Track Trials: Gay injured in 200m
Tyson Gay, the American record holder in the men’s 100m, pulled up with a hamstring injury in the quarterfinals of the 200m
Swim Trials: Phelps’ record-breaking 400m IM
Watch as Michael Phelps breaks his world record in the 400m IM, clocking in at 4:05.25 and edging rival Ryan Lochte.
The Last Days of Old Beijing: Life in the Vanishing Backstreets of a City Transformed
A fascinating, intimate portrait of Beijing through the lens of its oldest neighborhood, facing destruction as the city, and China, relentlessly modernizes.
“The epitaph for old Beijing will read: born in 1280, died in 2008…what emperors, warlords, Japanese invaders, and Communist planners couldn’t eradicate, the market economy is,” writes Michael Meyer. A longtime resident, Meyer has, for the past two years, lived as no other westerner—in a shared courtyard home in Beijing’s oldest neighborhood, Dazhalan, on one of its famed hutong (lanes). There he volunteers to teach English at the local grade school and immerses himself in the community, recording with affection the life stories of the Widow, who shares his courtyard; co-teacher Miss Zhu and student Little Liu; and the migrants Recycler Wang and Soldier Liu; among the many others who, despite great differences in age and profession, make up the fabric of this unique neighborhood..
Their bond is rapidly being torn, however, by forced evictions as century-old houses and ways of life are increasingly destroyed to make way for shopping malls, the capital’s first Wal-Mart, high-rise buildings, and widened streets for cars replacing bicycles. Beijing has gone through this cycle many times, as Meyer reveals, but never with the kind of dislocation and overturning of its storied culture now occurring as the city prepares to host the 2008 Summer Olympics.
Weaving historical vignettes of Beijing and China over a thousand years through his narrative, Meyer captures the city’s deep past as he illuminates its present. With the kind of insight only someone on the inside can provide, The Last Days of Old Beijing is an invaluable witness to history, and brings this moment and the ebb and flow of daily lives on the other side of the planet into shining focus.
Author: Michael Meyer
Hardcover: 368 pages
Company: Walker & Company (2008-06-24) (2008-06-24)
ISBN: 0802716520
List Price: $25.99
Amazon Price: $12.69
Used Price: $11.39
Track Trials: Men’s 400m final
Watch the men’s 400m final from the U.S. Olympic Trials.
The Interior: A Red Princess Mystery (Red Princess Mysteries)
“See paints a fascinating portrait of a complex and enigmatic society, in which nothing is ever quite as it appears, and of the people, peasant and aristocrat alike, who are bound by its subtle strictures.”
–San Diego Union-Tribune
While David Stark is asked to open a law office in Beijing, his lover, detective Liu Hulan, receives an urgent message from an old friend imploring her to investigate the suspicious death of her daughter, who worked for a toy company about to be sold to David’s new client, Tartan Enterprises.
Despite David’s protests, Hulan goes undercover at the toy factory in the rural village of Da Shui, deep in the heart of China. It is a place that forces Hulan to face a past she has long been running from. Once there, rather than finding answers to the girl’s death, Hulan unearths more questions, all of which point to possible crimes committed by David’s client. Suddenly Hulan and David find themselves on opposing sides: One of them is trying to expose a company and unearth a killer, while the other is ethically bound to protect his client. As pressures mount and danger increases, Hulan and David uncover universal truths about good and evil, right and wrong–and the sometimes subtle lines that distinguish them.
“[See] illuminates tradition and change, Western and Eastern cultural differences. . . . All this in the middle of her thriller which is also about greed, corruption, abuse of the disadvantaged, the desperation of those on the bottom of the food chain, and love.”
–The Tennessean
“Sophisticated . . . graceful . . . See’s picture of contemporary China’s relationship with the United States is aptly played out through her characters.”
–Los Angeles Times
“Immediate, haunting and exquisitely rendered.”
–San Francisco Chronicle
Author: Lisa See
Paperback: 400 pages
Company: Random House Trade Paperbacks (2007-12-31) (2007-12-31)
ISBN: 0812978692
List Price: $14.95
Amazon Price: $8.44
Used Price: $6.45
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Sounds of the River: A Young Man’s University Days in Beijing
In this “equally beguiling sequel to his acclaimed memoir, Colors of the Mountain” (Kirkus Reviews), teenager Da Chen takes his first train ride away from the farm he was raised on to his new university life in Beijing. He soon faces a host of ghastly challenges, including poor living conditions, lack of food, and suicidal roommates. Undaunted by these hurdles, and armed with a dogged determination to learn English and “all things Western,” he competes to win a chance to study in America — a chance that rests in the shrewd and corrupt hands of the almighty professors.
Poetic, hilarious, and heartbreaking, Sounds of the River is a gloriously written coming-of-age saga that chronicles a remarkable journey — a travelogue of the heart.
Author: Da Chen
Paperback: 320 pages
Company: Harper Perennial (2003-02-01) (2003-02-04)
ISBN: 0060958723
List Price: $14.95
Amazon Price: $4.95
Used Price: $2.67
About Travel Beijing: Online Booking for Vacation Packages, Activities …
Travel and Leisure information. Online Booking available for Activities, Event Tickets, Accommodations, Limousine Service, Airline Tickets. Specials on Merchandise and Travel.
Track Trials: Webb wins 1500m heat
Watch heat three of the men’s 1500m from the U.S. Olympic Trials, which features Alan Webb and Bernard Lagat.
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