A gold medal vacation
Published Friday September 5th, 2008
The Summer Olympics was the prize of a lifetime for two local women
Once every four years, an opportunity arises for Canadians to sit down, relax and watch the nation's top athletes compete at the summer Olympic Games. For two local women, this summer's Games turned into a chance of a lifetime.
Joan Phillips and Betty Parker are both businesswomen and residents of Woodstock.
Phillips is a real estate agent for RE/MAX Group Four Realty and Parker works at the Post-Secondary Education Training resource centre.
But the pair had their world's reversed completely in August.
Aliant offered a contest for people all across Canada. In this contest, the winner and a guest of their choice received a paid vacation to Beijing, China, for the 2008 Summer Olympics in August. The flights, two meals a day, transportation and the hotel costs were free for the two guests.
According to Parker, one person from each province was eligible to win.
Phillips didn't think she would actually win the contest. But then she got a call.
"I got a call on a Monday evening while I was on my way to the gym," said Phillips.
"It was about five weeks prior to departure that I got the call from Aliant's head office in Newfoundland. They asked me if I was pulled over and I said ‘yes' and that's when they told me about the trip. I thought he was going to ask me for my credit card number or something and then all of a sudden it was just a lot of disbelief."
Parker and Phillips arrived at the Fredericton Airport to leave for Beijing on Aug. 15 at about 11:30 a.m. and returned on August 20 around midnight.
Parker said Phillips had qualified for the contest where she was a businesswoman and turned out to be the only winner in New Brunswick.
Phillips was told she could take one other person with her and Parker said she "graciously" asked her.
"She said it would be more of a girl's trip. We could site-see together and have fun together," explained Parker.
Parker's first reaction to being asked if she would go to Beijing with Phillips was "there's no way I could go to China." But after awhile she said she started to get really excited.
Upon their arrival in China, they were both overwhelmed with the number of people living there.
"There were so many people there," said Parker.
"Beijing has somewhere around 17 million people, which is more than half the number of people there are in Canada."
She said that from the plane you could look down and "see how immense the city was."
When they first got off the plane, Parker and Phillips were hit with massive humidity. Parker said it was probably between 34 and 35 degrees that day. The humidity was at about 85 per cent.
Parker said that out of everything she got to see in Beijing, getting to be on the Great Wall of China will be what stays with her forever.
"It was just so beautiful and to realize how long its history was, that the wall was actually started before Christ was born and it still exists today, and just the fact that it's stood there for so long," she said.
The part of the wall Parker and Phillips went to was called Mutianyu. Mutianyu is known for its views and Parker said it's absolutely beautiful.
Parker and Phillips were only able to go shopping a couple of times. The main thing they noticed about the stores and streets was the conditions they were in. Everything was really clean.
"Even the taxi drivers were out with large dusters when they were parked waiting for someone to come out," said Parker.
For the two women, it didn't seem like anyone knew where they were going.
"In the centre of Beijing, there are eight lanes of traffic," Parker said.
After a few minutes, it became clear to them that everyone knew where they were headed amongst the chaos.
According to Parker and Phillips, Beijing's flowers were absolutely beautiful. They said the same flowers could be found in different places and the only difference would be that they weren't the same colour, they would be unique every time.
On their way to the Forbidden City, they saw bushes specially carved as a Chinese symbol for each different type of Olympic event.
"They were absolutely beautiful," she said.
Parker said there were banners scattered all over the city saying "One world, one dream" in both languages, symbolizing the theme of the 2008 Olympics.
"You never get tired of looking at them because they are all different and very overwhelming."
Parker and Phillips stayed in an older hotel with 15 storeys and 472 rooms.
"What surprised me about it was the staff were always courteous and, after the first day you came down, they recognized you, they were polite whether they could talk to you or not and the staff tried there best to help you when you needed it," Parker explained.
Of all the events scheduled for the days they were there, Parker and Phillips went and saw table tennis, beach volleyball, discus throw, long jump, pole volt, hurdles and the steeple chases. On their last night there, they went and saw the gymnastics portion of the Olympics, including the medal presentation.
Parker said anyone who ever gets the opportunity to visit Beijing should take it.
"It was a wonderful trip."
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