Cliff and Randi Hammer, the parents of cyclist Sarah Hammer, are staying with a local Chinese family, the Jiangs.

It was Sarah’s idea for them to stay with the Beijing residents. “She said we ought to immerse ourselves in the culture, really experience China,” said Randi, a third-grade teacher in Hemet.

So, they are hanging out with Jiang Hong Zhu, as well as her husband and their 11-year-old son.

To date, the the home cooking — as well as the hosts’ overall kindness — has made the biggest impression on the couple from Temecula.

“She makes some wonderful things,” Randi said. “Better than the restaurants.”

It’s been a bit of a stretch for Cliff, “who is pretty much a meat and potatoes guy,” his wife said.

I asked what Zhu’s culinary specialty is, and Cliff said, “She seems to be good at everything.”

They are paying to stay with the Jiangs. “More than a hotel,” Randi said. But they certainly are getting a much better feel for life in Beijing than the rest of us who are staying in hotels.

Zhu has helped the Hammers figure out the subway system, taking them down to the nearest station, showing them how to buy tickets and riding a few stops with them before returning.

She feeds them breakfast and dinner, and would feed them lunch, if they wanted. Also, Randi said, moments after they retire, at night, Zhu comes by and knocks on the door and has a pot of tea and “some little snacks for us.”

On Monday, Zhu served a particularly sumptuous breakfast. “It seemed like five courses,” Cliff said. Randi said the meal was so visually appealing that she took a picture of it.

The Jiangs don’t drink coffee, but the Hammers certainly do, and Randi bought some on Day 1. “We’ll get headaches without our coffee,” she said.

She said the neighborhood grocery store is in a vast space located two floors underground, beneath the enormous tower the Jiangs live in. “I think it was like a Wal-Mart,” Randi said. “I think maybe it was, actually.”

The Jiangs live in a gated community and clearly are middle-class — if a three-bedroom home is any indication.

Zhu is an accountant, from what the Hammers can tell, and her husband is a manager in a high-tech firm. They live in the Haidan district, a bit west and south of Tiananmen Square.

The Jiangs don’t speak English, and the Hammers don’t speak Chinese, so their interaction has involved a lot of hand signals.

But Randi did her bit to try to improve communication. The Jiangs have some basic materials for learning English, and the teacher put up a phonics board and was working with the 11-year-old. Later, the mother came by, and an aunt, and Randi was doing drills.

Sarah was to come by tonight for dinner, but that was before she suffered a broken collarbone in a race accident on Monday.

The Hammers’ stay includes trips to the Great Wall and Forbidden City, but they hadn’t gone as of Monday night. They were worried about getting back to the velodrome in time to see Sarah race.

They are scheduled to go back to California on Thursday, so they still had time to see the sights.

I’m guessing their time with the Jiangs will be something the Hammers remember more clearly.