Running in the Olympic Park

First things first! A Happy (Gregorian) New Year to Everyone! Finally mustered up enough energy to blog (and find a proxy so that I can post and see my own blogs from China).

So I have started to run semi-seriously again, ever since getting back to Beijing in November. I actually started an Excel spreadsheet to detail the time and length of each run (and which pair of shoes, which route, time of day, …). I did pick up a new pair of New Balance (NB 1224, size 8D) while I was in the States and wanted to track the mileage I put on the new shoes.

Luckily the weather (and, even more importantly, the pollution/smog) in Beijing has been unusually cooperative, and I have been able to run 15 times in the last month and a half. (And I could have put in a few more runs had I not come down with a cold the second week in December.) It has been much colder than last year but overall the pollution levels are noticeably lower than last winter. I presume it is due to a greater portion of heat in Beijing being generated by natural gas instead of coal, but I cannot be sure.

In any case, when I’m at PKU during the week, I usually run around Weiming Pond (Weiming Hu, 未名湖, i.e., the pond whose name is 'Nameless Lake') or on the track of the May 4th Athletic Field. Once around Weiming Hu is about 950 meters, so I usually run 5-8 laps. Weiming Hu is very scenic, especially in the Fall and in the Spring. Unfortunately, I usually run in the afternoon and most times I have to compete with automobiles on the north side of the shore, as west bound car traffic is permitted on that side.

That’s why I prefer to run on the days when I’m working in my wife’s office/lab at the Datun campus of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS). The 4 year old campus is a block west of the Olympic Park, which is the site of the Olympic Stadium (aka the ‘Bird’s Nest’ and the silver doughnut in the satellite image below) and the National Swimming Center (aka the ‘Water Cube’ and the pinkish square to the west of the Bird's Nest). The park is organized around a broad, tree-lined, pedestrian-only boulevard that runs north-south through the length of the park. A series of man-made ponds run mostly parallel to this pedestrian walkway from the Bird’s Nest to the even newer Olympic Forest Park (not shown in the image below). I have mapped out my basic running route, which is a loop around the 4 easily accessible ponds. (I mark the route in dashed white lines on the Google satellite map posted below. The dashed cyan line marks partly our commute to the CAS from home and will be the subject of a future blog.)

From the CAS campus, I run due east along North Datun Road to the closest pond, turn left and head up north. The series of Olympic Park ponds end at one of the side entrances to the Olympic Forest Park. There I turn right and run back south along the eastern edge of these ponds until North National Stadium Road. Some time in the summer I have run south one more pond to get to the foot of the Bird’s Nest, but lately that area is fenced off, with entrances on the east and the west of the stadium and an exit-only gate on North National Stadium Road. So here I turn up north again and run up along the western shore of the ponds up to North Datun Road. Here I have two choices. I can either run back to the CAS Datun campus, making it a 5 km run, or loop again around the 2 northern ponds and making it a 6 ½ km run. (A couple of times last summer, I have run 2 full laps around the 4 ponds. But, so far this winter, I have not tried, partly because I have not quite worked myself back to it, after various trips and the weeklong bout with a cold. But mostly it is because it has been so windy in the last 2 weeks. On Christmas, I ran the usual 6 ½ km route but with the last 800 meters straight into a 20 kph wind from the west.)

During my runs in the Olympic Park, which is extremely scenic (especially at sunset), I mostly enjoy looking at the people visiting. I see families out walking with their kid, with or without strollers. I see old couples walking hand-in-hand, some times walking their dogs. I see young couples seated on benches (and usually in each other’s arms). I see old men flying kites. I see park workers sweeping at the end of the day, keeping the park extremely clean. And some times I even see other runners, although in the last, bitterly cold, month, basically I have been the only runner out there. Some times I nod to people I run past, but usually they do not respond. When they do look at me, fully decked out in running shirt and running tights, it is as if I am from another planet. Even my fellow runners don’t seem to acknowledge other runners.

This afternoon, I went for the first run of the year in the Olympic Park. It snowed a little bit last night, and so there’s a thin layer of snow on top of the solidly frozen ponds. (But not enough snow to stay on the paths or the walkways.) There were noticeably more people than on the regular, weekday, afternoons. Many people were trying to skate on the frozen ponds. One person even came out with an office chair with wheels and was using a tree branch as a pole.

There were also new winter fair-like events in the tents next to the stadium and the stadium proper made into a snow theme park (filled by snow machines). (The latter I did not get to see first hand but has been in the news on CCTV recently.) But what was eerily missing this afternoon was the music blaring from speakers along the pedestrian walkways and along the ponds. Usually the park speakers play three songs in a loop: ‘Beijing Welcomes You,’ (the claustrophobic-at-least-to-me) ‘One World / One Dream,’ and ‘You and Me’ (as performed by Liu Huan and Sarah Brightman during the 2008 Olympic Opening Ceremonies). I prefer running to the rhythm of ‘Beijing Welcomes You,’ especially after I have warmed up. For me, the other two songs are a tad too slow to run to. The three songs are in an endless loop broken only by the park information announcement (in both Chinese and English) between ‘You and Me’ and ‘Beijing Welcomes You’, with the lady’s voice reminding everyone to shop only at ‘official’ Olympic Park shops and that there are 3 zones (she pronounces the English word ‘zones’ to rhyme with ‘ruins’), each with their own information centers and services.

Remind me to ask my British friends how they pronounce ‘zones.’

Anyway, my New Year's resolution: a 10-k run under 50 mins.

On Campus

As most of my friends know well, I have been living like a graduate student since, well, since I was a graduate student. Not much has changed since I moved to Beijing. My wife and I keep late hours. Part of it is because it’s easier to work in the evening, sans the normal 9-to-5 distractions. Part of it is the desire to stay out of traffic and crowds by keeping an off-peak commuting and dining schedule. PKU has almost 20,000 students (undergraduate and graduate combined) and so peak hour dining is a mob scene. The dining scene at the Chinese Academy of Sciences is a little better, since there are much fewer students, staff and faculty, but every cafeteria keeps strict hours: 11-1 for lunch and 5-7:30 for dinner (we never get in early enough for breakfast so I don’t know the breakfast hours). The new CAS campus at Datun is also located in a fairly new neighborhood, right between the Olympic Park and the Olympic Village, and consequently there are very few on-campus services (restaurants, cafes, teahouses, supermarkets, …), so my wife has to keep a regular, 'normal' dining schedule.

Fortunately for me, PKU has quite a few more dining options. The closest cafeteria to the classroom buildings is Nongyuan, between Xue 2, 5-4 (for May 4th) Athletic Field and the Centennial Lecture Hall. Nongyuan has 3 stories, with a one-stop cafeteria on the first floor --- very much like any American campus cafeteria, you get in line, pick up stuff and then pay (with a PKU dining card) at one of 2 exits. Nongyuan’s third floor is a restaurant, with a main hall and private rooms. The acoustics of the main dining area on the third floor is awful --- the walls reflect too much. To order à la carte, you go to the southeast corner where every dish is on display. The food shades to the Shanghaiese. Here you pay in cash or you have an account.

Nongyuan’s second floor is more like a food court, with multiple food windows/booths/stalls, each with their own ‘specialty’ and their very own dining card reader. When I dine here I usually go to the window with guozhai (锅仔), or little wok. The guy at the counter takes your order. I usually order either the cola pork ribs or the chicken with mushrooms (the third option is the duck) and a bowl of rice. The guy then puts some Chinese cabbage in a small wok and then add, say, a stew made of pork ribs and cola, tops it off with some water and then puts the small wok on a flaming stove top (there are near 2 dozens in the little stall). He then puts a wok ring and a bowl of rice on a dining tray to his right (my left) and punches what it costs into the card reader for me to swipe. A minute later the stew is done and he puts the wok on top of the ring in my dining tray. It’s a not-so-small balancing act for me to find whomever I come with and a free table, even with a wok ring.

Further afoot to the west is YanNan and Xue 5. YanNan is more like the second floor of Nongyuan, with more specialty counters. But no guozai, so I usually go to the Sichuan window and ask for ½ portion of jiang beans and pork, ½ portion of something else, and 150 grams of rice (rice is served in bowls and in increments of 50 grams --- 1 liang). Some times I ask for 1 portion of fried rice vermicelli to go (from the counter with various types of fried noodles and rice). Xue 5 has two main windows where you can ask for 2 items plus rice. The other windows feature zhushi (主食), what the Chinese call their carb dishes/items. The main dining areas of Xue 5 and YanNan are upstairs. During peak hours you would be hard press to sit with the friends you come with. If I go to YanNan, I usually try to go between 12:30 and 1 PM, so as to avoid the rush. (PKU morning classes end at noon and afternoon classes start at 12:30.) But when I come too late (12:45-1), there may not be any choice items left.

That’s usually when I head south to the Campus dining area, a series of 4 cafeterias that have late dining hours. First, there’s the noodle shop, with its 4 windows. The 2 windows with Jiangxi sliced noodles and Lanzhou pulled noodles (in beef broth) have the longest lines. Noodles are sliced into finger-length pieces from a football-sized piece of dough. Or they are pulled into the suitable thickness. The pulled noodles are much softer. But the Jiangxi sliced noodles are served in this flavorful broth. The middle window has the rest of the menu, various noodles in broth or with various sauces and stews. Noodles cost 5 rmb (for the large) and 4 rmb (for the small bowl). Adding a fried egg costs 1 rmb. The last window is for soymilk and shaobing (烧饼). At each window, there are usually 2 lines, one for ordering and paying (swiping with your dining card) and another one for pickup. At peak times, even the ordering line for sliced noodles can get more than 10 deep. And the amount of slurping reminds me of scenes from the movie Tampopo.

The next cafeteria is the jiaozi (饺子, or dumpling) shop, with its 3 windows. The main one serves (whatelse?) jiaozi. Usually there are 2 types of dumplings ready to go. There are the usual combinations, pork with cabbage, pork with chives, … Pork with lotus root is surprisingly good. You can order by 50 grams increments (starting at 100 grams). The server scopes up the amount you order, puts it in a suitable dish and then puts it on a dining tray along side a bowl of congee and small side dish of pickled vegetables. The various condiments are just behind you after you pick up the dining tray. The other window has zhengjiao (蒸饺, steamed dumplings), shaomai (烧买) and wontons in soup. The last window is for appetizer size vegetables and meats.

The third cafeteria is an American food café, burgers, fries, coffee, shake, … I usually go there for seating or to pass through to get to the last Campus cafeteria, which serves single ‘dish’ meals, e.g., stews, curries, … I usually go for the beef stew, or the chicken curry. There are also steamed rice (served in a bamboo steamer) with various vegetables and meats and glazed pot dishes, if you come early enough.

Lately I have been going to the baozi (包子, buns, steamed or pan-fried) shop just south of the Campus cafeterias to pick up some baozi for snacks. The shengjianbao (生煎包, pan-fried baozi) costs 0.70 rmb each (so that’s a little over ten US cents each). After dinner, I bring my tupperware, ask for 6 shengjianbao to go, take a leisurely stroll on campus, and then get back to work, knowing that whenever I get hungry, I can always eat a baozi or two.