BEIJING, China - We almost saw the Olympic torch. We were headed to one of the oldest restaurants in Beijing when it became increasingly obvious the throng surrounding our group was not here to see us.

Crowds struggle to catch a glimpse of the torch.

Thousands of people had lined the streets to watch the torch go by. The crowds were six people deep at some points. We tried to use a back alley to get to the restaurant but after a five-minute walk we were told by a police officer that everything was closed for the torch relay.

People were everywhere trying to get just a glimpse of the torch. They climbed walls, they put children on their shoulders, and they peeked through back-alley windows. Many waved Chinese flags. They were quite intrigued by the Americans and many said, "Hello," and a few took pictures.

We were starving after a long afternoon at Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City. We decided to walk back to the van and head to another restaurant when suddenly there was a lot of clapping, cheering and a bunch of people running as fast as they could toward the torch route. A few of us headed back, held our cameras high overhead and snapped away. It was either a false alarm or we just missed it.

It would have been a nice bit of serendipity if we had stumbled into a torch sighting. Actually, it was a lot of fun seeing all those people so proud of their country.