I am afraid our work schedule in week 2 wont provide a many highlight reel reviews. We hop in the cab at 8 and get dropped off after our day at about 10 pm. I gues one thing i should do is thank our kids. One of the greatest things about this trip is tht we were able to bring one of our sons/daughters with us to help on the ice and dryland sessions. There was Noelle, 8 yrs old, Easton, 9yrs old and my son kyle, 8 yrs old. These 3 kids are up passed their bed time by about 2 hours every night, eating strange food, and on the ice more hours perday 4.5 to 6 hrs, then they are in a typical week of Novice winter hockey. Yet their biggest complaint is that of spicey food as we try to encourage eating to ensure they get enough energy in through the day. Ours is their literally rotten hockey equipment that has not actually dried out since we arrived almost 2 weeks ago.

Monday was the final day of camp one, that was the little guys and the old guys, this means 6 and 7 year olds and 12 to 14 year olds. Its also the last day of easy street, 8 til 2:30 and then great sight seeing. Now its 9 to 9. Zero complaints though as during week one our hosts got us to every key highlight mentioned on page one of any Chinese tourist book. I mention page one because there really is so much to see and do here with so much incredible history. So on Monday we were taken to the Great Wall of China, and wow, was that a spectacle. I did not know a ton about it except it was a big wall, it was difficult to climb and it covered many miles. Well that certainly did not do it justice. It stretched as far as the eye could see in every direction, and many parts of it were so steep I would not be able to run 100meters of it even if I was racing. When you think about how long ago it was built and then see how big it is, and how many bricks, big bricks were carried up to build it, at a time when there was not any machinery to drop it off, i was truly in awe of one of the true wonders of the world. Following our incredible history lesson we were taken back to our hosts place for a bar b que. Well his place was another wonder of the world. He is a famous chinese tv and movie maker so he does have a few dollars to use up. His place was imbedded in a mountain and covered by trees, almost camoflaged. Inside his place had a stream with fish around the perimter of the main room. On one side of his upstairs you could cross to the other side via a roped bridge. Inside trees and branches are beautifully placed essentailly making it like a tree house but in a very classy way. Following a terrific dinner he put on a fire work show that would put any Canadian July 1st show to shame. On the way to his house we did have to go through a "true" chinese village and that was interesting. It was like maybe going back 50 to 100 years. I would not be surprised if none of the village people even left the village and mixed with big city life. It was very interesting to experience such a contrast in time span of about 30 minutes.

The days are going by very fast. Which means we are having fun and hopefully means everything is going smoothly and the job is looking good. On the ice it has gone well as the 6 and 7 year olds have a super start to all their fundamentals. Some of them could give our 8 and 9 year old junior instructors a run for their money in the skating drills. They need some more work with the puck but have a much better skating level then I anticipated. We are told the next age group which starts their camp next week is receiving phone calls from this weeks parents letting them know how good it is. Away from the rink we are packing in a lot of stuff into small windows of time. We are very fortunate to have super guides and drivers whipping us around to all the incredible points one should see while in China. Since the Forbidden City and Tienamen Square, we have been to the Temple of Heavan and Dragon Park. Dragon Park is where the ice surface was for the ChineseAcrobats, what an amazing show that was. I am also very impressed with the variety of architecture amongst the many business and hotel buildings throughout Beijing.

Hockey players and parents are the same anywhere. It was funny to see parents in Beijing come to ice level following our skills testing portion grabbing our clip boards from the edge of the boards to compare times of their young players. Parents also ask how old our kids are that are out there demonstrating drills so they can compare their 5 to 7 year olds with our 8 to 9 year olds. On that note, I should say I was very impressed right away when I saw the ability of these young players especially their level of skating. It will be a lot of fun these 2 weeks watching them develop even further and getting to spend time with them and their parents talking hockey. We are in such a different place yet inside that rink it feels like we could still be in any Canadian hockey hotbed.

Beijing is Hot and Smoggy. I could never imagine how bad it was during the Olympics when they always made such a big deal about it. Well it’s unimaginable. Everyday is like Edmonton down wind from the worst northern forest fires, then just add +35 and 90 plus % humidity.

Camp got underway 12 hours after landing here in Beijing. We are treated incredibly well by our hosts, I would call it spoiled actually, I feel like a Canadian dignitary. We are shuttled around, we are taken out for meals and tours and the coolest part was our arrival on day 1 to the rink where we were driven in and escorted like rock stars through a private entrance by lots of people with suits and walkie talkies.  

Day 1 of camp was such a blast, we were pumped up, and the kids and parents were excited to have us out there. To add to the fun there was also an opening ceremony done for the rink in the middle of camp, they do everything big here that’s for sure.  The rink we are in is actually in a mall, West Edmonton Mall style.  

No time was wasted either in getting out and taking in many of the incredible sights. We squeezed in tours of the Forbidden City and Tienamin (sp?) Square following our day of camp.

In addition to the on ice sessions, the kids are put through some Canadian style dryland training and the parents take in seminars by the coaches on things such as the minor hockey system, Collegiate hockey, player development and physical and nutritional education.