Todd Bachman’s daughter Elisabeth is married to Hugh McCutcheon who is the current head coach of the men’s volleyball team. McCutcheon hails from New Zealand and represented his country both indoors and on the beach.

The attack comes despite a strong security presence on the streets of Beijing. The other night when I was out you could see Police about every 100m along the streets.

The Drum Tower is about 7km’s from the main Olympic stadium. It is nestled amongst a large number of Hutong dwellings and does not receive a large number of tourists. I would assume that a Policeman was not posted at the top of the tower

My wife grew up in the shadow of the Drum Tower. As a result I have been there on many occasions. I have never seen it as a dangerous place to visit or feel that the streets in that area are dangerous.

The top of the Drum Tower is in a way a remote tourist destination. I have never seen that many people there as getting to the top involves an arduous climb up 100 or so steep stairs. I was there myself Saturday 2^nd August. At the time I saw about 5 foreign tourists and a few Chinese tourists.

The attack makes me feel slightly apprehensive when now going out on the streets of Beijing. I have to admit I have never felt threatened during all my visits to Beijing. The only thing here is that a westerner obviously stands out in a crowd and can become an easy target. More often than not a westerner is a target for a keen hawker looking to sell their goods.

As a past volleyball player I feel for the volleyball community, especially that of southern California where the victims daughter resides.

Todd Bachman was the Chairman and CEO of Minneapolis based flower empire Bachman’s Inc., he was 62 years old.

A photo of Todd Bachman and his wife can be viewed at the Bitten and Bound blog.

Beijing weather watch August 8

There is not much point in posting a photo today as the sky is exactly the same as yesterday. It is hazy and very humid.

For the Olympic Opening Ceremony later today it is expected to be between 25-30 degrees. There is a chance of showers today and the max is expected to be around 32.

Out and about near the Olympic Stadium in Beijing

On August 5 in Beijing I went with my family to the China Science Centre. It is located a few blocks from the Olympic Stadium. After we had ended a day of fun there I decided to take a stroll around the Olympic precinct.

As I walked up one of the roads heading toward the main stadium I noticed the police were sealing off the area in preparation for an Opening Ceremony rehearsal. Earlier in the day on the Beijing subway I had noticed people with accreditation passes and also a rehearsal pass.

I now did not know just how far I would get but I walked on anyway. After a few minutes walk I went down a side street where I came across a whole array of military equipment. It looks like the Chinese are prepared for anything.

I now passed along some security checkpoints that take you inside stadiums however I could still continue my walk towards the main stadium. I now went past the Olympic Sports Center Stadium in Beijing where the modern Pentathlon will be held. At the end of the street I came across another interesting site. It was a tank without the full weaponry.

Next I headed right towards the Olympic stadium. I went past a few training fields where I saw some team training for baseball, then another where I saw the Australian hockey team training.  I don’t know how  they played at the pace they did as it was stinking hot. I wanted to film some of the training however I was told not to.

I then tried to cross the overpass to get a closer look at the stadium. That is where my Olympic stroll ended. I was turned back as it was passholders only. Despite there being a security fence along the road with the footpath I wanted to use the police did not allow the public access.

I had to backtrack on the other side of the road. I noticed a reporter from the Asianews Channel recording a news item, I also saw some FIFA technical committee people shooting some video and taking photos with the locals.

Up on the roof of the main stadium there were quite a few people. I thought they may have been preparing fireworks for the rehearsal however I found out later on the news that they did not have fireworks tonight. Maybe they were doing the real thing as the opening is just days away.

As I headed back to the subway I found that  the police had blocked off about four city blocks in the direction I was walking. A bit much if you ask me howeve we are in China.

I am still mainly seeing Chinese on the streets in the Olympic area. A few foreigners can be seen but they are rare. I expect that will change in a few days…

Beijing pollution watch August 5

I was up early again this morning in Beijing. Just hate those hard beds.

When I went out to the window for my daily photo I was once again greeted by smoggy skies. See pic below. I was wondering what the Chinese would think of this. They can plan everything but the weather.

Luckily for them it seems to be on the improve again. This afternoon I was out at the Olympic precinct and noticed the skies were going from grey to blue. See in the photo of the Olympic stadium that there are blue skies.

In this photo taken just across from the water cube you can see that the sky is looking nice and blue.

Hopefully tomorrow will be an even better day. Time will tell. When I was back at the apartment I took another photo from the same window as this morning and you can see a lot more clearly. It is still a bit grey however that is low on the horizon.

One contributing factor with pollution here in Beijing are the mountains to the west. They make it harder for the smog to be flushed out of the city.

A sports fan’s view of Beijing just four days out from the Olympic opening

It is a hot old night in Beijing tonight. I took my daughter down to the local park a bit earlier and it felt like it was still in the high 20′s. If I was an athlete competing outdoors I would not be feeling great about the conditions in Beijing.

If you looked at my Beijing pollution watch article you would have seen that the sky is looking crappy again. It is only good for the reason that the sun does not have the same sting as when the skies are blue.

Today I went sightseeing at the Temple of Heaven. I started seeing people with Olympic accreditation passes, mostly press however I did see the chef de mission for Malta and the deputy from Denmark. I also saw what appeared to be some Russian athletes.

Will be getting out into the subway tomorrow as I take my family to the Beijing zoo. We caught the subway after going to the Olympic stadium the other day and I have to say it is very nice. The transport system here is quite good. The electonic ticketing has improved things a lot.

Tonight I am looking forward to a warm shower for the first time in days. What I thought was a temporary outage lasted days. It turned out that there was an equipment failure and the entire complex was without hot water for three days. Luckily it has just been restored so I am about tot go and enjoy a warm shower for a change.

As I have been out and about in Beijing I am slowly coming across some foreigners. Some have been from America, some Germans and an Aussie I talked to on the subway. He is in Beijing for two weeks and has tickets for hockey. He said he is not interested in hockey however that was the best he could manage.

With the opening ceremony fast approaching I have been asking people what they will be doing. So far every answer has been to stay at home. That includes locals and foreigners.

If you are interested in a tour of the Beijing Olympic souvenir shop check back later as I am editing my video I shot today and will load it tomorrow.

Life in the back streets of Beijing

I am slowly working my way closer to the Beijing Olympic stadium otherwise known as the bird nest. Today I am just near the Gulou. It is the Drum Tower in english. It is around 7km from the Olympic district.

Tomorrow I plan to catch bus no. 1 which takes passengers on a tour of all of the Olympic venues. I am told it is 3rmb or around 50 cents US.

Earlier today I took my daughter up the steps of the Drum Tower to take in the view. It is quite a climb but worth the effort. You get a great view of Beijing. The photos I took did not look that spectacular as the skies had become a bit hazy and were more grey than blue.

When I was at the Drum tower I noticed a military truck in the courtyard between the Drum Tower and the Bell Tower to the north. I am not sure what they had on the back. They looked like some guns. Maybe they are for fireworks for the opening ceremony.

The rest of the day has been spent experiencing life in the Hutongs of Beijing. Hutong means alleyway. My wife’s family live in a hutong dwelling not far from the Drum tower. Life here is simple. It is all about community. Sitting around a chatting is the main entertainment for the day. There is nothing fancy about this lifestyle however eveyone seems to be happy.

The hutong house was once the grand house for my wife’s grandfather. It was a nice courtyard home. Something that is not seen often in modern day Beijing. After communism took hold of China the large dwelling was split up to house 8 families. It is now a lot different to how it was in the early forties.

Seeing what I see is probably not that common for the Beijing tourist and especially not the Olympic visitor. They may take a hutong tour on the back of a bike which will wind down the alley ways however they do not often take a peek behind the walls to see the real Beijing.

Check back here for some photos. I am not able to upload them just yet.