Since August seems to be quite athletic with the Olympic games of London 2012, I will write a post about sports too to fit in the atmosphere! I won't talk about the Olympics games and the great results of Chinese athletes but I'm going to deal with football (or soccer). I have already noticed that Chinese people were real fans of this sport. Indeed I first noticed it while the competition for Euro 2012 started; this is a European competition, and I thought that only European football supporters care about it, how surprised I was to see that all the matches were broadcasted on Chinese national television, and all bars, restaurants and clubs turned into real football matches headquarters. If you don't believe me, travel to China and go for a Beijing tour while a football event is taking place anywhere in the world and you'll see how it looks like by your own. As everyone knows that Chinese national discipline is table tennis, badminton and gymnastics, football is very popular, all kind of competition are broadcasted on television the whole year, and they watch almost all the matches even if any Chinese team participate.
Well, it's been already 6 moths that I've been living in Beijing and I finally got the opportunity to live a real typical "Beijing moment" this past weekend. I have never planned to go and see a football match this weekend but it just happened, seem that I was at this place at the right place and at the right time. First, a friend of mine and I wanted to go to the French library to buy some books and read them during our next long hours of travel by train next week at Sanlitun, near the Worker's Stadium. When we went out from the subway, we directly went to a famous chain of fast food restaurants to get something to eat. Once arrived we discovered that the restaurant was full of Chinese people wearing a green t-shirt; when I say full it means that 75% of the people in the restaurant were wearing green t-shirt. After lunch, all the way to the library we noticed that Chinese people wearing green t-shirts were everywhere and we finally understood that it was all supporters for the Beijing Guo An team. Street vendors all around the stadium start setting up shop 3-4 hours before the match and they sell all kinds of Guoan merchandise, from the ubiquitous vuvuzelas and other noise makers to jerseys, t-shirts, and scarves and everything in between (buttons, stickers, umbrellas, etc). You can try negotiating with the vendors but prices won't go down too much. There were not only street vendors but "yellow cows" (s! calpers) were of course all around the stadium. We didn't knew what was the price of a regular ticket, but when we heard that the ticket was at 100RMB and because of this particular atmosphere where you feel yourself be part of something important, we decided to buy 2 tickets and a t-shirt, and live our first experience in the Worker's Stadium as Beijing's supporters. So, we were extremely impatient and excited to attend to Beijing Guo An vs. Dalian Shide; I must confess that I didn't know against which team Beijing Guo An would play and I didn't care.
We entered in the stadium 30minutes before the beginning of the match, but we could already hear all the vuvuzelas, it reminded me the world cup in South Africa. The first highlight of this match was the entrance of the players before the kickoff shot; all the supporters were singing holding their scarves. And since then, the supporters kept singing, cheering, shouting, acclaiming and insulting until the end of the match. Yes, I think that going on a stadium for a football match is the best place to learn insults and slang words by hearing Chinese people yelling against the referee.
Beijing Guo An won 1-0, but the match wasn't that good. Sure, I wasn't expected a European match but the greatest thing about my experience wasn't the results, so I didn't care, I just barely know the team. I heard after that Beijing Guo An's supporters were the most vigorous and active of China, and right now I can confirm that it's true, I felt like being in a stadium in Europe. This was a great experience of my China tour, and now I'm already looking for the schedules and lyrics to attend to the next matches at the Worker's Stadium!
Related posts:
- Team Spirit: Football in Beijing
- The Bird's Nest National Stadium Travel Tips
- Beijing plays host to Milan
- Cheer on Beijing Guoan FC
- The Nest Stadium.
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