Around Olympic Games

Maps and souvernirs

Today is the day we finalize our travel plan so dad wakes me up early. We get ready and without breakfast, we ask at reception the directions to a bookstore someone had recommended us. On a piece of paper the receptionist gave us directions. Before we left we dropped off our laundry, and we were ready to go. In the heat we walked and walked, asking people for directions along the way. When we found the place we entered into a huge bookstore. We chose our maps quickly and went to pay for it, but not before I had a chance to steal a quick glance at a map of France with great pride. For the guide books the store clerk advised us to go to a tourist bookstore. We decided to walk it. We reached a large avenue that could be described as the Champs-Elysees of Beijing. We reach the store and looked everywhere for a guide, eventually a clerk recommended a software to learn English which I tried out but wasn’t compatible with my MAC. The girl helped us find a map of North Central and North West China. We also quickly grabbed a travel guide of China in French. We went up a floor to browse the movies, but I didn’t find any Jet-Li. We decide to go get some food. As we walked along we walked past a KFC and just after it there was a side street filled with restaurants. We sat down in one of them and ordered two bowls of noodle soup that we ate Chinese style. After eating we had a look at our maps. After some discussion we decided to pass through Xian, Langzou, and Urumchi. We examined how we could get to Ulan-Bator without going through Tibet, which was closed off to all French citizens for the time being. After talking a while we went for a walk. In front of the official Olympic Games store I asked Dad if we could have a quick look inside, he answered yes and off we went. There are so many products branded with the five Olympic Games logos of BeiBei, JingJing, IngIng and NiNi, and also the pink cow that is the games mascot. We looked around and got a couple of souvenirs. All of a sudden a massive dispute erupted in front of us. Apparently a man was not happy about the prices and was screaming at the store clerk, who responded to the man with a long explanation. The angry customer reacted by throwing his soda and wetting the clerk, who in turn got angry, and the police arrived to control the situation, then we left.