Baseball in China, Part 2: Dodger, Padres Settle Into Beijing

Five Pine Trees After the opening of the new No. 5 subway line in Beijing, the city decided to lower ticket prices in an effort to get some cars off the roads. The new price is 2RMB (about 30 cents) no matter how far you ride any of the subway lines. The result: Same amount of cars on the road—and a subway system that couldn't get any more saturated with cheap commuters.   Wukesong Stadium—Wukesong means “Five Pine Trees” in English—is on line No. 1. Coming from the east side of Beijing, I rode past Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City, and through the crowds to Wukesong station.  The Olympic baseball venue isn't hard to spot. It's actually three ballparks—two competition fields and a practice field. The giant “MLB Series 2008” banners hanging from the outside of the main stadium make it stick out quite obviously. Sadly, all three temporary stadiums will be torn down after the Olympics.  In front of the stadium, the ... [link]