Bad(minton) to the bone
So as you walk down the streets of Beijing, one thing you’ll notice is a ton of people playing badminton. They play everywhere – sidewalks, alleys, grassy knolls, badminton courts (gasp!). I’m surprised I haven’t seen anyone play ping-pong – excuse me, table tennis – anywhere yet. They’re all playing badminton.
So, in our quest to do as the Romans are doing, Joh and I bought some badminton racquets at the market. She did all the talking – in Chinese. I don’t know if it’s better to negotiate in Mandarin or not, but it was kind of impressive to watch her work, even if it made me feel somewhat inadequate. Her Mandarin is definitely getting better, but I think it’s best when she’s negotiating…
Anyway, we got our racquets pretty cheap and walked down the street to explore the Embassy District, which we hadn’t visited yet. We found this place called “The Place,” which is a mall with this pretty big courtyard and an LED screen that’s about 200 feet long. Cool thing is, the screen is on the ceiling of this enormous overhang above the courtyard, so you look up to see all these cool little images and music videos playing above you. It’s a pretty cool thing to see.
People were playing with these big disc-shaped balloon things when we walked up, throwing them in the air and letting the breeze carry them far away before they drifted back down. We decided to grab a spot and play badminton. The light from the screen made up for the setting sun as we pelted about half of the Chinese population with our errant shots. By the time we were done playing, the little logos that had been painted on our bogus racquets had already started peeling off, although the shuttlecocks withstood the greater-than-normal amount of collisions with the stone floor. We’re looking forward to more games on the streets of our neighborhood with all the other badminton faithful. There’s also a Wednesday-night badminton club at our office, though I don’t think we’re quite ready for that yet. A tip for the potential travelers to China – brush up on your badminton skills before you come…
So, in our quest to do as the Romans are doing, Joh and I bought some badminton racquets at the market. She did all the talking – in Chinese. I don’t know if it’s better to negotiate in Mandarin or not, but it was kind of impressive to watch her work, even if it made me feel somewhat inadequate. Her Mandarin is definitely getting better, but I think it’s best when she’s negotiating…
Anyway, we got our racquets pretty cheap and walked down the street to explore the Embassy District, which we hadn’t visited yet. We found this place called “The Place,” which is a mall with this pretty big courtyard and an LED screen that’s about 200 feet long. Cool thing is, the screen is on the ceiling of this enormous overhang above the courtyard, so you look up to see all these cool little images and music videos playing above you. It’s a pretty cool thing to see.
People were playing with these big disc-shaped balloon things when we walked up, throwing them in the air and letting the breeze carry them far away before they drifted back down. We decided to grab a spot and play badminton. The light from the screen made up for the setting sun as we pelted about half of the Chinese population with our errant shots. By the time we were done playing, the little logos that had been painted on our bogus racquets had already started peeling off, although the shuttlecocks withstood the greater-than-normal amount of collisions with the stone floor. We’re looking forward to more games on the streets of our neighborhood with all the other badminton faithful. There’s also a Wednesday-night badminton club at our office, though I don’t think we’re quite ready for that yet. A tip for the potential travelers to China – brush up on your badminton skills before you come…
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