BEIJING - UP CLOSE AND PERSONAL

BEIJING, CHINA: Popular former Australian Swimmer PAUL LEE has arrived in Beijing to continue his Olympic Odessy. Paul is giving the Hanson Sports Media website browsers an insight into the many aspects of Beijing as the Olympic Games gets closer.

During my first week here in Beijing I decided to use the new subway system in an attempt to get up close and personal with the locals. Several new subway lines have opened in advance of the Games all aimed at relieving the congestion on the roads and subsequently lowering the levels of pollution.

The new subway system is impressive. The longest I have had to wait for a train is 2-3 minutes and the schedule is the normal schedule not a special Olympic schedule. Bags are scanned or searched at each station before entry and tickets are only 2 yuan (or 30 cents).

Announcements and signs are in both Chinese and English which makes getting around fairly easy. It seems however that the cheap cost of taxis is keeping the tourists off the subway as I have not seen another foreigner in a week and as a consequence I have been somewhat of a show-stopper.

Being taller than your average Chinese person I have been able to observe the behaviours and daily activities of the Chinese commuter. It's pretty much the same as other parts of the world where you have 2 or 3 people reading over the shoulder of the person with the newspaper and everyone else either texting or listening to their MP3 players. Although I did observe one woman cleaning the ears of her boyfriend and then screwing up her nose when she looked at the resultant wax. Maybe this is where Kevin Rudd got his ear wax habit from?

Further methods of reducing the pollution here have including limiting cars to only driving on odd or even date's dependent upon their licence plate number. This has had a significant affect on the public transport system with an additional 4 million people using the system every day. As a consequence the concept of personal space is not known here at all which can be very intimidating, especially to an Australian where space is one of the daily ‘luxuries' we enjoy.

So my attempt to get up close and personal with the locals was an amazing success. I just didn't think I would be getting this up close and this personal with so many people. I think I will get a bike and start riding from now on... stay tuned.