BEIJING-Sometimes it seems like there’s a Starbucks on every corner in Beijing, usually with a McDonalds or KFC next to it. There are sections of this city where you can almost convince yourself you’re in Atlanta or Miami. There’s even a Hooters just down the street from a pair of Olympic venues.
Somewhere Mao is spinning in his tomb and I’m feeling ripped off.
I know China’s changed. Watching the Opening Ceremony I couldn’t help thinking these guys are going to own us for the next 100 years, which given the national debt they basically already do.
But I didn’t travel 19 hours to get Charlotte. I wanted at least a glimpse of Mao’s China. A double caramel, non-fat, frappuccino is never more than a block away but trying finding one of those olive green caps with the red star. These days you would have a better chance of finding the Dali Lama’s autobiography in Beijing than Mao’s Little Red Book.
So I was excited to walk into Worker’s Stadium for the Olympic soccer competition back through time.
Worker’s Stadium is basically the People’s Republic’s Fenway Park. It’s straight out of the 1970s news reels, Communist Party symbols still present, drab, gray and cold, even when the temperature is 85 and the humidity even higher. You could almost envision Mao and Zhou Enlai sitting next to each other.
Almost until the other night when I spotted Kobe Bryant there. But not even the Kobester could ruin my lockstep march through the past.
At halftime of Thursday’s U.S.-Brazil women’s final, I entered the men’s room near the VIP section, went into a stall, closed the door and took a seat, convinced that I now sat where Mao once had.
