I arrived back into Beijing late on Saturday night, and less than 12 hours later I found myself standing along the newly built Canal Road (not it’s real name, but who cares?) near my house watching thousands of Beijing Marathon runners go by. A colleague who lives in the same neighborhood had tipped me off so we decided to go out and yell “jiayou” to 10 other colleagues who were running. It was a glorious morning for a marathon: sunshine and mid-60’s.
Runners heading north towards the Summer Palace
This old man wasn’t content to run. He had to keep the hoop going as well!!!
An interesting cultural phenomenon here is running with flags.