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Note: It took me almost one week to finish writing this blog entry. Well, I fell sick and have been coughing like crazy and occasionally gasping for breath during the last few days. I also didn’t go to class for two days. I’m feeling better now but I’ve got this annoying phlegm stuck in my throat and I need to blow my nose every hour or so.
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Shanghai Golden Grand Prix 2005 or 2005 上海国际田径黄金大奖赛 ( in chinese )

Last Wednesday, the teachers asked us (those majoring in Chinese language) if we were interested to attend a sports event on Saturday night. Only 9 persons from each class could go. We were not given much information about the event but were told that many famous athletes would be there.
So, last Saturday (17th Sept) , I went to the Shanghai Stadium along with 43 other people from Tongji University.
We went in the bus provided by the university and each person got a ‘goodie’ bag containing 4 pastries from Croissant de France and a bottle of water. Our tickets cost rmb 80 each. I suppose there are better seats than the ones we got, but we didn’t pay for anything so we can’t really complain.

We arrived a bit late because of the traffic jam and missed the Opening ceremony. We arrived in time for this:

The 4 gals in red were playing some kind of percussion instrument. a drum..but which one? hmm.. I wonder how that instrument is called in chinese. I didn’t pay much attention to the commentator.
I manage to identify the two big red and white drums near the gals as Tanggu according to this.

The most popular event was the 110m hurdles. I wasn’t surprised at that. There was three false starts and if I’m not mistaken, one of the guys got disqualified because he was responsible for two of the false starts.
Anyway, Liu xiang won with a time of 13.05 secs. I still remember his time because they showed it on the e-board for like 5-10mins and it was the last event.

Rosemary’s classmate said that Johnson let Liu xiang win. He said that Shanghai is Liu xiang’s hometown and that he just had to win. Before entering the stadium, we saw that Liu xiang’s posters were plastered everywhere and I also heard that he was in some commercial or other after he won in the last Olympics. Anyway, I don’t really agree with Rosemary’s classmate. True, I couldn’t see much from where I was but I think Liu xiang won fair and square. He trained a lot. It would be unfair to say that Johnson let him win.

Liu xiang’s poster:

Apart from him, the other Chinese athletes were not really impressive. I remember that in the 5000m race, there was this Chinese woman who was in the lead for quite some time to the great joy of the Chinese spectators. Still, in the last lap, three or four other women overtook her.
The Chinese spectators cheered everyone, even encouraging those who were trailing way behind during the long distance races. 加油!加油! I really liked that.
And of course, they cheered extra hard when their own people were being introduced to the spectators before the races started.

What I didn’t like :
It was very hot and stuffy. With so many people in the stadium, it was no surprise but still..
Most people stood up to cheer the athletes when they were nearing the finishing line. Maybe it’s a normal thing. I don’t know. It was my first time at such a big sports event. In the end, I had to stand up too to see what was happening. I manage to take a few pics but … some didn’t turn out too well because of the people who were jumping excitedly up and down in the rows before me.

Some pics of the stadium:

There was a concert at the end.

One of the singers was 胡彦斌 (Anson Hu). I’ve put this pic here especially for my little sister Cel. I can practically hear her squeal from here.

There were only four singers in all : 李宗盛 (Li zongsheng) , 胡彦斌 (Anson Hu), 韩红 (Han hong) and 陶喆 (David Tao) . They sang 3 songs each. I have heard of Li zongsheng and Han hong but I am not really a fan.. but.. Anson Hu and David Tao!!! Rosemary and I were a bit excited to hear them sing live.

I took pics of them as seen on the big screen in the stadium too. Just another souvenir.

We had to leave just when David Tao was singing 找自己 . I guess the teachers have no idea who David Tao is. Anyway, I know that David Tao sang ‘I love you’ too. I could hear from outside when we were trying to regroup.