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Five Pine Trees After the opening of the new No. 5 subway line in Beijing, the city decided to lower ticket prices in an effort to get some cars off the roads. The new price is 2RMB (about 30 cents) no matter how far you ride any of the subway lines...

Baseball in China, Part 2: Dodgers, Padres Settle Into Beijing

by Jeff Swiryn (Scribe)

6

1,939 reads

Sports

March 14, 2008


Five Pine Trees

After the opening of the new No. 5 subway line in Beijing, the city decided to lower ticket prices in an effort to get some cars off the roads. The new price is 2RMB (about 30 cents) no matter how far you ride any of the subway lines.

The result: Same amount of cars on the road—and a subway system that couldn't get any more saturated with cheap commuters.  But it also has instructional videos of baseball rules.

Wukesong Stadium—Wukesong means “Five Pine Trees” in English—is on line No. 1. Coming from the east side of Beijing, I rode past Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City, and through the crowds to Wukesong station. 

The Olympic baseball venue isn't hard to spot. It's actually three ballparks—two competition fields and a practice field. The giant “MLB Series 2008” banners hanging from the outside of the main stadium make it stick out quite obviously.

Sadly, all three temporary stadiums will be torn down after the Olympics. 

In front of the stadium, the setting is not unlike that at any typical Chinese sporting complex. A group of elderly women dances with drums, another group practices Tai Qi, and a couple of old men are sitting with their caged birds.

When asked if they know what this weekends' events are all about, the old men say confidently, “bangqiu”, the Chinese word for baseball, and then continue discussing their birds.

 

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6 comments Last one added about 1 year ago — Leave a Comment

  1. Andrew Kneeland about 1 year ago

    Bud Selig has some work to do if the Chinese won't go watch a baseball game for 30 cents.

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  2. Mike Eagan about 1 year ago

    Hey are you the same Jeff "Swerwen" I heard on sports talk radio with Lee "Hacksaw" Hamilton yesterday?

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  3. John Fennelly about 1 year ago

    How can the outfielders pick up the ball in the 'vanilla sky'....?

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  4. John Fennelly about 1 year ago

    With all the Chinese here in downtown Flushing

    its understandable why there are no baseball fans left in China

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  5. Ariel Cluster about 1 year ago

    What's going to happen to Wukesong stadium after the Olympics? I've heard that they're going to tear it down to build an NBA-CBA promotional mall for the basketball arena. Jeff, do you know anything about this?

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