I was worn out after yesterday, and slept soundly. Had a leisurely breakfast before heading over to the Championships. Saw some really good play. It’s fun to watch the crowd as one of the popular Chinese players comes by. I’ve seen a lot of the Chinese players on Chinese sports TV. Badminton and table tennis get a lot of airplay, along with soccer, NBA, and the occasional PBR (yep, bull riding). There’s also lots of billiards broadcast here?

I don’t know any of the foreign players except Timo Boll. He’s German, and as a former world #1 player, he draws interest. I didn’t see any sign of the American players. They had all been knocked out in the qualifiers or early rounds. The last ones were out of the brackets by Tuesday noon. I did get a chance to watch all of the top Chinese male and female stars play. Today’s rounds are more formal. I watched two rounds of women’s singles, one round of mixed doubles, and one round of men’s singles, eight tables per round. The players all come in together with spotlights and introductions. Yesterday, as a table finished, new players were immediately brought in without any formal announcements.

I left around 1:45, returning to the hotel to pick up my backpack (packed light this trip) and eat lunch. I took the subway back out to the train station, arriving 45 minutes before departure. They opened the gates 15 minutes before the train is scheduled to depart and we took an escalator up to the platform. Just as I came up, I saw a train light way off in the distance. Before I could open my camera on my phone, the train blew by. It’s frightening how fast and quiet they are, until they’re right on top of you.

On my way to the subway, headed home. This large “circle” has a sign that says “Square Dancing”.

In the subway station near the Expo Center

The ride back to Beijing was 5 hours, 15 minutes. The path to the subway from the train was really short. I was on the Beijing Metro headed home in less than 10 minutes from the time our Suzhou train stopped. I’ve been double-checking the Metro app, making sure the trains to won’t stop running before I arrive at Taiyanggong. The subway begins to shutdown at different stations at 10:45.

I made it to Taiyanggong Station, and walked to the apartment, arriving at 11:00. I unpacked and repacked, double-checking clothes selection, and especially paperwork. Without the correct paperwork and permits, there’ll be no Tibet trip.