A Trip to China By Peeter Tamm

Event: 6-th WC in renju

Time: 27.07-05.08.99

Location: Bejing, People's Republic of China

On July the 23-rd, 14 Swedish, 2 Latvian and 4 Estonian renju players boarded Air China Boeing 747 at Arlanda airport in Stockholm. After 8 hours of flight, two meals and some sleep we landed in Beijing 7.15 local time. Mr. Na Wei and other members of RIF China were greeting us. Outside was +40C and smog. In an hour we reached to the Winterless Hotel - the site of tournament and our accommodation.

Tiresome trip and some unfortunate circumstances caused a little misunderstanding between some members of Estonian delegation and RIF-China. Fortunately it was resolved within minutes and as saying goes: all's well that's ends well. Dinner in the afternoon on the roof of the hotel gave the first and pleasant insight into Chinese kitchen and Beijing at dusk.

Next day, July the 25-th started with a trip to the Great Wall, Bei Thao Park and Forbidden City. After this warm up we were all ready for a football match against a local Chinese team. Despite the Renju Team's furious efforts the game ended 1:4.

My first impressions of Beijing were the chaos in traffic and dust covering everything. But there seemed to be an order in that chaos for neither I nor anyone else I talked to happened to see any accident. After a few days I got accustomed with the fact that no one won't drive or ride at me anyway. Another thing about the traffic is the taxis: our main mean of transport. Those nice little red taxis with a cage protecting a taxi driver (or customer?) offering a rollercoaster ride for a mere 10 RMB.

On July the 30-th took place the opening ceremony which was short and punctual. A-tournament players had to play their first round on the very day already. There is one thing that really embarrassed me and other renju fans as well. The Jury's decision to close the first round after 30 minutes was somehow understandable but to close the last 11-th round without providing any information about the games in progress really made me sad. I hope this will never happen again. For who were they protecting the players? I saw no hordes of people trying to rush in and cause havoc in the tournament room.

The ending ceremony followed by banquet where Chinese kitchen offered it's best put the nice period to the 6-th WC in renju.