BEIJING — I visited the Lama Temple, the largest Tibetan Buddhism temple in Beijing, in the northeast quadrant of the city to get a sense of how this authoritarian society deals with its political issues with Tibet. I found a quiet oasis and opportunities to pay respect to another religion, but no real answers while I was there on Thursday.

Yonghegong Lamasery is a temple of the Yellow Hat Sect of Tibetan Lamaism, the same sect that the Dalai Lama belongs to. The temple was originally built during the Ming dynasty as a residence for eunuchs around 1700. Emperor Qianlong converted Yonghegong to an imperial palace during the Qing dynasty. During a later period of that dynasty, it was converted into the lamasery for monks for Mongolia and Tibet. It's still a working monastery for Tibetan Buddhist monks.

BADALING — Here I am at the Great Wall of China. Don't I look proud? I'm hiding my PTSD well.

I went to the Badaling site, which was about an hour's drive with my trusty hired driver away from my hotel north of the city proper. We arrived after a little bit of early morning traffic in the city and I eagerly walked up to purchase my ticket for the gondola ride up the northern mountain range of China.

Keep in mind that where I live now (on the East coast), there are these hills they call mountains. No big deal. Like baby mountains. But where I was born, in Yosemite National Park, Calif., we have the Sierra Nevadas. Big mountains. Real mountains. So when I arrived at the Badaling side, I was happy to see that the Great Wall hugged similarly majestic mountains ... until I got into the gondola for the ride up.

BEIJING — I read several guidebooks before I came to Beijing for the Olympics that told me I'd run into random acts of communal fitness all over the city. In a country of 1.3 billion people, the Chinese know how to live, work, and exercise in limited space. I had been disappointed that I hadn't seen any of that ... until Thursday.

I was walking out of the Lama Temple when it closed around 5 p.m. when these co-workers broke out into a pickup-game of badminton. No reason. They were just getting a little sweat going before heading home from work. Very cool.

BEIJING — The one thing you must do while you're in Beijing is go to the pearl and silk markets to find some great deals. But since Beijing has been welcoming visitors from all over the globe for the Olympics and Paralympics, I'm guessing the sales people are at the top of their game and looking at buyers while licking their chops.

That's what it seemed like on Wednesday when I finally braved the pearl market, a.k.a. Hongqiao Market to the locals, in the southern part of the city, south and east of Tiananmen Square.

It's crazier than any flea market you've ever been to because the salesgirls WILL NOT take no for an answer. I was trying to buy a new pair of sneaks, cheap of course, on the second floor and was kind of messing around because I really didn't want them. I wasn't feeling the "special price, special price, only for you, lady," so I said, "I'm sorry. You know, I really don't want them. I'm sorry."

BEIJING — Folks in Beijing ride bikes and I don't mean for leisure. Millions of Chinese get around on bikes, and mopeds and scooters for that matter, without helmets, and everyone shares the road. And that has made me very nervous around town.

BEIJING — ... you see the split-panty babies.

My first real bout with culture shock happened on Tuesday while I was visiting the Forbidden Palace and Tiananmen Square. I was walking down the street to the palace, along this beautiful tree-lined path with benches along each side. Families were having lunch or a drink and kicking back, chatting and enjoying the shade during a warm day.

BEIJING — I went downstairs at the basketball venue looking for a translator to help me interview some locals about Kobe Bryant. (They luuuuuuvvvvv Kobe in Beijing.) But I was sidetracked waiting for the translator when I picked up a magazine one of the female volunteers had brought with her.

The magazine was called Girl's Friends and had content — advice columns, fashion layouts, horoscopes — much like Seventeen or CosmoGIRL. The cartoon in the back of the magazine caught my eye because it seemed to be poking fun at famous names, including a
few American icons.

BEIJING - I just responded to a colleague's email telling her I think I'm missing the real Beijing.

Either that or this Olympics, meant to show the world China's best, is destroying myths ignorant foreigners like myself have nurtured. For example:

Everyone spits on the street in China. I haven't seen that, not once, since I've been here. Maybe it's the fines the government is imposing. I don't know. Believe me, I'm waiting for it.

BEIJING - I'm starting to get hooked on the Chinese version of MTV on CCTV, which is Chinese cable. I'm a pop music hound anyway so it was bound to happen. The Chinese and I have that in common.

My interest was piqued a couple of days ago watching a video by a male singer, who was representing a style that was equal parts Justin Timberlake and Jordan Knight. He could dance and he ended his video with a Janet Jackson-style chair routine complete with the fedora, thrown to the foot, kicker.

I came home from the women's USA-China game on Monday night and turned on the TV only to get immediately sucked into this video of a ballad called "I do yes I do." It was a familiar story. I didn't need to understand the Chinese.

BEIJING — Here's what it's like to not be in the U.S. but still be treated like a spoiled American halfway across the world.

Every time I ride the media shuttle for the drive through the city to whatever Olympic venue, the media shuttle will pass maybe 10 Beijing city busses on a typical 30-minute trek.

And every time we pass a regular bus, I look over at the people in the bus and the people look back at me. They see me sitting in a near empty bus and I see them shoved in like sardines, practically hanging out of the windows.