BOCOG Ticketing Center halts domestic ticket sales as demand surges

(BEIJING, October 30) -- The head of the BOCOG Ticketing Center said Tuesday that after careful consideration and discussions with the relevant technical partners, and to ensure the interests of the public, BOCOG has decided to temporarily halt the domestic ticket sales in the second phase to improve the technical plan and will announce new ticketing information on November 5.

The second phase of domestic ticket sales for the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games, launched Tuesday morning, was met with an unprecedented rise in ticket demand from the general public. Within the first hour, from 9:00am to 10:00am, the page view (PV) volume of the official ticketing website of the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games (http://tickets.beijing2008.com) soared to eight million, while the number of calls to the toll-free ticketing hotline (+8610 952008) exceeded 3.8 million.

Because of the overwhelming volume of page visits, the technical system was unable to perform the tasks well enough, and many applicants were unable to successfully submit their applications. The BOCOG Ticketing Center expressed regret for any inconvenience experienced by the applicants in the process of purchasing tickets.

Tuesday morning's turnout for the ticket sale fully reflected the Chinese people's longing and support for the Olympic Games. There were long queues at BOCOG-designated Bank of China (BOC) branches; some applicants had waited in line since Monday. Many others had sat in front of the computer for a long time, waiting to access the ticketing website and to submit their orders. Meanwhile those who chose to purchase their tickets by phone had been constantly calling the hotline since early morning.

In regard to the communications jam caused by the excessive page visits, the official explained that the ticketing center had underestimated the demand from the public, resulting in shortcomings in the preparations and causing inconvenience to ticket buyers.

"We sincerely apologize to the general public," the official said.

The official confirmed that the successful orders of the Olympic tickets on Tuesday through the three channels -- via the Internet, telephone, or at the Bank of China branches -- will remain valid. The applications of those who registered their ID information at BOC branches and call centers on Tuesday will be processed immediately once the ticket sales begin again.

FYI: After the BJ powers that be saw how many people bought tickets in Phase 1, you'd imagine that they would have been ready for Phase 2. But I guess that is one of the cultural differences in China: just move something back. A real bummer is I was hitting the refresh key all last night! Anyway, here's the link if you want to find out how to buy tickets.

Number of views as of this blog entry: 6937.

The other day Mark joined me and a student at KFC. It's common when we (i.e., foreigners) go out into Siping that people stare and have the same standard questions: Where are you from? Do you like Siping? What do you think of China? How much do you make? When we are by ourselves (i.e., no students present), only the most daring will ask us in Chinese. But when students are with us, they fire away.

Earlier during our meal, a man talked to my student friend. I didn't really listen to the conversation. But later, as Mark and I was talking, I was stating that I have difficultly in guessing the age of Chinese, especially women. I mean, I can tell if someone's in their 30's or 60's, but, in between, it can be pretty hard. Over 60 is easily made out.

Anyway, as Mark and I were discussing this, our student said that is exactly what the other man near our table had asked. He was wondering our ages, to which our student said that we were about the same. I am 34; Mark is 60 - big dif! So we let my student try to guess Mark's age and he was completely flabbergasted at the fact that Mark was 60 (or rather 61 by Chinese standards). I know I have some gray, but do I look like I'm 60? Diz-zang!

Number of views as of this blog entry: 6905.

At 8:19 PM China time, I will celebrate my Chinese birthday. I was born two years ago on this date, October 25, and was given my Chinese name by a group of three students, (one of which just called to wish me a "Happy Chinese Birthday!") Technically, I'm 3 years old as in China you are considered 1 when you are born. Anyway, Happy Birthday to me! BTW: I'm celebrating this birthday with a nice cold Mountain Dew Code Red that my dad had shipped to me this month. Awwww, refreshing!

P.S. - Cash in small bills is acceptable. :-)

Number of views as of this blog entry: 6870.

At my school, we have a foreign teacher's library. It's a good resource for teachers and students alike as they can check out all manner of English resources: fashion magazines, old Time magazines, books on tape or CD, novels and American DVDs. Each of us teachers have a time in the library as we have it open every Monday to Thursday from 3 to 4:30 PM. The library is always staffed by two of us; every Tuesday it's always Kat and me.

The conversations we have are always interesting and multi-faceted. Students come to ask questions, practice English or often have very good topics of interest. Today Kat and I were blessed with three Junior English major girls whom we've both had the pleasure of teaching in class.

We began talking about movies, about the different genres and what movies and stars Kat and I liked. Highlights of this conversation were: 1) one of the girls said that she recently watched "Silence of the Lambs" and "Hannibal" with her good friend and was wondering the whole time why there wasn't any lambs to appear in the movie (indeed this puzzled me though I'd never thought of this issue before) and she was adamant that "a lamb should have appeared and been silenced" (I cracked up at that); 2) I was explaining that I often liked scary movies (like sci-fi) and was giving several examples of them when, one of the other girls, piped in, "You like horrible movies!" (to which she meant "You like horror movies!" - funny how our students' words get jumbled) and she was all embarrassed when Kat explained to her what she actually said; and 3) I was answering their question about my favorite actress (being Uma Thurman) and I tried to explain what movies she had been in since I didn't know her Chinese name; I said "Kill Bill", "Les Miserables", "Batman and Robin" and even "My Super Ex-Girlfriend"; it was this last movie that one girl said, "My Super Ex-Girlfriend?!" and I realized how insanely stupid some titles (and films) are in America; then Kat and I talked about movies that we watched and thought "I just lost two hours of my life and I want it back."

Number of views as of this blog entry: 6846.

Last Thursday night, the Wu & fam, Daren & fam, Mark and I participated in a language festival held on campus. It was part of Foreign Language week and all the acts that were performed were comedies and all were delivered in English.

I am totally amazed at the creativity of Chinese students when it comes to acting. They had elaborate costumes: swashbuckling pirates, pompous princes, dazzling princesses, devilish villains, and creepy cross-dressers. The plots/plays they performed were even more elaborate: Brokeback Mountain (a mixture of Prison Break, Pirates of the Caribbean, and Titanic), Cinderella, Mulan, The Little Mermaid, and the Monkey King [seen at right] (a Chinese story of lore similar to Paul Bunyan in American culture).

Each acting troupe numbered several actors (from 7 to 12), amazing use of props (swords, ghosts, musical cues), highly detailed fighting scenes, and English with Chinese flair (if only I could record this part for your audio-visual enjoyment!). Highlights for me was: a Brittney Spears "drag dance" (I'm sure your mind has a visual picture and that's probably what it looked like), a skit performed quickly, slowly, without emotion then with (I guffawed in the front row), and Mulan's grandmother who TOTALLY looked like the grandmother from the Disney movie. You can see Mark's pictures in the photo album "Foreign Language Festival".

When the group of us signed up for this gig, we had no idea how hilariously entertaining this night would be. We, as usual, were the last to perform. Our skit consisted of a doctor (me) who is visited by several patients who each have an ailment. Each patient is instructed to sit in a "magic chair" in which their symptoms will disappear. Daren had hiccups, Rach had an itching rash, Jude had sneezing (which involved Jennifer spraying silly string on the audience each time he sneezed), Wu had a twitch on the right side of his body and Mark was pregnant. As each person walked in, the ailment would leave when they sat in the chair, but I would receive the ailment. So at the end of the skit, I was hiccupping, sneezing, itching my left arm, and having a twitch on my right side all while delivering my lines. As Mark came on, I simply ran off-stage in fear. I don't know if it's flattery or actually true, but some students said we were the highlight of the night. 加油老外!

Number of views as of this blog entry: 6842.

Chinese Scoop up Looted Qing Treasures in Auction (October 9, 2007, Reuters) A sale of Chinese treasures looted from Qing palaces by foreign troops has fetched record prices in Hong Kong on Tuesday, given gritty bidding by Chinese buyers looking to repatriate such objects from the West. A white jade seal belonging to the Qing dynasty, Qianlong emperor carved in 1796 to mark his abdication, was the most expensive lot -- going for HK$46.2 million (US$5.9 million). It broke the record for any Chinese white jade or imperial seal ever sold at auction after intense bidding by mainland Chinese and Taiwanese bidders. The squat, round seal inscribed with a poem, had been looted from the Hall of Imperial Longevity (Shouhuangdian) in Beijing in 1900 by a French soldier, General de Gercey. A total of HK$325.8 million (US$42 million) was paid for the 34 "lost treasures" on offer, exceeding the pre-auction estimate of US$25 million. Sotheby's said most of the buyers hailed from mainland China, Hong Kong and Taiwan, but didn't give specifics.

Baby Boom for Beijing Olympics (October 10, 2007, China Daily) For many Chinese couples, October is the right season to conceive babies, as they hope to have an "Olympic baby" delivered at 8:08 PM, on August 8, 2008, the time when the opening ceremony will begin. While the ambitious potential parents plan to celebrate the Games with a new addition to their families, host country China is bracing itself for a baby boom. The first generation born under the one-child policy has reached the age of childbearing. And also, a mixture of traditional superstition and new trends has led to an abnormal surge in the population. The year 2000 saw over 36 million "millennium babies", nearly doubling the number in 1999 and 2001. Seven years later, the country is witnessing a new rush of baby deliveries since February 18, the beginning of the lunar New Year, the Year of the Pig. Many couples are trying to have "piggy babies" so that they will have a happy and prosperous life in the Year of golden Pig, as the animal sign coincides with gold, one of the five elements on earth. As a result, the number of newborns is expected to hit 20 million this year, according to Xinhua New Agency. And with the "Olympic baby" fever, the numbers of babies will be even higher. The baby boom has already started to put strains on schools and hospitals and later on, job markets. Experts warn irrational selective births could result in a shortage of social resources.

Number of views as of this blog entry: 6807.

Week two of Freshmen classes have begun and at times these Freshmen are quite hilarious. It's quite a change for them to have a teacher (much less a foreign one) speak English the entire time during two class periods. I can tell some of them struggle a little; others are ready to fly. In the past two years, we would already have had them since September, but, due to their military training schedule this year, our teaching time with them has been reduced by about four weeks. Daren, Mark, Seth and I are the ones who teach Freshmen Oral.

One of the funniest things about them is their demeanor. I can look at some of them and they look so scared. I'm sure they're thinking "Sonny is so big" or "I don't want to speak English because I'll speak badly" or "I don't know what Sonny is saying" or something related. Others look at me with the biggest grins, apparently completely enamored by the fact that I'm their oral English teacher.

The process of choosing names for them takes a while, too. I explain to them it's like creating a new personality - an English one. It's a way to start new, not only because they are in college, but their new English name can create opportunities as well. I explain to them not to name themselves after food, drinks, animals, things in nature and "sounds they like". Students have  come with English names (or have desired to change their present one) like "Icy", "Eleven", "Cola", "Cappuccino", "Mississippi", and, my all time favorite, "Hakuna Matata" (you know, it means "no worries" from the Lion King). Needless to say, I enjoy their enthusiasm and creativity in working on their English names.  

Number of views as of this blog entry: 6791.

Last week, I received confirmation and paid for my Beijing 2008 Olympic tickets. I will get to see four events (all Finals) and they are Athletics, Triathlon, Wrestling and Judo. The process for getting tickets was complicated as you had to first choose the tickets you wanted (at the most 10 venues/events), submit this list with backups (at the most 10 venues/events), then await for the computer selection process. For example, if 10,000 tickets are available for the Basketball final and 15,000 people chose the event for tickets, then 5,000 will go without tickets in the randomized process. I'm glad to have gotten four events but I REALLY wanted to see the Weightlifting finals. In any event, all the leftover tickets will go on sale in the middle of this month. The pictures above are of this process.

Some news coming out of the ticket sales process shows that: 1) the hardest tickets to get were the Opening Ceremonies (statistics were 1/21 chance to land them); 2) the next hardest tickets to get was the Closing Ceremony (1/7 chance AND Wu got one, so he said he and Samantha will go), 3) Basketball, Diving, Table Tennis (Ping Pong), Football (Soccer), and Gymnastics were the most popular ticket requests, 4) 11,703 foreigners living in China registered for tickets (Wu, Jason and I are three of that number) and 5) from the first phase of ticket allocation (pre-October), 720,000 applicants requested 5.18 million tickets and of these over 300,000 were awarded 1,539,345 Olympic tickets.

I simply can't wait.

Number of views as of this blog entry: 6774.

Since Seth was in Japan, Sarah & Kat were in Nanjing and Michelle was en route from Beijing, the "leftover" teamies (not that they aren't AS GOOD as those who are gone) went out to eat at a Korean BBQ place, one of my favorites in town, a couple of days ago.

What was highly enjoyable about this meal that included grilled beef and potatoes, fried potatoes, vegetable sushi, fried rice, onions, lettuce and caramelized fried bananas was the kids. First of all, Will TOTALLY showered himself in rice. He thought it was funny and kept making faces to the wait staff. Secondly, Samantha "squirted" all up her back in her new Bumbo (click the link to learn what a Bumbo is). Rach didn't bring any changes of clothes or enough wipes (which according to Wu made her "a very bad mom").  It was funny seeing two sets of parents helping little Samantha out (Wu, Rach, Daren & Jennifer). Mark, the boys, and I just kept on eating. Good times, good times.

And for a quick little side note, Samantha "bumbo"ed again when we went to KFC just yesterday.

Number of views as of this blog entry: 6742.

A couple of days ago, I went to Changchun with the Teamies who had traveled for October holiday. Later that day, I took Jude over to some ol' Teammates' place to have some play time. Josiah and Sarah had fun playing with Jude, so I took some pics of the outfits they were wearing. Josiah was Superman and Jude was Batman.  Sarah was a Princess but she kept running around too much and I didn't get a pic. 

Number of views as of this blog entry: 6726.

Last week, our department welcomed the Freshmen to university life. There were many different types of performances: modeling, Korean & Chinese dancing, drama, teacher jazzercise (my favorite) and other giveaways and teacher recognition. Our team performance was so "campy" it's not worth video or pictures. However, other events were. See the album "Freshman Performance 2007" for pics. And below is a video of Seth and Syen, a Junior English major, playing their guitars for the performance.

Number of views as of this blog entry: 6725.

The first week of October is one of China's two "golden weeks" of travel and tourism. On October 1, 1949 China (a.k.a., "The People's Republic of China") was officially established by Mao Zedong. Because of this National Day, most Chinese citizens have vacation time. At my school, there are no classes and I have free time. Let me tell you how I've been spending it.

1) I stay up late and sleep in later. What a thrill this is. Sadly, I was woken up this morning at 7:45 AM because one of our building's maintenance men needed to fix my toilet (which was NOT broken). Strange.

2) I've watched the Godfather trilogy with Jonny, Rach, Mark and Daren. How intense those movies are?! I didn't realize this series had SO many famous actors. I really want to be Italian now.

3) I am hooked on Prison Break. I just watched 5 episode yesterday and it's pretty intense. It has a 24-esque feeling to it. It's cool that's it's set near Chicago because I've been to many of the places it shows. It makes me feel like I'm at home.

4) I am playing a game called Emperor where you build Chinese cities (similar to like Civilization or Sims), create city trades and alliances, and simply have fun being a political god. It's quite tasty.

5) I have been working on my Chinese. A student friend gave me a book containing some 10,000+ Chinese academic words that a college student should know before graduating from a university. I've been going through the list and compiling the words that I know the characters of but don't know the meanings. It's quite a chore and a long list!

Number of views as of this blog entry: 6715.

For the past three weeks, all Freshman students at my university have had military training. They march at all times of the day. This is standard practice and I'm used to seeing it. What I'm not used to is participating in it.

For some odd reason, this year our department has all of the teachers (foreigners included) marching in formation with the new students. Apparently, this is always done but the foreign teachers were never involved...but now we are. I guess it's good for bridging the cultural gap.

We have matching outfits which are white long-sleeve jackets with two blue stripes on both sides. The pants are blue with one small white stripe on each side. Mine was a "tad" too small, but I survived.

The sports meet for the entire university was on 9/26 & 9/27, so we all piled into the track field with every other department in the university. There was releasing of pigeons and balloons, speeches and the raising of the Chinese flag. Definitely all very interesting.

By the way, while marching I was also in the FRONT ROW of all the teachers. Not only was everyone watching me (i.e., I'm the tallest of everyone AND the biggest AND in the middle of the first row), but I was also the leader of the entire row behind me. So if I was out of step, I made everyone look bad. Yikes!

Number of views as of this blog entry: 6694.

The soldiers who train the Freshmen have stayed in the same building with the team for three weeks. On 9/27 they left and it was madness outside. Students were crying and hugging the soldiers, throwing them up and down, and basically flooding the entire street in front of our building. During Jude's birthday party was when this madness was erupting, so I shot a few videos of the event and put them on my YouTube. Below is the best one.

Number of views as of this blog entry: 6694.

On 9/27 Jude turned 6 years old. His parents put together a baseball theme for his party and we all had chili, nachos and cake. It was great fun. You can see pictures in the album called "Jude's Birthday" and here's one video of him opening several of his presents.

Number of views as of this blog entry: 6691.

MSN recently featured a story about the Nike company coming out with a shoe specifically designed for Native Americans (i.e, NDNs...get it? Indians.). The video below explains some features of the shoe itself and the symbolism of it. They look pretty cool and I can see my little brother buying a pair because it's all white with a smidgen of baby blue (his favorite color). I'd buy a pair just because they have the number "7" on them.

The video also explains its made for Native American feet in that most Indians have a wider than usual foot at the base of the arch near the toes. I never knew this. This fact explains why I always have a hard time trying to find shoes wide enough for the front of my feet. Apparently, many Indians have "triangular" feet patterns. New Balance is about the only shoe company that consistently offers shoes that are perfect for me.

Number of views as of this blog entry: 6689.