Welcome to China: You Have Two New Messages

By Gerard Gallagher, Contributing Olympics Editor

Beijing, China (Sports Network) - When we turned on our phones, they buzzed. We had two new text messages waiting. "This message is free," the first one read. "Welcome to China."

They knew we were here.

Arriving at the Beijing Olympics on Tuesday afternoon wasn't much different than arriving at past Olympics. Herded through the airport by helpful volunteers -- or if not always helpful, then well-meaning -- we managed to find our bus and our hotel.

More volunteers helped us to our rooms, then to the bus that would take us to the Main Press Center (MPC). Still more of them would point us to our seats in the MPC, guide us through our Internet hook-up and try to answer our stupid questions the best they could.

If that all sounds easy and breezy, it's not. It took four hours.

What was different about this arrival was those messages.

Surely somewhere along the line, as we completed the paperwork for our credentials, we listed our phone numbers. And then later, surely we told them what day we would be arriving -- and what time of day, for that matter.

That's probably how they knew when to text us.

But staring at the messages -- the second one reminded us to dial 001 to call home -- I couldn't help but think that one of the two mysterious devices our bags passed through at the Beijing airport had tipped the Chinese that we were here.

We walked through one that looked like a metal detector, but wasn't (none of the heavy stuff in my possession set it off, and this belt I'm wearing never fails). The other device fed our bags through what looked like an x-ray machine -- and probably was -- although what was the x-ray machine doing right near the exit?

It's a question I wouldn't have bothered to ask in Athens or Turin.

But in China we ask those types of questions because we are conditioned to be wary of the country and its practices: the controversial foreign and domestic policies, the absence of a free press, etc. It's enough to distract you from an open first impression of the host city of these Summer Games.

Which is why I'm putting all of that aside for later and just telling you what I've seen:

1. The air: It's hazy here, an unexpected (no, really) sight considering the reports we'd heard about blue skies before we left. Actually, you could see blue sky in some places -- looking out one side of the bus, for example -- but it was generally smoggy.

2. The security: There are guards everywhere, and not just at the hotels, venues, etc. There are guard stations on the roads around Beijing, where the personnel stand stiffly at attention like that guy in the Guinness Book of World Records who stood longer than anyone in history. We joked that as soon as our bus passed, the stereo went back on the guard began to dance. Such things are said after a 14-hour flight.

3. The size: Beijing is big, in case you haven't heard. It's sprawlingly big. We've only seen a portion of what I think is the north side of China's capital, but that's all we needed to see.

4. The people: We knew before we arrived that most of the Chinese would go out of their way to help us. They don't have a choice, you might say. And you might be correct. But there's a genuiness about their attitude that's unmistakable. It started in the line at Newark Liberty with the woman who was kind enough to teach us some words. It extended to the woman who walked us to our bus to the MPC.

5. The food: Frankly, I don't know. I haven't eaten a thing since I had some beef with rice and sugar snap peas on the flight over. (I ate mine with chop sticks. The Chinese fellow on my left used a fork. Go figure.) Which is why I'm off to find some food right now.

I wonder if they know that already.