In the days leading up to the games, we were hearing a lot about the thousands of Beijingers who had volunteered as Olympics greeters, folks who could lead you to a taxi or give you directions back to your hotel - whatever. But WSJ reporter Peter Sanders, who is based in L.A. and went to the Olympics for his vacation, describes these friendly faces as being next to useless when it comes to providing information.

Invariably, they greeted my questions with a blank stare or a look of sheer panic before scurrying off to find someone who might speak passable English. This helpful person never materialized for me. After my father lost an expensive pair of sunglasses somewhere in the morass one day, we dared ask a volunteer if there was a lost and found. The question sent the man literally spinning around on his own axis not only trying to comprehend but desperately motioning for re-enforcements from other volunteers standing nearby. We quickly abandoned the effort and somewhere in Beijing that night someone was proudly wearing his new shades. Beijing, of course, is never an easy place for a foreigner with no Chinese language skills, Olympics aside. The cab drivers are notoriously grouchy and even with our little maps and cards with the destinations written in Mandarin, the rides themselves are an adventure. More than once, my wife and I have been given the meter-eating roundabout, flat-out refused transport when the driver couldn't decipher our written destination and been unceremoniously dumped by drivers who tired of us.

Oh, there's also the food - "awful at best, execrable at worst," he writes. Sanders did like the Snickers bars they sell - if you can find one.

Up close in Beijing