In the fall of 2009 Dan travelled to China and while there attended the largest domestic competition of them all:
The China National Games
Why this site.....
Something I miss from my early days of scouring the internet for gymnastics related stuff (mid to later 90's) are the simple goecities type websites that fans would make up covering their adventures at competitions. These days it seems everything is either blogs or facebook (etc) and it just doesn't seem as fun or interesting anymore. (The incessant advertising does not help either) So just to be different I've put together a few of the photos and video I'd taken during my time in Jinan. It's probably terribly boring for most but I'm sure there will be some people who may be interested, or perhaps this site could spark some interest. If not, at least it has been interesting for myself to reminisce as I put this together! Unfortunately I have very few interesting photos of the gymnasts, reason being I concentrated on video, and using two cameras was kept quite busy enough with that! So when I wasn't filming I relaxed and enjoyed the atmosphere of the event. Here then I offer my impressions and occasional opinion on my time in Jinan. Keep in mind this is a Westerners point of view who has no Mandarin skills nor inside connections, it is basically a tourist's travel tale!
Some background....
The China National Games are a quadrennial gathering of China's best athletes in many sports, winter and summer, held the year following the summer Olympics. With China's population and immense pool of talented athletes it must be second only to the Olympics as a whole. The games are very much like a domestic mini Olympics for China with over 10,000 athletes in attendance at this years event. The Shangdong games were attended by numerous IOC members as well as the president himself Jacques Rogge. For many countries the Olympic games will be the final competition for their athletes, but in China many will hang on another year to compete one last time at their most prestigious competition; the National Games. It is also to support their home province; the importance of the games ranks very high to the individual provinces as it helps determine the funding they receive from Beijing for the next 4 years. For the gymnasts, although the national team trains together in Beijing, for the National Games the teams are broken up as the individuals go back to representing their home provinces. For example, this is why in 2005 Cheng Fei never competed in the team final, her provincial team from Hubei did not qualify to the team final. In 2001 the games conflicted with the World championships. The games are of such importance that only one male and one female gymnast were sent to represent China and they were not top ranked. For the 2009 games a similar scenario was imminent, but with China's gymnasts now ranked as the best in the world skipping Worlds was not a viable option. Instead, the gymnastics portion of the National Games were moved ahead a month, unfortunately splitting it from the main event. However it was still a very successful event, being well attended with much enthusiasm, and the gymnasts were once again able to prove themselves at the London Worlds a few weeks later, particularly the men.
Okay enough of this rubbish-go to the videos.
The City of Jinan.....
Jinan is the capital city of the Eastern province of Shandong, situated
approximately in a line between Beijing and Shanghai, being around 1/3 of the
way from Beijing. Its relative location is
here. With a population of around 6 million would be considered an average
size city. Like many Chinese cities it is very active with vehicular traffic
clogging its roads battling with hordes of pedestrians at every intersection. It
is referred to as the "Spring City" because of the many artesian springs in the
area and in customary Chinese fashion many pleasant parks have been maintained
around the major springs for eons. Some very formal with others very laid back.
In the central core there is a very pleasant strip of small springs forming a
stream and along this is maintained a public corridor of cut stone, brick,
ancient trees and greenery. It is a wonderful escape from the hectic traffic up
at street level. At various points where the spring water bubbles to the surface
the locals line up and with whatever container you can imagine to collect some of
the water to take home. It was common to see two 20 litre bottles of water
strapped to bicycles heading off, in what appeared a very routine task for
people. TBH I didn't find Jinan terribly
interesting tourism-wise other than the springs and lake. There is apparently
good hiking in the hills
("Thousand
Budha Mountain" area as seen from my hotel) along the southern edge of the city but I did not
check it out. Unfortunately every day of my stay in Jinan was a competition day
and I did not want to risk missing any by getting lost on the mountain. Jinan
was only one stop of many in my time in China though so it was no big loss, however if
it was the only stop I would recommend booking extra days at the start for 100%
sightseeing. I've found in the past at long competitions like this I end up
seeing very little of the host city during competition days, so will book extra
time if there are specific attractions to check out. As is common with many of
the large cities in China the air quality can be quite nasty at times and Jinan
was no exception. There were some nice clear days though and weather-wise it was
great. A motto for the province is "Friendly Shandong"
and many of the people I
was in contact with went out of their way to prove this true. Even the taxi
drivers seemed extra friendly. The enthusiastic driver I had from the train
station was frantically flipping through a Chinese/English phrase book during
the journey to the hotel trying out his English pronunciation on me. Whenever I
acknowledged I understood
him he would get very excited with a huge smile!
Black Tiger spring, one of the larger springs within Jinan. Unfortunately most of my photos of the city have vanished (as digital photos tend to do :s) so as a sample I've stolen this one from the China Connection Tour website. I've had nothing to do with this company in the past but it does look quite interesting for the more specialized packages and might be worth giving a try. They have a few more photos of Jinan here.
Daming Lake and park. Somewhat of a center piece of the city. A fairly pleasant spot for a stroll. Unfortunately there is an elevated expressway which runs along the north edge of the park.
The National Games were well advertised throughout the city of Jinan.
Mao presides over a University square. One doesn't actually see many huge Mao statues such as this on the regular tourist trail.
My hotel, the Hanlin Hotel, viewed from the pedestrian walkway crossing the main road. It turned out to be an excellent choice which I'd made online months prior at home, I think on expedia.ca. It was very posh yet not very expensive by Western standards. The location was great for the purpose I was in Jinan, being on the same main road that passed by the competition venue, and with a nearby pedestrian walkway to safely get to the other side of the crazy busy road. That is something to watch when choosing a hotel as a complex route can make convincing a taxi to take you tricky at times, as well as cost much more if they continually get caught up in traffic congestion. The location was also close enough to central Jinan for sight seeing of the springs by foot. Possibly the best part of this hotel was the fantastic lounge off the lobby, serving the best light meals I've ever had in China, at any time of day or night! There was no need to go hunting around for restaurants.
Speaking of taxi's, avoid getting in one without your
exact destination written out in Chinese characters to show the driver, even for
the airport or train station. I've never come across a driver
that could understand a destination I ask for in English, not even in Beijing. Attempting to explain
your destination in broken accented Mandarin is just asking for trouble, whether
it's a genuine misunderstanding or not you run the risk of wasting time
and money. I've seen the results of misunderstandings with drivers other
tourists have had and more than once have heard it described as a frightening experience, or at the least a very
frustrating and costly one. Before I leave home I print out any possible names I
might need and has always proved well worth the effort. The better guide books often have the characters printed out which can
prove very handy. For Jinan I had this set of characters printed on a slip of
paper ready to show my driver to take me to the competition:
(Jinan Olympic
Sports Center Gymnasium) All he/she needed
was a quick glance at it and they knew exactly where to go, then hang on because
they don't waste any time! In my case here it was maybe around a 15 minute drive
costing around 15-18 yuan ($2.25-$2.75). For the obvious foreigner trying to
flag down a taxi with others nearby doing the same it can sometimes help to have
a sheet of paper in your hand as it suggests you have the destination written
out, rather than you just being another pain in the neck tourist expecting the
driver to understand English!
Location of the competition.....
The main site for the National Games was the "Jinan Olympic Sports Center", a brand new, massive, complex of arenas and stadiums built on the Eastern outskirts of the city. I believe it was built especially for these National Games. It is so new that in the fall of 2009 the site as viewed on google maps was still in the raw dirt form! It now shows up in it's complete form, here. I have to admit to being very impressed with the entire complex, certainly on a scale for an actual Olympic games. The entire area was guarded by the army at every entrance with road intersections watched over as well. I took care not to look at all suspicious!
Here is the map of the sports center at the East entrance:
The main outdoor stadium is on the left and the indoor stadium is the oval on
the right. Tennis is lower left of indoor stadium and the huge water sports
venue is top left.
The imposing 60,000 seat main outdoor stadium looms in the distance. It was the site for the opening ceremonies for the games a month later. (Okay I couldn't decide which of the two night photos were best!)
The public plaza in the center of the Olympic Sports Center was being setup during the gymnastics competition, in time for the official start of the games in a few weeks. The high-rises in the background are the Eastern outskirts of Jinan.
This Massive Sheraton hotel was only days from opening. It is located across the road from the sports center. I was invited in by the manager for a tour! I do have to wonder how such a large hotel is going to survive so far from the city center.
Sheraton hotel street view of the sports center. Just visible on the right is the indoor gymnasium, along the street are the small tennis courts, photo center is the tennis center court, then on the left in the distance is the grand outdoor stadium.
A concerted effort was going towards reviving this recently transplanted tree!
The gymnastics venue....
The indoor gymnasium viewed from ground level, where the gymnastics competition would be held.
And right next door is the huge tennis center court.
The smaller tennis venue next door to the gymnasium and center court, well lit considering there were no matches taking place!
East entrance with security tents in white
Unused ticket for women's prelims subdivision 3. I did not leave the secure area after sub 2 therefore did not have to show this. Ticketing was before security onto the grounds. Each entrance would have numerous volunteers to enter your ticket and tear off the stub and being a foreigner I was a bit of an attraction, so there was often a bit of a jostle as to who would take my ticket! In fact on the last day I'd absent mindedly brought with me a pocket knife which of course had to be left at the entrance while I attended the meet, and later when I went to retrieve it found that one of the volunteers had it in his pocket; he wanted to have his picture taken with me so this was his way of ensuring I didn't slip by without his notice! He appeared somewhat embarrassed at first but right away there was nothing but laughing and joking from both sides as the whole works wanted in on the photos! They were a great bunch. The qualification tickets cost 60 Yuan (RMB) for each sub, about $9 U.S. All finals tickets were 80 Yuan each, still only $12. Much cheaper than a world championships ticket! I obtained my tickets the weekend before at the TaiShan Huaqiao Hotel (www.huaqiaohotel.com) from the extremely helpful Mr. Li Yuan Qi, the lobby manager. He purchased the tickets for me while in Jinan for a wedding and made a special effort to get them to me before I myself left for Jinan the day after. While in Taishan (Tai'an) I'd highly recommend the Huaqiao Hotel. It's excellently located half way between the train station and the mountain, very reasonable rates, very clean, and just an altogether excellent stop. Not to mention the fantastic staff! I don't think it was absolutely necessary to show up in Jinan with pre-purchased tickets as I did notice during finals tickets being sold at one of the gates at least, and I'm absolutely certain any of the young volunteers at the gates would have fallen over themselves to help a foreigner acquire them.
Security onto the site was excellent with brand new top notch equipment and very polite but thorough personal. Best of all was the incredibly enthusiastic spirit of everyone.
A police student posed for me at security as I demonstrate the authenticity of my camera. Her supervisor manning the x-ray machine also posed but in a different manner! They were great fun. The female students all had the same short hair style, reason being long hair is not permitted.
During intermission between women's sub 2 and sub 3 I was nibbling away on my packed snacks when several police students on break approached me, out of curiosity mostly, but also to practice their English. Soon I had this whole group of them surrounding me asking all sorts of questions! A common question being my opinion of Jinan and Shandong. They all appeared very proud of their city, province, and country, which of course was great to see their patriotism. One of them asked me if I knew the names of any of their gymnasts. They were ecstatic and would smile broadly and cheer every time I named off one from the Beijing team. I knew the proper pronunciation of their names so I think that was part of their enthusiastic cheering! They told me the Beijing teams were hero's of the country. They couldn't have been long time fans of the sport though as they did not recognize any older gymnasts, other than Liu Xuan and Li Ning of course! I was quite shocked when they had no idea who Yang Wei was! Goes to show that no matter where in the world you are the women's teams are more popular than the men's. All of these police students were from the local police university, I think they called it, and were here at the games as part of their practical work. About a week later (after having left Jinan for Qufu then returning for a flight to Kunming) I met one of the guys at the airport doing a stint of security there. He found it boring at the airport compared to the competition because all he did was walk around the same areas for the entire shift! They had a really fun time at the competition and I'd noticed them all over the place taking pictures, as well as in the stands watching the competition.
The massive indoor gymnasium is a very imposing structure as you approach from the West. It was built on ground level with no major excavation. I've noticed that the Chinese tend to avoid massive (and expensive!) excavations like are common in the West, instead simply building higher.
Viewed from the main road into Jinan city center their brand new indoor stadium is very impressive.
The stadium is designed in the shape of a lotus flower, those being the most common flower seen in Jinan. The "scales" covering the lotus petals are made up of small sheets of thin aluminum all individually fastened. I can't imagine how many there are! It is a fantastic display of meticulous construction, and I am forever in awe of the Chinese people's imagination.
Information boards outside the indoor gymnasium.
The gymnastics competition..........
The massive warm up gym was within meters of the competition floor. No shortage of equipment!
The 12,000 seat indoor stadium was very nice with clear views of the podium wherever you sat. Unless of course you were stuck behind one of the all too common spectator sitting on the front edge of their seat, AND leaning forward! Where's an ice cube when you need one....
The roof structure is an amazing piece of engineering. So light and airy in appearance yet you can visualize exactly how it works.
The lower level seating which I had tickets for were just the right elevation above the podium, although the first couple rows would have the usual problem of the railing in the line of sight.
Notice the numerous white and red jacketed people. These were volunteers from Jinan and around Shandong. They couldn't do enough to help me, I'd never seen such enthusiastic and helpful volunteers. They spoke varying degrees of English and loved to practice with me. Any time I passed one they'd invariably smile and say Hello. I'd reply back with ni-hou which would sometimes elicit a giggle!
Mission control. Notice the attention to detail with the decoration, the entire event was similarly carefully organized.
All the equipment was checked for correct adjustment immediately prior to every day's competition.
The meticulous cleaning never ends. I like how even the cleaners had special uniforms.
Let the games begin.......
The judges are on the march
The men's team action has begun.
Local Shandong supporters were decked out in green and all equipped with plastic clappers and megaphones! In China it's all about making the most noise!
These more well-to-do fans had printed out larger than life size portraits of their favourite gymnasts.
Men's team awards.
Womens AA results. How are your character recognition skills?
He Kexin is a star in China. She easily won the bar final.
Wu Liufang of Guangdong is not to be missed by the media. She won bronze in the bar final.
Media star Sui Lu of Shanghai after winning floor final. The Chinese media take gymnastics very seriously!
Floor bronze medalist Deng Linlin was not to be completely left out of the action.
Competition wraps up for another 4 years......
It was a memorable event for all involved
The sun sets on the gymnastics portion of the National Games. A wonderfully (and unusually!) clear evening at the Olympic Center.
The future......
The next National Games, the 12th, will be held in the North Easterly province of Liaoning in 2013, along the border with North Korea. I have not seen confirmation yet but would assume the primary city will be the capital of Shenyang. Shenyang is on the Trans-Siberian railroad line from Moscow to Beijing, trains No 19 or 20 depending on the direction of travel. Properly speaking that route is called the Trans-Manchurian line as it veers south out of Eastern Siberia into China without ever reaching the Pacific Ocean. I took this same route in 1999 in order to reach Tianjin for the Worlds and can say it is a fascinating backdoor entrance into China and would highly recommend it!
Click here for National Games videos
Relevant links.....
An interesting overview of the city of Jinan
Official National Games website
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Page created April 2010