Before the Olympics started, Olympic volunteers were newsworthy, especially ones learning to write “I love China” in traditional calligraphy.  While going through my rigorous training leading up to the Olympics at the basketball Cube, my opportunistic supervisor jumped on the chance to get her two trainees on tv and in front of who knows how many Chinese viewers.  As she’d instruct us, we would repeat in Mandarin “I love China.”  The video isn’t the best quality because I was using a Flip Cam to record a tv screen.  This aired on CCTV’s Olympic Channel.

Somewhat nauseating, mostly funny.  Here’s the clip for your viewing pleasure.

• Check out more video on reactions to the jump and the day recap on my facebook page (feel free to become a fan too)
• Look at more pictures on the jump and Longqing Gorge
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The story behind my jump:

Bungee jumping in China was the biggest adrenaline rush I got all summer. As soon as I saw the walkway over the cliff I knew I had to do it. Although with my feet happily on the earth, it’s a lot easier to exude confidence over the “venturesome sport” as the Chinese sign called it.

Four of us decided to make the plunge and the other two agreed to take photos and video. The brave four each paid our 150 RMB (roughly $20), got weighed and signed our names by our weight – there were no waivers or any mention if our travel insurance covered this activity. Then off we went to the metal walkway protruding from the cliff and over water some 48 meters high.

I had boldly volunteered to go first (while still on the ground).

The first two jumpers, Trisha and I, went to the tip of the bungee platform while the third and fourth jumpers, Adrienne and Jenna, stayed farther back. All confidence immediately disappeared as we advanced on the metal walkway. Looking down, it felt much taller than we had originally boasted about and was much shakier than we imagined. The metal beneath our feet wasn’t solid so with every step, we could see the water beneath us. Our nerves started getting the best of us. Our pace got slower.

At the end of the walkway was a Chinese staff guy who spoke no English and had very little patience. He had the harness laid out so I could step in. But the harness wasn’t a body harness, it was Velcro for only our ankles! I’ve bungee jumped before. I had a harness and a big yellow cushion on the rope to squeeze. Not in China. It’s only Velcro.

Words like, “It doesn’t matter if we lose our money,” “we don’t have to go,” and “we haven’t seen anyone else actually jump,” seeped out of our mouths as we started to cower back. The Chinese guy just kept pointing where I should step. I meekly uttered the only Chinese I could think of, “bu yao” (not want), to convey we were having second thoughts…not that looking absolutely scared shitless didn’t convey the same meaning. It came down to one decisive moment and two words.

We were there. “Fuck it.” And I stepped down where the Chinese guy was pointing. He far from gently wrapped my ankles in the industrial Velcro straps. Then to calm me fears, he took out SCOTCH TAPE! This was taped tight around my stomach to hold my shirt in place. What the hell had I gotten myself into?

The minor shot of courage I got from my vulgar statement vanished as quickly as it popped out of my mouth. The guy led me to a little platform that had just enough room for my feet to fit. He then closed a metal gate behind me. A resounding “clang” raced through my mind. There was no turning back.

My knuckles turned white as I gripped the railing behind me for dear life. Meters below me was water and anxious onlookers wondering who was crazy enough to jump. No thoughts existed in that moment, only pure, unadulterated fear.

The Chinese guy literally ungripped each of my hands and placed them above my head to form a diving triangle. Then in one quick motion, he pushed me off the platform and I was sent free-falling into oblivion.

It’s a blur. I know I screamed. I know my feet kicked like I was trying to find something in mid-air to grasp. It felt like I went plunging downwards for an infinite amount of time. And then in one jolt, I was being thrust back up towards the platform. Then there was a split second where I just hung in midair before falling towards the water again. After the first bounce, it hit me that I wasn’t dead. In fact, I found an amazing freedom of cutting through the air.

That didn’t last long. A couple of bounces later, I was dangling upside down and the blood came rushing to my head. In my best effort I tried to lift my head so as not to have a killer headache.

A bamboo stick interrupted my thoughts. Yes a BAMBOO stick was poking at me and two Chinese guys in a motorboat were using it to fetch me. After a couple of tries I finally latched onto it and one of the guys pulled me closer to the motorboat. Before I knew it, the other one had grabbed my waist in an attempt to turn me upright. With my ass still above my head, one forcefully stated, “sit.” Who was I to ask how he wanted this done since my ankles were still attached to the bungee rope and above my head. No sooner, one guy undid the Velcro and I plopped into the motorboat. The engines kicked in and I was zipped over to the dock.

A smile erupted across my face. My body was a little shaky from the rush, but I had done it. I survived bungee jumping in China. And I would do it again in a heartbeat.

More about Longqing Gorge here:

Longqing Gorge is a short daytrip out of Beijing and a great way to change scenes from urban sprawl to natural landscapes. The destination is only 56 miles northwest of Beijing and can be gotten to from a city bus for a fraction of the price of what you’d pay for a tour bus. However some research is needed to determine how to get to the city bus and which one to take. We used the book BEIJING EXCURSION GUIDE as our reference and found locals along the way to be very accommodating. The bus dropped us off close to the Gorge in a small town and left us a little clueless. We ended up taking an unmarked taxi which dropped us off at a road leading to the Gorge. Luckily there were restaurants on the way so we appeased our appetite before setting forth on the day’s activities.

We walked to the Gorge entrance and paid the entry fee (40 RMB). Longqing does an interesting job of combining natural landscape with an odd tourism twist. While the cliffs in the area resemble that of a national park, the dragon escalator to the water resembles more of a run-down theme park attraction. Oh China. It turns out that the heart of Longqing Gorge is atop a dam, hence the escalator ride.

It was a fun afternoon. We took a boat tour and soaked up the majesty of the cliffs surrounding us. We also managed to find a temple with monks who were excited to speak with us and practice their English. I was equally excited to talk to monks but later disappointed to find out that they were paid staff and about as authentic as a watch you can buy at the Silk Market. There’s also a zip chord, bungee jump and tram to ride. There are pathways and pagodas to meander around. The exit tunnel exemplifies a strange quality of interest among the Chinese. The tunnel was decked out with fake plants and animals, even stuffed animals, in different scenes. The scenes ranged from tropical to wintery and had the temperature change to match. It was bizarre, but oddly when I showed the cave pictures to my Chinese friends, they thought it was beautiful. Our sentiment was closer to that of a twilight zone experience of “where the hell are we?” but whatever floats your boat.

Overall I’d recommend Longqing Gorge as a manageable daytrip outside of Beijing. It offers beautiful scenery, and if you’re brave enough, some adrenaline pumping activities too.Beijing Jump

On September 6, following the Beijing Olympics this summer, the Paralympics commenced. However, I’ve hardly found anyone who knows anything about the Paralympics now that I’m back on US soil. More so, it’s often confused with the Special Olympics. This no doubt is due to the limited coverage the Paralympics got here in the United States. NBC did cover the Para- Games, however, the channel was buried if viewers had a special channel package at all. The Times gets the most kudos for its coverage but still nothing compares to the Chinese’s efforts. I’m happy to report that China kept its word on treating the Paralympics with equal importance as the Olympics. There was an entire television channel in the single digits dedicated to reporting the Paralympic Games, accessible to everyone. After the Olympic Closing Ceremony it seemed as if overnight, Beijing, which was plastered with Olympic banners, flags, and billboards, was re-plastered with the same signage but adorned with promoting the Paralympics.

I had the wonderful honor to interview track and field Paralympians for the Paralympic News Service at the Bird’s Nest. I was awestruck multiple times just watching these athletes perform given their disabilities. My favorite races to watch by far were the blind runners who ran with guides (I’ll write more on this later). However, the Paralympics truly is about focusing on athletic accomplishments, so the athlete’s disabilities weren’t questions asked in interviews. Questions focused on their strategy, technique, weather conditions, how they felt or what made that race unique. While I thought that the disabilities may have been an elephant in the room, I was completely wrong in every way. Although as cliché as it sounds, they’re regular people with extraordinary athletic abilities.

With that said, I’d like to take this chance to clarify what the difference is among the Paralympics, Special Olympics…and yes, there’s also a Deaflympics.

The Special Olympics

The Special Olympics is the most familiar of competitions among the people I’ve spoken with. This is probably because we may know someone with a child that competes in them since they are open to children and adults. The Special Olympics uses sport to empower individuals with intellectual disabilities. There are year-round training and events.

Since 2003, there are Special World Olympics that are held every two years. Fundamentally, the Special Olympics focuses on being a catalyst for social change by offering people with intellectual disabilities an avenue to build confidence. The Special Olympics is also an international nonprofit organization and has no ties as far as I can tell to the Olympics or Paralympics in any way.

The Paralympics

I can’t say it any better than wiki: The Paralympic Games are for athletes with physical and sensorial disabilities. This includes athletes with mobility disabilities, amputations, blindness, and cerebral palsy. The Paralympic Games are held every four years, following the Olympic Games, and are governed by the International Paralympic Committee (IPC). The Paralympic Games are sometimes confused with the Special Olympics World Games, which are only for people with intellectual disabilities, but Special Olympics participants may still take part in the Paralympic games.

If you’re curious, these are the categories that we used for the track and field events (they change and evolve with each Paralympics):

1. Classes 11, 12, and 13 cover different levels of visual impairment
2. Class 20 covers athletes with an intellectual disability
3. Classes 32-38 cover athletes with different levels of cerebral palsy – wheelchair (32-34) and ambulant (35-38)
4. Classes 40-46 cover ambulant athletes with different levels of amputations and other disabilities, including les Autres (e.g. dwarfism)
5. Classes 51-58 cover wheelchair athletes with different levels of spinal cord injuries and amputations

So if I covered the Men’s 400m – T54 race, I was covering a wheelchair sprint. The “T” indicates it’s on the track whereas an “F” indicates a field event, like discus throw.

World Games for the Deaf (also known as the Deaflympics)

The World Games for the Deaf or Deaflympics has its own competition because Deaf people do not consider themselves disabled, particularly in physical ability. Rather, the Deaf community considers themselves to be part of a cultural and linguistic minority. The competitions held in the Deaflympics aren’t adapted in any way like in the Paralympics which needs to adapt some rules to accommodate different disabilities. The only difference between regular competitions with non-deaf athletes versus Deaf athletes is how the Deaf athletes communicate.

The summer and winter Deaflympics are held every four years but not in conjunction with the Olympics and Paralympics. The Deaflympics are organized by The International Committee of Sports for the Deaf (CISS), and are sanctioned as an autonomous competition under the International Olympic Committee (IOC) that is the overarching governing body of the Olympics.

Numbers:

• The Special Olympics serves 2.5 million people with intellectual disabilities in over 180 countries
• The number of athletes participating in Summer Paralympic Games has increased from 400 athletes from 23 countries in Rome in 1960 to 4,000 athletes from 150 countries in Beijing in 2008.
• More than 3,200 deaf athletes and officials from 67 nations participated in the 20th Summer Deaflympics in Melbourne, Australia, in January 2005. Over 600 athletes and officials participated in the 16th Winter Deaflympics in Salt Lake City, United States in February 2007.

There are some pretty scary reports and pictures of the pollution in Beijing. Just take a look at this one taken by The World by Road Expedition when the crew was travelling through China:

Who could tell that an entire city lies ahead in this picture? The World by Crew amply commented on this photo: The city skyline is out there somewhere.

ESPN reporter Bob Holtzman reported in his latest “Outside the Lines” on Beijing report that “had the Olympics been held last August, the air quality in Beijing would have been in violation of the World Health Organization standard every single day.” (There’s a great video accompanying his article.) And even scarier are the health risks that such polluted air causes for the Chinese. Kevin Holden Platt for National Geographic News stated that, “A World Health Organization (WHO) report estimates that diseases triggered by indoor and outdoor air pollution kill 656,000 Chinese citizens each year.” Indeed Olympic athletes have a lot to worry about when it comes to performance under such unnerving air quality.

As a person who will be more than traveling in Beijing this summer for the Olympics, but living there for 3 months, these statistics are enough to send me running back to my Tennessee hills. I genuinely care about my non-smoker lungs and prefer to preserve them from turning out like I’ve been smoking 2 packs of cigarettes a day for my entire life.

(thank me later for posting an illustration instead of an actual picture)

So what precautions am I taking to protect my valuable breathing machines? I have four different “tools” to aid my lungs against the pollution in China:

1. A prescribed inhaler

My very good-looking internal medicine doctor prescribed an Albuterol inhaler after visiting him for my traveler’s doctor appointment. I’ve never had any asthma problems in my life, but I’ll have this in case I have problems breathing indicated by wheezing. The inhaler won’t actually help filter any pollution in the air since it only opens up the lungs; it will only aid in my breathing.

2. Portable oxygen: Personal Oxygen Device (POD)

While this doesn’t have any medical claims, it will offer a fresh breath of air comprised of 95% oxygen and 5% nitrogen. It’s portable, lightweight and easy to use. I can already picture days where I’m going to forget what clean air means and this little thing will provide some comfort by supplying doses of pure air. Unfortunately, this also won’t filter pollution and will only offer fresh air for my poor lungs.

3. Doctor’s masks

This highly attractive look is compliments of a doctor’s surgical mask which will provide my best defense for filtering Beijing’s polluted air. It’s not a silver-bullet answer by any means, but it will help filter the air from the larger floating particles (like debris from construction). The box does claim they’re proven effective in reducing the spread of germs and bacteria and also help provide relief from common household dust, ragweed pollen and yard dusts….extremely comforting to know!

One disappointing Google search revealed from Time Asia that:

MYTH: A surgical mask can screen out air pollution.
FACT: Absolutely untrue. Surgical masks can’t filter out the relatively tiny particles and gases like nitrogen dioxide that cause the most damage to your body. Gas masks with fine air filters can offer some protection, but the filters need to be changed often and the masks are uncomfortable, especially in warm weather.

ANOTHER FACT: Things aren’t looking good for my lungs!

4. Bandanas

I have been known to sport a bandana to help offset sweat while in S.E. Asia (see my About page picture); however, if I use this to sheild my face in China, it will offer more psychological comfort more than anything else. I’m not ashamed to admit, I’ll take a placibo pill in the form of a bandana if it will ease my mind a little…at least I’ll have my POD and inhaler in case I do need help breathing!

After putting each of these to the test, I’ll let you know how well they worked. Although it looks like there’s not much I can do to protect my lungs while over there. Until then, I’m soaking up as much clean O2 as I can hear in Cambridge!

Happy travels,

Helen

Bonus for reading my entire posting:

Check out this really interesting flash animation with startling facts on China’s pollution from E-Ranlai Magazine.

This past Thursday I got to cross off an item from the pre-departure to-do list for China by getting my recommended shots.   My arm felt like someone had punched me within a couple hours of the shot but that didn’t hold me back from going out that night!  I got a Hep A and Typhoid Fever shot while some others that were available but Julie said weren’t necessary include Poliomyelitis and Japanese Encephalitis.  However since they are rarer and mostly found in rural areas, I didn’t get them.  Also to note, since I’m a grad student, I’d already had my Hep B and tetanus shots for school.  Rabies was highly recommended for Thailand and Julie about had a heart attack when I confessed that I didn’t get any shots before going there last summer.  Among Thursday’s shots and the HPV vaccine I recently got, there’s a ton of diluted viruses in me right now!

Julie, who’ve I referenced twice, is the RN at Passport Health which is a clinic specifically dedicated to travelers needs and where I got my shots.  It’s at a cozy location outside of Inman Square here in Cambridge.  The service was absolutely amazing so I have to do a plug for the place!  Julie took so much time explaining my options were with genuine recommendations and feedback.  I left confident that I will in good health throughout my 3 months in China this summer.  I left with an entire customized packet if any lingering questions were to pop again…absolutely fantastic!  I was so moved to write a review on Yelp too where you can see other recommendations I’ve started making in Boston

Speaking of these shots, my friends of The World by Road Expedition are battling with malaria right now while stuck in the Congo.  Both Steves have gotten it which is making the wait for their visas into Angola absolutely unbearable.  This is the second time Steve Bouey has gotten malaria…the other time was while rock climbing in Northern Thailand.  I have no idea what shots they took before departing on their around-the-world trip, but hearing all about the misery they’re going through is enough motivation to fork out some money for shots.  Check out more on their website.

Happy and safe Travels!!

Helen