The china open is happening a mere hour and a half train ride from my home, so I got tickets for the semi-finals this saturday. Anyone else going? Also, what can I expect? I've never been to a BWF superseries game before. Do they have opportunities where I can meet the players? I know Viktir Axelson is already here, as are the Adcocks because they all said so on facebook. I'd love to meet them and take pics with them. Anyway, I'm looking forward to it.
Go early to get your seat. Hope you got tickets close to the courts. How much were the tickets? Usually the winners will be happy to take photos. Losers you better approach the next day Some players may have already booked their flights to HK on Saturday as HK is a popular place to stay. Probably easier to get around and a bit more international.
Tickets were 580rmb (almost $100) but I had to buy the second level tickets because the best seats were already sold out (best seats were 780rmb about $120). I'm still in the front section, but I'll be on the side, like where the seats curve. I bought my tickets too late. I'm watching the semi-finals. For the final game tickets all go up (aka the second level tickets are 780 rmb and the best seats are almost 1000rmb). So players are that optimistic they will lose they already bought tickets out? Haha. Admittedly Fuzhou, while the capital city, is not a super fun or interesting city. My city of Xiamen would have been a much better choice as we are more modern and comfortable than Fuzhou. We just had a ton of international leaders here for the BRICS conference. Maybe I'll suggest that to someone for next year.
Really? The very idea of just boiled "spiceless" noodles or dumplings are enough to make a South Asian loose his appetite let alone an octopus or squid swimming in the bowl, of a vegetarian.
Pardon me for saying, obviously, both you and Nine Tailed Fox have never been to China. And you don't have to stay at the big first tier cities such a Beijing , Shanghai, Guangzhou, Shenzhen,Chongqing, even the second or third tier ones , which includes Fuzhou, can be a transformative experience, or at least change your views and understanding of China today based on first-hand experience. Mind you, this article was written in Nov 2015 https://goldstarteachers.com/rising-second-third-tier-cities-china/, I can assure you a lot has changed in just two years. China's tiered city system http://multimedia.scmp.com/2016/cities/ As for Chinese food or cuisine, I'm sure your unpleasant experience is not limited specifically to Chinese food but anything that is not vegetarian. Never heard of Chinese vegetarian food that taste as good as they look? By the way, though Chinese cuisine is my favourite, generally, I also love Indian cuisine as well as Japanese, Thai, Indonesian, Malay, more than Western or European food.
Actually Chinese vegetarian food is quite delish. Remember, Buddhists are vegetarian and China has a large Buddhist population so there are always vegetarian restaurants in every city and town. Although in normal restaurants Chinese people love to add a little meat into vegetable dishes so I can see where some frustration might arise. And yeah, spice less noodles or dumplings is definitely not real chinese food. The food varies greatly in different regions in China, but the food being amazing is one of the only things consistent things in China. Not that this is on topic or anything, but the food of China must be defended. After living here for so many years I actually now have trouble eating American food when I go back to visit my family. I eat street food regularly, cooked by people with no running water and who don't sanitize very well and yet it's only in America that I get bathroom problems after eating. If anyone comes to Fujian province I can recommend some great local food!
Yup, even China level 4 cities are quite neat and who say they cant hold a badminton tournament? and i'm planning to travel to Nanjing for WC and travel with my friend. The only bad thing is it start on summer. Miss taking the train from guangzhou to harbin back to guangzhou. The best thing about China is you can take train to every cities without the need of taking Plane. Great experience. Speaks volume of the infrastructure and system.
Yeah, and even though most people have never heard of fuzhou (or know how to say it, it is pronounced Fu-joe) it has a population close to 8 million (larger than any US city except NYC) and it is the capital city of the province so it has many resources and amenities for foreigners including a subway (in english). And I'm with you on the train thing. Although even in a high speed train Guangzhou to Harbin is too far for me! haha. I used to take planes more, but chinese planes are notoriously late while their trains run with german-like precision. I once waited 8 hours for a delayed flight from Shanghai to Xiamen an then had the hour long flight and with check-in times and stuff it took me 10 hour+ to get home. I now never take the flight back, only the train. It might be 7-8 hours but it is less frustrating and much more comfortable!
Without high speed train that must have taken 3 days or more! The bane of every China traveller. We were supposed to do a connection flight from Harbin 9am to Beijing, then Beijing to HKG around 3pm. The plane was so late in Harbin, we would have missed the connection! Fortunately, I had anticipated this and changed to stay in Beijing overnight...which is not too bad if on holiday.
Guys! Guys! I'm back from my adventure at the China Open! I MET LEE CHONG WEI!!!! We took a picture and chatted for a minute and everything. The whole competition was quite tiring but fun and I wrote about it at my blog if you are interested in reading about it (and seeing a pic of me and LCW..my new favorite pic ever, haha) Also, for you train aficionados we ended up on the Beijing to Xiamen train going back. Xiamen is in southern China and Beijing is up north and to be honest I didn't even know there was direct trains connecting the two cities. (I thought you had to change in Shanghai). Turns out it is only an 11 hour trip which is fast for the 2,000km distance.
