Earlier this year, Beijing successfully bid to host the 2022 Winter Olympics. The famed 2008 Olympic swimming venue, ‘The Water Cube’ will become ‘The Ice Cube’ and the Bird’s Nest will be filled with snow. So as the city prepares itself for the games, it was time for me to learn to ski.
A condition of obtaining my Chinese residence permit was reporting for a medical exam in Beijing. My first thought: would the staff speak English, or would I be reduced to playing a sophisticated medical edition of charades?
The tensions were high, we were about to enter the Joint Security Area of the Korean De-militarised Zone.
“If anyone has weapons, knives or confetti poppers, please tell me now” boomed the US Army soldier during the safety briefing. Confetti poppers? You just know that with a specific warning like that, someone must have set off a few across the border.
The week before my trip to South Korea, a US Senator called North Korea’s Supreme Leader a “crazy fat kid.” The North Korean response: the comment was “a little short of a declaration of war.” There was no better time to visit the frontline of this nuclear-armed school-yard conflict.
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