Equipment Mountain in Beijing

Tokyo may have Mount Fuji but Beijing now has Mount Equipment. 
On Monday night after a long trek from Toronto which started sunday morning, I made a snapshot of the mountain of equipment needed to cover the Olympics.  The four of us creating visuals for the Star and thestar.com piled up our work equipment (not including computers, id cards and the myriad other items needed) in the middle of our accommodations in Beijing.  Many of us had overweight charges at the airport of course and I think we gave we gave a few porters nightmares for a month. 
As soon as we arrived at the airport, the heat, humidity and smog were in obvious evidence.  The sun was obscured and was a faint glow in the sky.  I am not looking forward to 8 hours trackside in the heat and smog.
The organizers couldn't be more helpful.  I think there are 6 volunteers per working media.  At one point, three different people were trying to carry my suitcase that I was holding, of course we missed the elevator as all the hands were vying with each other to get a grip so to speak.
My colleagues and I will be blogging on a daily basis so watch for the further adventures.
-Richard Lautens

Comments

[Will]

Boy... am I jealous. Thats some big-ass glass you have going there. Honestly though, it must have been a nightmare through customs. Are you guys doing anything special with you equipment to combat the humidity?