Before coming to China I wasn’t sure what to expect. Was I to believe that culture over here were like scenes from the Rush Hour movies and other movies placed in a Chinese setting? I was content on having my own image of China and it certainly wasn’t what I had pictured.
We arrived on the campus grounds late on Tuesday night (Feb. 17) and immediately had to go through security (which involved a metal detector). After doing that, we walked by military guards, two of which were carrying machine guns. That’s the one crazy thing about this place, there are military personnel everywhere, and most of what they do consists of standing still for twenty four hours a day.
Eating was certainly a question mark coming here and the adventure of the Chinese cuisine at the Athlete’s Dining Hall hasn’t disappointed. Most breakfast meals consist of bread, pasta, beef, rice and French fries. Dinner seems to be a little more western as they serve chicken cutlets, fish, beef and a variety of other pasta dishes. The real treat about eating here is that they don’t seem to change the food up very much so most days we’re stuck with the same food we’ve had since we arrived.
Since arriving here over a week ago, a goal of many players has been to find clothing stores with great deals. And even though the city of Harbin is populated with over 7 million people, these markets aren’t hard to find. On one of our days off, a few teammates and I shopped in downtown Harbin looking for these stores. It wasn’t until we were curious about a strange looking stairwell that led beneath the ground that we found what we were looking for. This market was unlike anything I’ve ever seen before. What seemed to measure at least a mile long, small clothing stores filled the area. Even flat screen televisions hung from the ceiling above. What seemed to be an adventure finding the place, we were surprised to find out the real adventure started when we tried purchasing items. Because no one that worked in the stores spoke any English, many hand gestures were used to communicate. Needless to say, after a couple hours of walking the area, not many items were bought.
The hockey experience here has certainly been something I’ll always remember. I wasn’t too sure what to expect when arriving at the arena for the first time but when I got inside I was pleasantly surprised. We were led to our dressing room which turned out to be the nicest room in the building. The arena itself looks to be the size of many junior rinks at home. The arena, which seems fairly new, seats about three to four thousand people and has a score clock that’s extremely large at one end of the wall. Our first game of the tournament was extremely exciting, and as luck would have it, our opponents were the host team China. I’m not sure many people knew what to expect with the way the crowd would react to certain plays but their reactions were very different from reactions back home. Cheering seemed to be mandatory for the crowd because they did it most of the game. Every time Team China would touch the puck the crowd would cheer, and if they were lucky enough to carry the puck up ice untouched, the cheers would get louder and louder. I remember one time in the game where Team China had a five on three early in the third period. The crowd was delighted when Team China had numerous scoring chances. I couldn’t image how loud the crowd would’ve got if Team China would’ve scored. Even when we scored the crowd politely cheered and softly clapped their hands.
After beating both China and Great Britain easily, we had our first difficult test against the Czech Republic this afternoon. After having a sluggish start, and being bailed out by our goaltender multiple times, we caught our stride in the second and third periods, winning the game 3-1 and being guaranteed a spot in the semi finals. Our round robin schedule ends with Kazakhstan, who will probably be our biggest challenge to date.
Brant Hilton - Team Canada Mens Hockey
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