Soccer in China

I had no idea that the city I live in has a professional soccer team until a friend recently asked if I wanted to go. I said sure mostly because I think it is good to do anything once. Personally, I have never really liked live sports that much (not even BYU football. I know. For shame). I prefer watching on TV (for too many obvious reasons I won't even bother listing them). Anyhow. I went to my first pro soccer game! Yay! (Let me try that again...) <sarcasm>Yay!</sarcasm>

I rode my bike there to avoid traffic (and because riding a bike is awesome). Once at the stadium, I realized my mistake. It was a crowded sporting event. Crowded in China is basically beyond crowded. At the ticket counter, I waited for my friends to arrive. It was crazy! Just getting into the game was pandemonium  They would not let you bring anything in, so I saw people arguing about horns that they bought on the street just minutes prior. I saw other people trying to chug down their remaining drink before they went into the stadium. They closed all the gates but one, so people getting in was like cattle going through the cattle gates.

Eventually we got in and went to our seats. The tickets were 30 元 for one of the common tickets (about $5). I stood up the whole game because everyone in front of me was standing and because our seats were pretty nasty. The more expensive seats on the section next to us were completely empty. I don't think they have figured out a good pricing system yet. Most people were crowded together, with huge empty sections of the stadium.

Within the first three minutes of arriving, our team scored a goal. That was about the only exciting thing we saw. I would have to say watching soccer is akin to watching a meteor shower. You wait and wait for something to happen, and when it does, it is really cool. The problem is that it does not happen very often. One big difference though is that when you watch a meteor shower, you usually enjoy the company and atmosphere. You are not usually crowded out buy a bunch of men screaming and smoking cigarettes. Plus, meteor showers are free. I guess in China the sky is too polluted to see stars most days, so you might as well go see a soccer game.

We were team red. Jian Ye I believe. I like the pictures of the generals in the background. In the top right corner, you can see to the left the crowded section, and to the right the more expensive section.

On the bike ride over I saw the Bole man. Yay for bananas!

This is my favorite hatr care organtzaion.