Stanley’s blogworld

Today the Olympic flame came to Nanjing. We set out at 9:45 AM and made our way to the the torch relay route. The traffic was a lot worse than normal because many of the regular routes were closed.
These last few days the city has been abuzz with the anticipation of the arrival of the Olympic flame in Nanjing. On almost every street corner you could find street merchants selling “torch relay” T-shirts or people handing out litte Beijing 2008 and Chinese flags to passers-by.

Initially we wanted to go to Gu Lou – the final destination of the Olympic flame in Nanjing.
We got into a taxi and asked the driver to take us to there, but he assured us that the traffic was way too heavy. We got out of the taxi, and I went and got my bike out of the lock up.
Everywhere the traffic was a lot heavier than usual. We quickly gave up the Gu Lou idea (or rather I did – I could sense my girlfriend wasn’t to happy with the decision at first – her friend was already waiting at a very crowded Gu Lou).
We eventually found our way to Beijing Xi Lu – one of the the roads along which the relay route ran today.
Most roads along the route were blocked of which made it perfect terrain for cyclist and pedestrians – it turned cycling was the best option on the day.

I parked the bike and then Carrie and I found a ourselves a nice little spot amongst the crowds lining up along the road.
You could sense the excitement, and the familiar chanting of “Zhong Guo Jia You, Zhong Guo Jia You (literally meaning “China, add fuel” or “China, give gas”)” in support of the relay runners, filled the air with an electric atmosphere.
First to come up the road was a big tour bus. It stopped right in front of where we stood, and out jumped the next relay runner that was to carry the flame further on the route. She waited to have the flame passed on to her right in front of where we were – it turned out we had front row seats to this particular leg of the relay.
Later a few of the sponsors’ busses passed by, and then finally the moment we had been waiting for had arrived.
The torch runner came running up the road with the Olympic flame! What a grand moment it was. He stopped in front of us and used his torch to light the torch of the next runner, who had been waiting with us for his arrival, with the flame of his torch.

The passing of the Olympic flame was all over in less than a minute, but I am sure I will remember that moment forever – for me it was a special moment, being here in China and greeting the arrival of the Games.
It (the Olympic flame) has so much symbolic meaning to it and I don’t care to say that I buy straight into all of it.
First of all as a sports fan I appreciate what the Olympic games has to offer, but for me the Olympic ideal is also symbolic of a greater ideal to (live) higher, further and faster – in other words to live to its fullest and in harmony with all.

I am looking forward to 8 August 2008. I am glad at how things turned out for us to make this experience possible. It turned out that Gu Lou was extremely crowded and in the end Carrie’s friend, Nancy, unfortunately for her, didn’t get to see anything of the torch relay. We were just very lucky.