After a 6:30 wakeup call, we had breakfast across the cobble stoned street at Luma’s, which opened at 7:00, met our guide Elena at 7:30 and headed out on the quest to view the Olympic Torch relay.
You might think the Olympic Torch route would be well publicized so Lijiang’s citizens could have the opportunity to enjoy the spectacle, but its location was a secret. Elena and her boss Charlie, owner of the Lijiang tour company, had been making phone calls all last night and early this morning to find out about the route. At 8:00 am they still had no reliable information, even after calling their friends in the media and the police department.
We continued into Old Town thinking that this might be the location. The Naxi Orchestra was playing in the main square by the Water Wheel and a sizable crowd was milling around. This looked promising. As we walked, Elena and Richard asked several people where the Torch would be passing and were given different possibilities. Then a woman stopped to tell Rich where it would pass but since she spoke Chinese, he told Elena who quickly caught up with the woman, literally chasing down a possible lead. She learned it would take place in New Town, and shortly after that, Elena got a call from Charlie saying that it would be on Forty Meter Road.
We needed to get there fast because it could happen anytime between 8:00 and 10:00 am. She hailed a taxi and then a second one since it was illegal to put five people into one vehicle. We got out near the prescribed intersection in New Town, and the first sign it might be the correct location was the line of Armed Police in green uniforms blocking access to Forty Meter Road. Walking towards the intersection, Garry and I proceeded to take photos of them. Wrong thing to do! Three armed police came running over, stopped at attention right in front of us gesturing for us not to take photos. With our guide interpreting, we were then asked to delete the photos. I tried and thought I had, but it didn’t work. Fortunately, they didn’t check. Whew!!
We stood in the first row at the intersection wondering when the torch would pass and if it would pass at this location. Traffic police in blue uniforms stretched tape to hold the crowd at the curb, and positioned themselves about every fifty feet on the road. Dozens of crowd control volunteers ran past us on the road and then returned and positioned themselves along the road. Every few minutes an official looking vehicle passed by with colored lights flashing. Meanwhile, Elena was still on her cell phone trying to find out better information. She commented that this was a like a “cat and mouse game”. Around 9:00 her friend called back with more information; there were 120 runners, 30 had already run, and based on where it started they determined that the Torch Relay would finish before reaching our intersection. We needed to move several blocks closer to the start.
Now, it was off to the races. With Elena in the lead, we started running down the sidewalk, crossing streets, past armed police, around barricades, past traffic police and past other spectators. The crowd became thick and progress slowed. We took a shortcut through a park, ducked under tree branches and hopped over bushes and jumped off a low wall onto the sidewalk. We stood three deep at this point, but we were closer. Again, we waited. Military men were standing atop buildings lining the street. Chinese citizens were as excited as we were. The numerous Olympic flags, Chinese flags, headbands, face stickers (which Garry decided to wear), T-shirts and cell phones calling one another added to the excitement.
Elena continued to receive occasional updates from her friend telling us about the progress of the Torch Relay, and ultimately we learned that it would end before it reached our new location.
Standing there a bit disappointed, we saw a caravan of vehicles in the distance. The crowds started yelling, screaming and waving their flags. A police car with lights flashing led the way and all of a sudden there was the Torch, held high by one of the runners hanging out of a van’s side door. The crowd went wild! Of course, trying to get a photo was difficult, dodging flags and people. The Torch wasn’t lit because the 120 torch carriers had completed the Lijiang Torch Relay. What was happening is that the convoy was heading to the next venue at White Mountain. Buses carrying the torch carriers passed by our location and they held their torches high inside the bus for everyone to see. What a great experience!
But speaking of experiences, what followed was absolutely bizarre. Mind you, we did not see many other Western tourists wherever we went. Right after the caravan passed, a nearby Chinese couple motioned to us asking to have their photos taken with us. We were the Americans, dressed in Olympic T-shirts, carrying two flags each and one a tall woman having blond hair. It started off innocently enough with that couple, but other people started jumping in the photos and then asking if they could have photos with us individually. We must be in a several hundred photos. Cameras were everywhere and were flashing from so many directions that we didn’t know where to look.
Finally, we started towards the park which was the designated point to meet Elena. All of a sudden we saw a large mass of young people running down the street waving their flags and chanting “China”. So we ran there, ducking under the blue tape, and jumping over a stainless steel barrier to photograph what was happening. As we took pictures, more people now wanted their photo taken with the Americans. Finally, we returned to the park and found Elena. Charlie and Lydia from the tour company joined us also.
The event was over but not the excitement. Suddenly, the original couple who wanted their photos taken with us showed up and the man was now holding one of the torches actually used in the Olympic Torch Relay! Apparently, one of the runners is a friend of his (the torch is made of anodized aluminum colored silver and red, about two feet long and heavier than we expected) He motioned for us to come over and again have his photo taken with us holding the Olympic Torch. Then his wife or girlfriend wanted her photo taken as well. After this, pandemonium broke out! People saw the torch and went crazy. We were in the middle of everyone wanting to get their hand on the torch and have a photo taken. The guy sensing trouble pulled away and returned the torch to its box. We said thank you, goodbye and hugged or shook hands with each other before leaving. Finding a taxi would be next to impossible, so we walked back to Old Town buying a few more T-shirts on the way and posing for more photos. We were the novelty in town.
Later, upon reflection, we felt as though the citizens of this remote community had been cheated of a once in a lifetime experience by government officials. Excitement had been building for weeks, but in the end tens of thousands of enthusiastic Chinese (and a few American tourists) were denied the opportunity to view the actual Torch Relay. The police lines that were set up for miles along the main thoroughfare were nothing more than an elaborate decoy that inconvenienced and disappointed all these people. This pretense was all done in the interest of security as officials were concerned about a possible demonstration by Tibetan sympathizers that would interrupt the relay.
In a matter of a few hours, the three of us felt as though we had run a marathon – totally exhausted, yet exhilarated by the experience.
As the slogan on each of the Olympic vehicles reads “Light the passion, share the dream”,
Tamara, Garry and Rich
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