As an Olympic reporter in the Chinese dictatorship, you should stick to the rules.
It's not just mom who says that.
At this moment - please stop reading, mom!
– but you have to disregard the rules (Yo, Wolfgang Kubicki, gimme five!).
It's well past midnight at the bus station in Zhangjiakou, and it's so cold my eyelashes freeze.
Christopher Meltzer
Sports correspondent in Munich.
Follow I follow
The warm hotel room?
Removed an artificial snowball throw.
So what's the problem?
The rules!
They say you have to take a bus to the hotel.
But no bus comes.
Who knows what else may freeze together.
Better to run - and minimally disregard the rules for 50 meters.
A security guard is waiting at the barrier in front of the hotel.
He raises his hand.
Stop!
He looks at the documents being held out to him.
A press accreditation and a room card for the hotel.
The last time the evidence was so clear was when satellite images of the Uyghur detention camps in Xinjiang were published.
But the security guard is worried.
He speaks into his translation device, which then says in English in a computer voice: "I have to ask our guide." Who does he mean?
Xi Jinping?
nope
The computer voice said "leader" and not "core leader", as Xi lets himself be called.
On the 50 meters to the hotel you can learn something about the Chinese surveillance and authoritarian state.
Those tasked with monitoring compliance with the strict rules must themselves abide by rules that appear to be even stricter.
Minute by minute passes in front of the barrier.
The security man is on the phone.
When he finally gives his go, the bus has already been let through the barrier.
Alright, lesson learned.
Wait for the bus - and listen to mom!