The China / Japan game was just as exciting or even more than we could have imagined. The place was jam packed – almost all Chinese fans. Many brought flags or bought mylar long-tubes with either yellow or red colors to clap together for anything goodChina won the first two games to make everyone excited and happy. We found out that all Chinese had a favorite cheer: something like “Chai – yo”. One person screams at the top of their lungs (like an informal yell leader) and the rest of the section chants it back. Pretty soon the entire stadium was chanting it back and forth – at any time. A person next to me explained in English that this cheer literally means “more gas” or “add gas” – which is their way of saying ‘to get fired up”. The Chinese also seem to know a common set of chants and songs – because during the intermissions, the loudspeaker would put on some music and the entire stadium would cheer and sing. Then Japan won the second two games to make it much more interesting. Then it came down to the final/deciding 5th game – and the crowd went wild. China turned it around and won in the fifth and deciding game. The crowd went nuts.
That game took so long that it was pretty late when the US game started. At least 60-70% of the stadium left after the China game, but we stayed to cheer. By the time the US lost the first game, Emily and I were so tired we decided we had to leave to get some rest. But of course, we forgot that we didn’t know how to take a bus here, and therefore didn’t know how to take a bus back to the subway. Luckily, I had a card with my hotel address written in Chinese and I pulled over several taxi drivers. Each of them looked it and then told me they had no idea where this was. What kind of city has taxi drivers that don’t know to find an address in the city? Anyway, luckily I had paid attention in the cab drive there so we decided to walk our way back to the subway. Well, we did make it back, caught the subway, and died of happy exhaustion upon getting to the room.
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