm regarding not purchasing too much, it can be an adventure.

So I agreed to go to this dude’s office. His name was Victor. We went up to what looked like an insurance company office where in the conference room he had a box filled with silk sketches, pastels, paintings, etc. Pretty scenes of rural China, rivers and mountains, cats. You get the picture.

Victor’s spiel went from no cost to “I’ll make a special deal for you. Cheaper than in the stores.” Well, yes, that would be true, I realized, after hitting a couple of the markets where tourist souvenirs are so grossly overpriced that you need to have bargaining skills of steel to get the cost down to anything remotely close to fair.

So after starting out at his initial offer of 250 RMB for one piece, he dropped it to 150, then 100, and I eventually got two landscape panels (by one of his students) and one of his humorous sketches for 100 RMB total, about $15. It was of a man with a large belly who stood with his mouth open to the sky. Victor told me that it represented a government official, good only for eating and getting fat. That story alone sold me.

I’m sure I still overpaid, but the experience was worth it.

Hutong Abduction

My last night in Beijing, I was approached by a young woman (named Hope) who wanted to give me a tour of one of the city’s old hutong neighborhood, including a visit to a traditional home, for free. Nothing is free, I said. What was the catch? No catch, I was assured by her manager at the tour office. It was the end of the day and they just wanted to share Beijing culture. Hmmm…

Again, curiosity got the better of me, so I climbed into the rickshaw. (I also desperately needed to give my sore feet a rest.) We drove around the alleyways while Hope gave me cultural insights: the number of beams above a doorway corresponded to a family’s prestige, doorways have raised bottoms so it’s harder for husbands to sneak out and so on. We turned down narrower and narrower alleyways, no one was out on the street, it was getting to be dusk, and I was beginning to smell danger.

I had been making a mental note of our path into the hutong so I could get out of the alleyway maze, and was preparing to run if need be. To my surprise, about a minute later we made a turn and were in front of a busy home where people were running around, some with large blocks of ice.

I was told to wait a few minutes while Hope made sure it was okay for me to come in. The driver tried to insist I leave my backpack on his seat since it was so heavy, but I kept it firmly secured on my shoulders. The “home” turned out to be a restaurant where SAS, the Scandinavian airline, was hosting a private dinner. The company’s chairman hoped to secure more routes to China, at least that’s what the Swedish chef told me, whom I ended up talking to for about 10 minutes while waiting for my “tour.”

Suddenly I’m pulled to the side of the courtyard—hutong homes are four buildings that form a square and face a shared courtyard: parents stay in the north home, daughters in the west, sons in the east, servants in the south—and the next thing I know a reporter for CCTV, China’s official television station, puts a microphone in front of me and a cameraman positions me for an interview.

What?!

Turns out CCTV was covering the dinner, but for whatever reason wanted or needed a token Westerner perspective on the city. Hope’s job had been to find someone appropriate. They didn’t want to know my name, where I was from or what I did for a living. Only what I liked about Beijing. Ah, the catch.

On the way out, the large ice chunks had been turned into a sculpture of an SAS jet. Hope was fascinated by the piece and wanted a picture of her touching the cold mass.

In the end, she asked just that I give a donation to the driver, which I gladly handed over, and that I e-mail the picture of the ice sculpture. I agreed, and walked away smiling and shaking my head.

This—the unexpected— is why I travel.

I experienced my first “blue sky day” yesterday, which coincided with my first Olympics events.

A blue sky day refers to the air quality of Beijing and other major Chinese cities. The country’s Blue Sky program measures sulfur dioxide, nitrogen dioxide and airborne particulate matter known as PM10. Pollutants are measured on a scale of 1 to 500, with 500 considered the worst score. Any rating below 101 meets national air quality standards and is considered a “Blue Sky day.” Of course, there is some controversy http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/10/world/asia/10china.html over the accuracy of this system.

Anyway, it was nice to finally see wisps of real clouds and a light shade of blue overhead, especially as I headed to the tennis stadium for my first live event of the Games.

Transportation Trauma

We left the apartment at 8:30 a.m. for our 10:30 tickets at the Olympic Tennis Center thinking that would give us plenty of time to get there. Ha! We needed the full two hours.

Turns out the signage for transportation to the various stadiums around Beijing are not exactly clear or the easiest to even find. And you have to go through security between subway transfers and have a ticket to an event before you’re allowed on Line 8, the track that goes to the main Olympic stadiums. But the woman manning the line said for tennis we needed to take a bus.

I swear if I didn’t have Mandarin-speaking Maggie with me, it would have taken even longer to figure out how find the correct bus to get to the center. Even after we got on the right bus, she had to ask a Chinese passenger what stop we needed because even though the taped announcement says, in English, “The next stop is,” a different voice says the name of the stop in fast Chinese, which even Maggie had trouble understanding.

(Of course, we could have taken a taxi, but we’re former New Yorkers and prefer not to rely on them, except late at night. Plus, they’re not the easiest to find right now because a) demand is sky high and b) some drivers have been refusing to pick up Westerners because of their fear of not being able to communicate.)

Match Point

But we did make it and what a day it was!

Tennis is my favorite sport, so I was beyond excited. We had center court seats and even though they were near the top, they were not bad at all because the stadium isn’t that large. Much better than the seats I usually get for the U.S. Open. Only a little more than half the seats were filled though, which I found a bit surprising.

Center Court Competition

First match was Peng Shuai (China) vs. Alize Cornet (France). Cornet won, but Peng made some good attempts to try to stay in the match. Next up was Venus Williams vs. Iveta Benesova from the Czech Republic. Venus pretty much blew her away in the first set, 6-1, but Benesova rallied to win a few games the second set to make the match (6-4) last a little longer.

Court 1 Excitement

I felt a bad for Venus though as about half of the half-filled stadium emptied out after Peng’s match. (This meant though that I could move up closer to the action.) The Chinese spectators moved over to Court 1 to watch their other countrywoman, Zheng Jie, play Nuria Llangostera-Vives from Spain, which we did as well after Venus’s win. (Grounds courts are open seating so we managed to snag fourth row courtside seats(!) though this meant we were directly in the hot, hot sun.)

This match was the best of the day. I was thrilled to see Zheng play—she’s ranked just 36 but made it to the semifinals at Wimbledon this year, and had donated all her winnings (after the Chinese government took its cut) to the relief efforts of the Sichuan earthquake victims. She’s been rebounding this year after a slow 2007 season due to injuries.

The players were equals and each game was close. The first match went into tiebreak, with Llangostera-Vives winning. Second set was Zheng’s, 6-1, but the score is deceiving as many games went to deuce. Third set, Zheng took an early lead, but Langostera-Vives rallied back to tie it 3-3.

The crowd went wild. Consistently had to be reprimanded for yelling during play. They chanted Zheng Jie, jia you, Zheng Jie, jia you (pronounced like jai yo, rhymes with hi ho), which means “let’s go!” Zheng eventually won the match 6-4. The place erupted.

On my way out I caught the end of the Keifer (Germany)/Anderson (Russia) match. Keifer won. But nothing beat the great tennis played on Court 1. That alone was worth the price of the admission ticket. It was a blue sky day indeed.

Next up: Beach Volleyball

Been having a bit of difficulty getting our blog software to work through my connection here, so though this is my first post, it actually was written a couple days ago. Also, I apologize in advance for the size of the images—can't figure out how to get them to upload as the smaller sizes I thought I had saved them to...

Upon arrival at the beautiful new terminal at Beijing airport, we were greeted by costumed Fuwa characters (dolls of blessing), the five cartoon figures that are the official mascots for the Beijing Games, one for each ring of the Olympic symbol. They are named for prosperity, happiness, passion, health and good fortune.

I’m not prone to appreciating cuteness, but couldn’t help but smile at the figures, especially since so many passengers, particularly the kids on my flight (there were many), ran to get their pictures taken with the characters.

Transport

Express Train

If you’re traveling solo, the easiest way to get to the heart of Beijing is to take the Express Train. For 25 RMB (roughly $3.75), you’re just one or two stops from the city center and transfer to the Beijing subway system. The train is new and the cars are state-of-the-art with electronic signage in Mandarin and English, air conditioning and smooth, smooth rails.

Subway

The subway system is super easy to use, clean and safe. New required bag checks, using x-ray machines similar to those found at airports, began a few weeks ago. And security cameras are everywhere. Three new lines opened just a few weeks ago, one of which is the line I use (Line 10) for the apartment I’m staying in. Each ride costs 2 RMB ($0.30).

China has stationed Olympic helpers on each train, if not every car, and throughout each station, so if you have any questions, someone who knows English is there to help. There also are groups of official Olympic helpers stationed throughout the city on streets. They sit in groups of three or four and wear official t-shirts and arm bands. They’re located not just in the main tourist areas but also throughout the city, even in random residential areas where there doesn’t seem to be much foreign foot traffic.

Taxis

So far all the taxi rides I’ve taken have been with my friend Maggie, who speaks Mandarin, so I haven’t had to try to give directions yet. The rides are cheap: The most we’ve paid for a fare has been about $7 or $8 for a cross town jaunt. Will have to try a solo trip soon and let you know how it goes…

Air Quality

No doubt about it, the air is thick and hazy. Woke with a massive sinus headache day one, but day two am okay. The image here was taken from a rooftop Friday evening, about 30 minutes before sunset.

This shot is as clear as it’s been since I’ve arrived. From what I’ve read and heard, it’s a vast improvement over conditions four or five years ago. Yikes! The funky shaped building in the picture is the CCTV (China Central Television) headquarters.

Energy of the People

What’s been really terrific is the overall excitement and energy in the city for the Games. The nation as a whole is extremely proud and happy to be the host of the 2008 Olympics, and it shows just about everywhere. Those volunteer info guides I mentioned earlier? About 10 times the number of people (500,000) needed applied for the available positions (50,000). There are several sites with large screens set up for people who couldn’t get tickets to events to watch the Games. The couple I’ve passed have been packed with locals.

Everyone has been extremely friendly as well, which isn’t a surprise since that was my experience several years ago when I traveled through Southeast Asia for eight months. Asian hospitality is hard to beat. Whether I’ve been walking down a street or sitting on a bench in a park, people will walk by and smile and say ni hao. When trying to order food, buy something in a store or, say, drop a jacket off for dry cleaning, they’re very helpful and so far have understood my travelers sign language, just as I’ve begun to understand theirs.

Will dedicate an entire post to food later in the trip, but for now here's a shot of me enjoying a breakfast treat from a local street stall in South Chauyong, the section of Beijing I’m staying in: re bing (meat and egg cake), with jian bing (pancake, egg, onion, sesame, sauces) on the counter. Tasty!

Okay, am off for a new day of exploring. Next posts will cover my first tourist scam encounter (I knew it was happening and happily played along), peaceful Ritan Park, the hip lounge Bed, Tiananmen Square and watching the men’s basketball game (U.S.-China) in a crowded Beijing sports bar.