The China Open Daily News
Global-snooker reports live from the Olympic City
According to Katie Melua, there are nine million bicycles in Beijing. Well after three taxi rides and walking for almost an hour looking for the venue, I think we saw most of them.
When we did eventually find the right Student's Gymnasium, we were just in time to see Shanghai Masters champion, Ricky Walden finishing off what looked to be an impressive display in his wildcard round against Cai Kaisheng.
In the players' lounge afterwards though, Walden appeared to carry out major surgery on his shoes.
"They are a new pair and were killing me out there today.
"I really liked the shoes, but the shop only had them one size smaller than I would usually buy".
Judd Trump came back down to earth with a bump, when he was dumped out by China wildcard,Tang Jun.
Trailing 3-1 at the interval, Judd was even quieter than usual, as he sat in the players' lounge without speaking to anyone.
It appeared to be doing the trick as he almost got back into the match, but when he missed a black to level at 4-4, Tang took his chance with a good long pot. The Championship League victory must feel like a long time ago for nineteen year old Trump.
Dave Harold looked in relaxed mood as he laughed and joked backstage. He has been soaking up the China atmopsphere by shopping at the silk market and playing darts. We think he could make it tough for defending champ, Maguire.
Did you hear the one about the three Chinese men and the three English men? The three chinese all won!. That was the story in the evening session at The Students Gymnasium as Tang Jun, Yu Delu, Xiao Guodong and Tian Pengfei all progressed.
We wandered around the Olympic Park in the evening and trust us, The Bird's Nest stadium is even more impressive that it is on the TV. If London is watching, as if you didn't already know, Beijing is going to be a hard act to follow.
More Neil's Notes from Bejing on Tuesday...
