I got to see the Olympic stadiums finally. I took the new Olympic subway line to the last stop, which was near a park. This new park is the largest in Beijing and it looked like I needed all day to walk around it, so I just walked in a small area.
I walked south across a couple roads and then noticed some stairs going down into the ground. They were not connected to any sidewalk, so it made me more interested so I took a look. I expected to go down to a locked door. Instead through an open door at the bottom I saw a tunnel which held a three lane road and no traffic to be seen. A little unusual since I checked Google Maps and it doesn’t show up on there. It made me wonder if this could be connected to some secret government and military network of roads. The stairs I wandered down was an emergency exit and I heard alarms sounding inside the tunnel which goes east-west beneath the Olympic park.
I found out what happens when you don’t pay for your electricity in Beijing: it gets turned off. Right away. All electricity here is purchased with pre-paid cards which plug into your electric meter. The same goes for mobile phones, everyone I know uses pre-paid cards. Not everyone has a credit card too. It is interesting to see how all of this forces people to save more money here compared to the US where borrowing is normal for everything.