Arrival in Beijing: Beautiful modern airport.
The Olympic ads and banners have all been changed over to Paralympic banners. The Chinese have created a distinct symbol for the Paralympics distinguishing it from the Olympics.
The infrastructure is incredible. There are multilingual volunteers stationed all over to help people. There is a huge corps of young volunteers for both the Olympics and now the Paralympics. There is even a mascot for the Paralympics, a colorful cow. Driving from the airport, I was very impressed by the wide-open incredibly clean modern roads.
You see people periodically cleaning on the sides of the roads. There are Paralympic banners that span the entire length of the main road from the airport leading towards the Olympic village.
Once arriving at the Olympic village the first sight to grab you is the Bird's Nest, or Beijing National Stadium, site of the Opening and Closing Ceremoniees as well as the track and field events.
There is heavy security all around, making it difficult for cars to navigate close to the hotels. My hotel is across from the Olympic Village and I had to walk a good distance as they would not let my cab in to the complex.
The hotel is clean and orderly. The staff tries very hard to be accommodating to the many tourists. The staff's English is marginal at best but not for lack of trying. I met Melissa Stockwell’s parents and a portion of her fan club (20 in total!).
We all had dinner together and retired for the evening.
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