Ni Hao,

I heard from a friend once who said that he couldn’t decide between two girls. After talking a bit about them both I asked him what their names were, “Milli and Molly” was the reply. I said no wonder he can’t choose between them! It seems as if he didn’t notice the similarity in the names as his response was just, “oh yeah!” Anyway, it can be a little like that when choosing to play tournaments. This past week I chose to play in Beijing for the first time instead of going to Tokyo where I have been many times before. We lost in a close match in the first round so maybe I should have gone with Molly…..

I’m now on my way to Shanghai from Beijing. I’m certainly hoping for a better result in Shanghai. I must say that I am sometimes a little nervous walking around some cities, especially in ones where it is really (REALLY!) obvious that you are a foreigner. A 1.96 metre South African somehow does not blend in too well in China. Generally I have no reason to be nervous though. Speaking of nerves though, it reminds me of someone who said that once they went to watch a movie in Johannesburg and there were gun shots, car-jackings, sirens and car chases – and that was just on the way to the movies! (No seriously, it’s a great country – please come support the 2010 World Cup soccer/football – it’s going to be a great success!)

Yesterday, I did the tourist thing in Beijing. I thought after losing first round that it would be a rather poor effort not to go and see one of the seven wonders of the world – the Great Wall. We left at 6am and got to the Wall after an hours drive. It was actually rather impressive. Bruno Soares convinced me that I must go and said that I should go see the Wall just once - his wife was with him and so this would be an “exciting” 2nd time for him. All in all it was interesting to see the Great Wall of which some parts were first constructed in 200 BC.

After that it was a nap at the hotel before the tourist combo of Kevin Ullyett and Wesley Moodie made the trip to The Forbidden City – a 9000 room palace for the emperor which was used for close to 400 yrs from the 1500’s.  We found a local tour guide to take us around so at least we could leave with some knowledge – even though we only understood 50% of the things she was saying. At one point I had a strange urge to climb up a one metre high pile of rocks, but fortunately Kevin warned me of the sign in front of them which stated, “Beware - Perilous Hills” It was a close shave but I escaped from the perilous hills uninjured…..actually it felt like I had just passed a set on Monty Python!

Getting back to my earlier topic of, “wonders of the world” – my partner Dick Norman….a few nights ago, in an attempt to get over his jetlag, was trying to stay awake and decided to read a book until 2am and then go to sleep. He glanced at the clock a few times and finally saw that it was 2am but was a little concerned though when he noticed the second hand not moving. He turned on his phone and  boy do I want to buy that book because he had read until 5am!!

So on to Shanghai – the venue of the previous 4 yrs Shanghai Masters Cup which is now 6 weeks earlier and an ATP 1000 event. Will definitely check in from there….

Wes.