China Games Blog

Signing Off

2008-08-25T10:51:00.000+08:00

Dear Readers,

The KTSF Olympics Team (Kwokshu, Mei-ling, Jo, Jie, Dave, Vernon, Lia, and Ryan) want to thank you for tuning into our blog over the past several weeks. It's been an amazingly fun experience bringing you updates and reportage from Beijing. From pandas to protests, this extraordinary Olympic Games certainly gave us lots of material.

And thanks for sticking with Huan Shu, our KTSF mascot mouse. She arrived in Beijing without a name and quickly became a hit with the lao bai xing (ordinary people) of Beijing. She's been photographed all over town!

As we head back to the Bay Area, we wish you a fantastic end of summer!

Best from Beijing,
Ryan Kellett for KTSF 26

Kwokshu Poll 3: Self Heating Meal Answer

2008-08-24T13:54:00.001+08:00

Kwokshu asked in his third and final poll: how did a self-heating meal at the Bird's Nest cost?

Answer: 20RMB

Day 21: Special Interviews

2008-08-23T00:03:00.001+08:00

The Interviewers
Originally uploaded by KTSF at the Olympics

Tonight, we had the special treat of the USA Ping Pong team visiting us this evening. We put together a special forum for the four athletes: Gao Jun, Wang Chen, David Zhuang, and Crystal Huang.

Check out our photos and watch the segment on the next KTSF broadcast!

Kwokshu Poll 3: Self Heating Meal

2008-08-22T10:36:00.004+08:00

Kwokshu recently took a day off and went to the Bird's Nest stadium to take in some track and field. Along the way, his stomach started growling so he stopped in to one of Coke's concession stands to pick up a bite to eat. Kwokshu was unimpressed by all options except one: the self heating meal. Below is the five steps of the self-heating meal:

Step One: Remove Packaging

Step Two: Set Up Chemical Packet

Step Three: Replace Food Platter

Step Four: Close lid, Look for String

Step Five: Pull String and Wait for 8 Mins

Step Six: Enjoy Steaming Hot Food

Quick fact: Soldiers in Afghanistan enjoy the same type of meal with the same self-heating technology.

And now the poll question: how much did this high tech dinner cost? Hint: a bottle of 20 oz. Coke costs 5RMB at the Coke concession stands in Beijing.

Answer to Kwokshu Poll 2

2008-08-22T09:49:00.002+08:00

A few days ago, we asked readers to answer the second edition of the Kwokshu poll: What is the approximate value of the pin? And why? What type of pins would fetch a higher value?

Answer: The approximate value of the pin is $50USD. Pins such as these which are issued by a National Olympic Committee (in this case, Madagascar) are particularly valuable, but media pins (NBC, CCTV, etc.) are more valuable. The folks we talked to were outside the Olympic Village trying to get a few National Olympic Committee pins from various atheletes.

Check out the Wall Street Journal video on pin trading.

Day 19: All About TV

2008-08-20T18:12:00.000+08:00

TV Commercial Director
Originally uploaded by KTSF at the Olympics

Kwokshu talks to television commercial director about Olympic commercials in China. We saw some of his latest works which include car and beer commercials. He also gave us a sampling of his musical stylings on the piano and guitar as well.

Day 18: Gorgeous Protest Parks

2008-08-19T11:55:00.000+08:00

Ritan Park
Originally uploaded by KTSF at the Olympics

We paid a visit to two of the three protests sites in Beijing. Placed in beautiful parks, we found no signs of protesters! So instead, we took some footage for our music montages. Check out Dave hard at work.

Day 17: Silk Market

2008-08-18T19:06:00.002+08:00

Silk Seller
Originally uploaded by KTSF at the Olympics

Jie Chen went to the Silk Market to pick up reactions to rising prices in Beijing and China. On the way, we paused to pick up a reaction story to Liu Xiang's attempt to defend his hurdling title. We gathered by a TV with lots of onlookers only to be disappointed when Liu Xiang left the stadium. The onlookers quickly dispersed with few words of comment. Many of the photos from today are from the dozens of people interviewed at the Silk Market.

Jo is doing a story on the Beijing Olympic legacy and Dave is once again editing a "MTV" piece of traditional music.

Today is (possibly) Vernon's last day in Beijing (depending on flight statuses). While we certainly miss him as we enter our final week of Olympics coverage, we wish him a safe flight home.

Ryan Kellett

Rumor Has It, You Can See it from Space!

2008-08-18T10:53:00.001+08:00

Chillin-on-the-Wall-3
Originally uploaded by KTSF at the Olympics

So Huan Shu and the team had the day off yesterday. Check out their photos from Simatai, Great Wall!

KTSF Athlete Results: Day Six/Seven/Eight

2008-08-17T13:18:00.003+08:00

KTSF is profiling twelve top U.S. athletes for the Olympic Games! Keep track of their progress right here on the China Games Blog.

The results from Aug. 14th through 16th:

Table Tennis: Chen Wang and Crystal Huang advanced the U.S. Team with wins against Nigeria and a play-off win against Romania. She ultimately lost in the second play-off against Korea.
Shooting: Sandra Fong placed 21st in her Women's 50m Rifle 3 Pos. Qualification
Wrestling: Clarissa Chun won twice in the Women's FR 48 kg but lost Icho Chiharo of Japan in the semifinals. In the bronze medal game, Clarissa lost again and placed fourth overall.

Stay tuned for Synchronised Swimming. We will be following Annabelle Orme and her team.

The Kwokshu Poll, Round Two

2008-08-16T15:56:00.003+08:00

The Kwokshu poll of the day:

This picture is from a pin trader outside the Olympic Village. What is the approximate value of the pin? And why? What type of pins would fetch a higher value?

Post your responses to the comments. We will give you the answer in two days!

Day 14: To the Olympic Village and Beyond!

2008-08-15T21:39:00.000+08:00

Chatting with Traders
Originally uploaded by KTSF at the Olympics

Beijing's bright blue skies made for a sunny day.

Kwokshu took a day off from wearing one of his four KTSF shirts and went to the Olympic Village to interview a Hong Kong swimmer. He also picked up a separate story while he was there: pin trading. There were several pin traders waiting outside the village in hopes of trading an athlete for a particular country's pin.

Jo and Dave did a story on the Taiwan-China baseball match which lasted a little too long.

Jie went out in the afternoon to his favorite local ping-pong practice space. He interviewed teachers while managing to squeeze in a few rallies himself. Our readers should be jazzed to know that Jie was almost put on the ping-pong training track as a kid. He can certainly still hold his own in table tennis.

Jie's evening story was the USA-China Women's Volleyball match in which China lost to the USA. Jie filmed the reaction story of audiences after the game.

Ryan Kellett

Kwokshu Poll: Expensive Knife Answer

2008-08-15T10:54:00.005+08:00

Three days ago, we posted the Kwokshu Poll:

What does "Malaysia fried expensive knife" actually translate to? For our English speakers: describe the dish. For our Chinese speakers: what is the Chinese?

The answer: 马来西亚炒贵刁 which looks like this... For our English readers, this is a fried noodle dish with sliced meat.

Day 13: Interviewing Interviewers

2008-08-14T17:19:00.001+08:00

Yesterday, ITV News China Correspondent John Ray was "roughed up" and arrested while covering a Free Tibet protest. Today, Mei-ling is doing a reaction story from the journalist's point of view. This afternoon Mei-ling and team went to meet with Associated Press reporters who were unfortunately unable to go on camera. But we did shoot interviews with two fantastic Polish reporters. This evening, Mei-ling arranged a telephone interview with John Ray himself via Skype.

Jo and Dave had the day off. But a trip to the summer palace turned into a story opportunity when a sudden thunderstorm took tourists by surprise. Jo has some fantastic footage that looks as if she is being blown over by a hurricane while interviewing tourists.

Kwokshu continues to follow our KTSF profiled athletes while heading up the producer-duties. He plans out our "lead" shoots every night at the Beijing International Media Center (BiMC).

And in sad news, today was Lia K.'s final day at KTSF in Beijing. She will be returning state-side tomorrow! We wish her a safe flight and thank her for her fantastic help (especially with the photography of superstar Huan Shu, our KTSF mascot mouse).

KTSF Athlete Results: Day Five

2008-08-14T11:06:00.002+08:00

KTSF is profiling twelve top U.S. athletes for the Olympic Games! Keep track of their progress right here on the China Games Blog.

The results from Day One, Aug. 13th:

Badminton: Howard Bach and his teammate Bob Malaythong lost to the strong Chinese Team in Men's Doubles Quarterfinals.
Table Tennis: The women's team lost to Singapore but won in the subsequent game against the Netherlands.
Fencing: Gerek Meinhardt lost his match to China.

Matches to watch tomorrow:

Shooting: Women's 50m Rifle 3 Pos. Qualification for Sandra Fong

Kwokshu Poll: Expensive Knife

2008-08-13T17:17:00.001+08:00

malaysisaknife
Originally uploaded by KTSF at the Olympics

The Kwokshu poll of the day:

This picture is from a menu at a Beijing restaurant. What does "Malaysia fried expensive knife" actually translate to? For our English speakers: describe the dish. For our Chinese speakers: what is the Chinese?

Post your responses to the comments. We will give you the answer in two days!

KTSF Athlete Results: Day Four

2008-08-13T15:40:00.000+08:00

KTSF is profiling twelve top U.S. athletes for the Olympic Games! Keep track of their progress right here on the China Games Blog.

The results from Day One, Aug. 12th:

Badminton: Howard Bach and his teammate Bob Malaythong won against the South African Team in Men's Doubles.
Gymnastics: Kevin Tan and the Gymnastics team took home a bronze medal in the Team Finals. The gold medal went to China.

Matches to watch tomorrow:

Badminton: Men's Doubles Quarterfinal 4
BACH Howard / MALAYTHONG Bob vs
CAI Yun / FU Haifeng
Table Tennis: Women's Team Group B
SINGAPORE (Singapore) vs UNITED STATES (United States)
Fencing: Men's Individual Foil Round of 32 (MEINHARDT Gerek)

Day 11: A Beautiful Day for Sport

2008-08-12T22:37:00.000+08:00

Milk and Tea
Originally uploaded by KTSF at the Olympics

Vernon and Lia went to watch Olympic Handball at the National Indoor Stadium just opposite of the Bird's Nest. They had a fantastic time watching Spain beat Poland by one.

But back to work! Jo and Dave went out to the very beautiful Houhai district of Beijing to interview Olympic volunteers. The busy area sees lots of lost tourists and bar-hoppers. Afterward, they walked to the historic Gulou district to catch some more footage.

Jie did a story on Chinese athletes competing for teams abroad. With the increase in foreign coaches of Chinese teams, many Chinese are now less critical of Chinese athletes competing against China in the Olympics.

Kwokshu continues to cover our profiled athletes. He watches more Olympic TV than the rest of the crew combined. He made us watch the last quarter of the China-Spain Basketball game before shooting our "leads" out in front of the BiMC. Yes, we delayed shooting to watch the overtime period.

Ryan Kellett

KTSF Athlete Results: Day Three

2008-08-12T14:34:00.000+08:00

KTSF is profiling twelve top U.S. athletes for the Olympic Games! Keep track of their progress right here on the China Games Blog.

The results from Day One, Aug. 11th:

Badminton: Raju Rai lost 2-0 to Finland's Ville Lang

Matches to watch tomorrow:

Badminton: Howard Bach will appear in the Men's Double Quarterfinal at 1PM.
Gymnastics: Kevin Tan will appear in the Gymnastics Team Finals at 10AM.

最長的一夜ddddddddd.....

2008-08-12T14:10:00.003+08:00

Jo at Security Entrance
Originally uploaded by KTSF at the Olympics

An retrospective account from our epic opening ceremonies night:

8月8日終於來臨了,雖然我們都知道今晚可能無法睡覺了,但是上午該做的事還是得做,美玲下午抵達北京,要立刻去新聞中心拿記者證,國書去崇文區的婚姻登記所拍新人結婚,陳捷去婦幼醫院拍奧運寶寶,我去磐古大樓為明天的衛星直播做準備,沿路上看到已經有許多民眾陸陸續續前往鳥巢,準備要找到一個絕佳位置,晚上看大螢屏,看煙火許多人手上拿著五星旗,臉上貼著五星旗的貼紙,那時候距離奧運開幕還有十小時.

分配晚上採訪路線結果如下,陳捷去三里屯酒吧一條街,因為晚上有許多無法親臨現場的民眾,都打算跟三五好友一起看開幕式,國書去朝陽公園看看是否有大螢屏讓民眾一塊共襄盛舉,而我和Dave Baker則是要負責採訪鳥巢周圍的保安狀況,原本以為有機會在鳥巢附近和群眾一起觀看大螢屏,沒想到到了鳥巢發現人群都不見了,原來為了控制人潮,公安將鳥巢的保安範圍擴大,民眾被趕到兩座橋以外的地方,沒想到到了八點,人群佔據了馬路導致車輛動彈不得原本空蕩蕩的北臣橋突然聚集了熱情的群眾,大家手拿國旗大喊中國加油,熱烈的氣氛和鳥巢內放出的煙火相呼應,這才是所謂的奧運氛圍嘛,可惜的是這樣的氣氛只是短暫的,不到一個小時所有的人都被驅散了,看不到時況轉播,也看不到煙火,我原本期待鳥巢像紐約時代廣場數十萬遊客倒數計時的狂歡鏡頭,最後卻落到只是像一個提早打烊的商店,
相當令人失望,不過這也罷了,為了要採訪鳥巢的保安,加上突發的群眾事件,我和攝影記者Dave麵包先生走了將近八小時的路,拖著疲累又濕又臭的身子走回到飯店,總算還看到體操王子李寧點聖火的高潮.

此時已經是接近深夜,記者都陸續回到飯店,但是我們還無法上床睡覺,因為還要挑燈夜戰把新聞剪出來,接近凌晨四點,陳捷已經進入恍神的狀態,電腦上出現的不是中文稿子,而是一連串的dddddddd,原來老爺子他坐著睡著了,手指卻還在鍵盤上,而我過了睏睡的階段居然越剪越興奮,一直到早上七點才把兩個故事完成,不過還是不能睡覺,因為九點開始要準備去衛星中心測試,觀眾看到可能是四隻大熊貓來自北京的報導,到做完現場連線為止,我已經超過三十小時沒嗑眼,誰說這不是最長的一夜嗎?

萬若全

為誰喝采？

2008-08-12T11:01:00.023+08:00

與KTSF的舊同事主控室操作員Anna看射箭。問她為甚麼手中沒有小紅旗呢？她答"不能想像我們會搖旗大聲喊叫…"

比賽開始，中國頂尖的三名神箭手，舉起強弓瞄准二百三十呎外手掌大的靶子，試圖射破六展金牌得主南韓的美夢，此時，矜持的Anna小姐失儀了，手掌拍破，喝采尖叫，穿越球場。最弱的中國小伙子出場時，Anna小姐越趨落力了。最後，中國隊連發三箭中的、擊敗烏克蘭奪銅。這一剎那，Anna 的"中國，加油"發揮作用了…

做記者多年，已不懂得如何摘下這角色。每到一處，腦子裡的觀察員總是不安份，每事都仔細察看，連自已也不放過。意大利與南韓，兩強奪金，我在為誰暍采呢？

意大利隊上場時，心中閃過的是意大利好友萬華拉。南韓隊上陣了，浮現的是南韓舊友朴素金。借名劇"碧玉簪"兩句，手掌是肉、手背也是肉，嗨！難。

南韓艱難地贏了意大利。等待頒獎儀式時，全球的眼睛盯著選手室的門廊，金牌得主卻從南韓迷觀眾席最後一排步出，一行一行的謝禮…我的心震蕩了。

斯美玲

Day 10: Sports Galore

2008-08-11T18:16:00.002+08:00

Huan Shu and China Fans
Originally uploaded by KTSF at the Olympics

We're still recovering from our epic Opening Ceremonies night but last night's USA-China game put us in the mood for some athletics coverage. Jie Chen continued his story pursuit today with a visit to the largest sports school in Beijing where we saw students of Wushu (marshal arts) and Badminton go at it. But we were told that a majority of students were actually watching an Olympic boxing match because one of the school's students was set to compete that afternoon. Still, it was a fascinating look into China's training of kids for the Olympic Games.

Jo and Vernon spent the day over at Financial Street where they interviewed business owners, while Kwokshu spent much of the day catching up on China athletes.

We're currently over at the Beijing International Media Center editing some stories for next week.

Ryan Kellett

KTSF Athlete Results: Day Two

2008-08-11T10:17:00.002+08:00

KTSF is profiling eleven top U.S. athletes for the Olympic Games! Keep track of their progress right here on the China Games Blog.

The results from Day One, Aug. 10th:

Badminton: Eva Lee (USA) and her partner Mesinee Mangkalakiri lost in Women's Doubles to Jiang Yanmei and Li Yujia (Singapore), 2-0.

Matches to watch tomorrow:

11:55AM: Badminton Men's Singles Round of 32
LANG Ville vs
RAI Raju

Day 9: Sightseeing!

2008-08-11T08:30:00.000+08:00

The team explored southern Beijing. In addition to shooting B-roll, we caught a few local impromptu performances at the Temple of Heaven. We sang along with a man who played Jingle Bells on the accordion and watched as several seniors participated in a game of hacky sack.

We returned in time to catch the Men's Basketball game: China vs. the Dream Team! Jie went out to report on the game. The teams were neck and neck at the start but the U.S. gained its major lead in the third quarter. Final score: China-70, U.S.-101. Still, “The game was a treasure,” Yao Ming said, “and it will be a treasure for the rest of my life.”

Lia Kato

KTSF Athlete Results: Day One

2008-08-10T10:43:00.003+08:00

KTSF is profiling eleven top U.S. athletes for the Olympic Games! Keep track of their progress right here on the China Games Blog.

The results from Day One, Aug. 9th:

Badminton: Eva Lee (USA) lost to Anna Rice (CAN), 2-1, in Women's Singles
Gymnastics: Kevin Tan and the Men's Team have qualified to compete in later rounds