Tag Archives: china 2011

Gary Pickney, one of the key organizer of the both trips to China for the Mad-City Ski Team, put together this highlight video of their trip. It features some photos you may have seen before if you’ve read all of the previous posts about this trip, but it also has a lot of video of the skiing over there and a lot of new photos too.

And for those who saw the video of the first trip to China last fall, this one also has a shot of airplanes being much closer than anticipated.

The Air Show Up Close

We spent a good 12 hours bopping about Beijing today. First stop was the Great Wall. It was an exhausting climb but worth every bead of sweat. Absolutely amazing! From there we went tot he jade factory for a lightening fast tour, a delicious lunch, and some shopping. Our next stop was the stadiums from the 2008 Olympic games held in Beijing. We walked through the Bird’s Nest – home of the opening and closing ceremonies and track and field events – and then the Water Cube, which hosted the swimming events. After dinner at a Chinese buffet we went to a show at the Red Theatre. “The Legend of Kung Fu” was flat out impressive. We all left in awe.

Tomorrow we shop! We got some practice at our haggling skills today but tomorrow will be the real deal at the Pearl Market. We’ll go to the airport straight from there. We’re scheduled to fly out of Beijing around 4pm and land in Chicago around 4pm… too bad it will take a 13 hour flight to do that!

Climbing up the Great Wall of China near Beijing

Everybody at the Top

Hanging Out

Going Down

Touring a Jade Factory

At the Bird's Nest

Inside the Nest

The Water Cube

The Diving Platforms

The Red Theatre

Saying Goodbye to Laiwu

6:28 pm 5/4/11 CDT (7:28am 5/5/11 in China) – The internet in our room does not work, so thanks to the Jahn’s for letting me visit bright (smoggy) and early this morning!

We’ve made it back to Beijing. Yesterday we toured the “Grand Canyon” of Laiwu. It was gorgeous! A great warmup for our adventure today – the Great Wall. We had an authentic Chinese lunch and then our long bus ride back to Beijing. We had dinner at Pizza Hut last night!

Today will be very busy – Great Wall, Jade factory, Olympic stadiums, dinner and a martial arts show. Hopefully will be able to update on all that later!

Kristen Prayed

Dragons Played

The Team Marches in the Opening Ceremony

7:36am CDT (10:36pm China Time) – This afternoon’s competition was kicked off with an opening ceremony with local officials. What we thought were fireworks were actually confetti canons. The crowd here is much more substantial than in Beijing and at this moment, we’re being featured on the local news, so there is potential for even larger crowds tomorrow, when we ski in the morning and afternoon. The skiing this afternoon went well and we’re currently ahead by 2 whole points. If we ski clean, there’s a chance we could hold on to that lead!

Mad-City's Team USA in Laiwu

Gary with the Officials

The Crowd and Confetti

Mad-City's 4-Tier in front of the Mountains

Sky Skiing in front of the Mountains

The Ballet Line and the Press

The Ballet Line on the Water

Helis in front of the Mountains

Flip Heli Flip

Ann Swiveling

Kristen on the Water

The Air Show Up Close

Planes on the Water

Ann, Arik, Russ & Dan with a Guard

Ann with some Fans

Ballet in front of the Mountains

12:18am CDT (1:18pm in China) – This morning we woke up to our very scenic surroundings and breakfast that actually included beverages – hooray for Laiwu! The site here is amazing. The lake is right next to an airfield that has an enormous amphitheater-like seating area. The seating for our competition is very long rows of chairs. There are already more people here than there were in Beijing, and this morning was only practice. The press is also out at this location. Practice was brief, but went well. We’re heading back to the site for competition this afternoon. The Chinese poured some sort of alcohol on their skis, boats, the dock and jump this morning, so maybe that signifies that this is truly a competition this time!

The Hotel in Laiwu

For those of you that transport boats for Mad-City, check out how they haul them around here in the photo below! They use a crane to get the boats on and off the trailers.

Boat Trailers... on Something Like a Flatbed Truck

Ceremony with Alcohol?

Kristen is Interviewed by the Chinese Press

The Danielle & Mallory Being Interviewed by the Chinese Press

Fireworks & Chairs

Both Teams Pose Together for a Photo

At our final competition this morning we had a three fall show and came up only 11 points short of topping the Chinese. Jayson Rishling’s skills won him best male skier. The team’s hitting a good stride and has high hopes for the competition in Laiwu.

This afternoon was exhibition skiing and we did acts side by side with the Chinese. It was another great way to build our relationship with them.

As I draft this, we’re on a 6 hour bus ride to Laiwu. We were each given a gourmet dinner to enjoy on the ride: a Spam-like substance in a tube, an entire loaf of bread, warm yogurt, and a pouch of “preserved vegetables.” Yes, we’re all hungry.

The bus ride was… an adventure… and we’re all quite tired. From what we could see in the very dark surroundings and from the pictures in the brochures in our room, this could be another spectacular site.

Sarah and Olivia Enjoying Breakfast

Mad-City's Team USA

Backfooters and Jumper (far left in the background)

The Rope Wrapping Controversy

4-High Pyramid

Ballet

Heli Flip Heli

The Spectators

2 Gainers

Fast Pyramid

Jayson Rishling Wins Best Male Skier

Team USA Wins 2nd Place

Two 4-Highs

Sky Ski in the Stadium

Two Swivelers

Swivel Intro

The China Team and Mad-City's Team USA Perform Two 3-Highs Side-by-Side Behind the Same Boat

Dano inspects his Dinner

9:34 CDT – Today Mad-City performed twice at the Shunyi Olympic Stadium. These shows were only performances, not competition, even though we’ve been very clearly informed of the points difference so far!

The morning began with opening ceremonies at the stadium. Fireworks and the canons mentioned in the last post kicked the day off. The crowd was minimal but the skiing was strong. We had several acts go without falls and were feeling pretty good going into the final act of the morning. Dan called “pyramid!’ and suddenly, with no build up whatsoever, Shunyi Stadium turned into Law Park. We closed the morning with two unsuccessful pyramid attempts and broke for lunch.

The wind gusts were present for the whole of the afternoon. Feeling at home, Mad-City had a pretty nice little afternoon! We hit the water with a 4-tier pyramid, jumps, ballet, trios, toe line, and a modified fast pyramid. It was a no-fall day for jump, ballet, toe line, trios,and the fast pyramid. Mad-City is currently about 24 points (out of about a 1,000) behind the Chinese.

Tonight we had a banquet with the Chinese team where we got to dress up and “gambay”(?) the night away with our competition. It was great to finally intermingle with the Chinese a bit and get to know them as best we can with the language barriers.

We’ll ski again tomorrow morning, for the last time, at Shunyi. Tomorrow afternoon we’ll travel by bus to another “small town” (roughly 2 million people) about 5 hours away. We have to go by bus because a town that “small” does not have a train station or airport.

Our translator, Peter, has not been to our next city before, so we don’t know what to expect in the coming days. Hopefully we’ll have more updates for you soon!

Here are some pictures from today’s activities.

The Girls at the Ski Site

The Guys at the Ski Site

The Cannons

The Fireworks Set to Go Off

The Opening Ceremony

The Chinese Team's Pyramid

Riding the Sky Ski

Chinese Quad Doubles

The Ballet Line

The Chinese Barefoot Pyramid

The Jumpers with the Stadium in the Background

Heli Flip Heli

Flip Heli Flip

Chinese Staggered Ballet Line

Gainer

Chinese Jumpers

Kristen Swiveling

Ann Swiveling

The Chinese Doubles Intro

Both Teams' Final Intro

Human Clothes Line

Team Cheer

Mad-City's 4-High

Peter and The Girls

A Lil Wonder Lake in You

Double Gainers

Ballet Line

Trios

Fast Pyramid Hitting the Ramp

Final Intro

The Full Team at the Stadium - Dan Wang, Karli Pickney, Bob Panter, Mallory Zink, Danielle Zink, Russ Tieman, Ann Tieman Kristen Block, Brad Meier, Jacci Meier, Arik Lebda, Sarah Jahn, Gary Pickney, Megan Rishling, Paul Bauers, Olivia Jahn, Jayson Rishling

9:36am CDT – Picture Mad-City’s ski site at Law Park. Now imagine the exact opposite of that and you have the site we are skiing at in Beijing. The Olympic venue features glass calm water and we got a lot of skiing in today.

All the acts are looking good for tomorrow’s competition. Pyramids were a lot easier without the midwestern weather we practiced in recently! Jumpers, swivelers, and ballet all got several runs in.

The afternoon got progressively colder and more hazy and we were all ready to return to the hotel and get warm. Once there, a comical and unsuccessful attempt at refreshing sore muscles in a hot tub ensued.

We’re looking forward to seeing how full the venue gets tomorrow, as it has been pretty quiet so far. We expect that change as a trailer carrying canons arrived this afternoon! Stay tuned!

Picture of an Aerial Map of the Ski Site

Arriving at the Site and Checking out the Docks

Glass Water

Security at the Stadium

Ballet on the Water

Ann Really Celebrates the Successful Ballet Landing

Ann Swiveling

A Chinese Couple Performing Doubles

Air Chair

Chinese Doubles Quad

Tandem Pyramid Building

Fast Pyramid Approaching the Ramp

Fast Pyramid Goes by the Ramp

Swivel Toe Line

Mallory Keeps Her Toes Warm with the Wetsuit

Ballet on the Water

Ballet Dance Practice

Bob's Rough Landing

Chinese Staggered Ballet

Chinese Wakerboarder Jumps Over Another Wakeboarder

Cannons are brought into the Stadium

Russ is Done!

Next Up: The First Day of Competition