Beijing

The flight went smoothly, and I made it to the hotel. By the time I got all situated in my room it was dark out. I was told that the Olympic Stadium is lit up at night, so I ventured out to find it. The concierge gave me a subway map and pointed me in the right direction. The subways are brand spanking new and they have English translations for the important stuff, so I was able to get to the Olympic area OK. There were a lot of people milling around taking photos. It wasn't as lit up as I thought it would be, but it was still pretty cool. Here's the Bird's Nest:


Here's a shot of the Water Cube, where Phelps won all his golds. It wasn't lit up at all:


They did have the tower running, changing colors, flashing every so often:


I walked around snapping away, trying to find a better angle to get a clear shot of the stadium. I took a bunch of photos, but most came out blurry. This angle was probably the most lit up:


Then the lights all around the area started going out. I looked at my watch, and it was just past 9:00pm. I walked back down to the subway station, but by the time I got there it was dark - all closed up! I wandered around, and started walking towards the nearest set of tall buildings, hoping one would be a hotel with a string of cabs out front. Eventually an empty taxi drove past, and I hailed it. The driver didn't speak English, but my hotel key card has the hotel name written in Chinese on it, and that was enough to get me back to the hotel. Whew!