Despite mydoubtswhether Beijing would pull off a successful Olympics and the controversy over free press, human rights, the Opening Ceremony, and other issues, in my opinion, China hosted an amazing Olympics. The skies were blue, there were large tracks of greenery, the Olympic Green was very attractive, traffic was not a problem, the volunteers were helpful and spoke English, security was present (most of the time, until you hear my friend’s story) but not imposing, the city was clean (almost sterile), the new subway is sleek and modern, and people were friendly and helpful. Everything was very well done, with a few exceptions. Visitors who didn’t speak Chinese were still at a loss when trying to communicate with taxi drivers and average folk. The buses shuttling spectators between venues were overcrowded and no one knew how else to get between venues. But my biggest complaint is the re-sale ticket market. There were a few scalped tickets available but nothing to justify the many half (or more) empty events. Where were all the other tickets? Where were the tickets to the Water Cube? Nonetheless, those who know Beijing, I believe, were all similarly impressed with how well Beijing pulled off the Olympics.
Unfortunately, those changes were not lasting. Despite the fact that the Paralympics are currently going on, the skies have already greyed over, the pollution has returned, and the streets are jammed again. Some of the changes will remain, though: the renovated airport (now one of the largest in the world), the modern, extensive subway lines, the unique venues of the Water Cube and the Bird’s Nest, and Beijingers pride in having hosted such an unrivaled Olympic games.
If you’re curious for more insight into China and reading the blogs of China-based expats isn’t enough for you, also check out NBC’s lessons in Chinese Culture 101. I can’t say I wholly agree with the portrayal, as many are far from complete and give only positive snippets of Chinese culture, but what makes them interesting is NBC’s take on Chinese culture.
I expect that with the upcoming election, China’s continued phenomenal growth, the 2010 Shanghai Expo, the 2010 Guangzhou Pan Asia games, and everything else, we’ll continue to hear a lot about and from China.
As of this morning, my plane tickets to Beijing are bought and in hand! I have a place to stay and the promise of Olympics Games’ tickets. Beijing Olympics, here I come!!!
I’ll be in Beijing from the evening of August 14th to the morning of August 19th if anyone wants to meet up. Yay!!!!
As of yesterday all the food & drink vendors and retail outlets in and around Shanghai’s subway stations have cleared out their inventory and closed. No more grabbing breakfast in the subway station for me. They’ve even put tape over the doors to make sure no one sneaks anything inside. Some larger, more established outlets are still running, such as McDonald’s.
How do they decide who stays and who gets closed down?
Do they compensate the stores that are forced to close?
To be an economic superpower, a country must be sufficiently large, dynamic, and globally integrated to have a major impact on the world economy. Three political entities currently qualify: the United States, the European Union, and China. Inducing China to become a responsible pillar of the global economic system (as the other two are) will be one of the great challenges of coming decades—particularly since at the moment China seems uninterested in playing such a role.
Something extraordinary is happening in China, and we are not talking about the Olympics. Rather, Chinese officials have been clamping down on visa applications and implementing bureaucratic impediments to new and renewed visa applications under the guise of pre-Olympic security.
The next month is supposed to showcase China as an open, rising power. Yet the International Olympic Committee and Chinese organizers have been criticized for failing to deliver on pledges of unblocked Internet access, TV reporting freedoms and clean air.
To mark the occasion, a feature in the current issue of Oriental Outlook magazine takes a look at the history of TV drama and how programs make it to air. This includes an interesting article on the workings of CCTV’s censors.
Welcome to Beijing, friends from the foreign press! I greet you on behalf of the many expatriates who’ve lived in Beijing for years. We’re all really eager to read the stories you file. We can’t wait to see what this city, which we know all too well, looks like from the perspective of visiting journalists — you, with your keenly honed observational abilities and your uncanny wordsmithery. (Is that a word?)
Hosting the Olympics was supposed to be a chance for China’s leaders to showcase the country’s rapid economic growth and modernization to the rest of the world. Domestically, it provided an opportunity for the Chinese government to demonstrate the Communist Party’s competence and affirm the country’s status as a major power on equal footing with the West. And wrapping itself in the values of the Olympic movement gave China the chance to portray itself not only as a rising power but also as a “peace-loving” country. For much of the lead-up to the Olympics, Beijing succeeded in promoting just such a message.
“One poster focuses on “etiquette when communicating with foreigners.” Locals are instructed not to ask foreigners personal questions about their age, salary, love life, health, income, political views, religious beliefs or personal experiences.”
You’ll notice I’ve added a new category to my blog: China News. I’ve decided to highlight some of the week’s best news stories related to China. So here goes with the first week of news –
For subscribers, overseas newspapers usually arrive late in the day wrapped in a blue plastic envelope. Chinese censors often remove or paste shut pages of newspapers and magazines that contain stories or other content considered sensitive or unflattering to the communist authorities, including several pages of a recent National Geographic special edition devoted to China.
Recently featured on Danwei, Thomas Crampton’s video interview with Oiwan Lam about the ‘fifty cent army’ of online commenters who allegedly do Party propaganda 2.0 caused some controversy in Danwei’s comments section.
In addition to the proliferation of tall buildings, subway lines, highways and overall incredible improvements in infrastructure, there has come a proliferation of media, especially in places where, to be frank, I would rather not see media.
[M]ost nightclubs, discos and karaoke venues have private rooms for rent which play host to business soirees and social gatherings and sometimes involve all those things your parents told you not to do which, despite what the man on the street chanting “pretty girls” into your ear would have you believe, are illegal.
While athletes from around the globe make use of years of intense training at August’s Olympics, Beijing’s law enforcement will be hoping their own preparations will pay off too. According to a report by the U.S. trade group Security Industry Association, China spent approximately USD 6.2 billion on security between 2004 and 2007. With all its new toys and rigorously trained personnel, Beijing’s security teams should be well prepared to beat records at their own set of Olympic events.
When traveling to China for the Olympics this summer, leave any expectation of privacy at the border. Instead, prepare for possible eavesdropping and surveillance–from listening devices in hotel rooms to bugged laptops and personal digital assistants to informers posing as friendly strangers.
Beijing authorities are secretly planning to ban black people and others it considers social undesirables from entering the city’s bars during the Olympic Games, a move that would contradict the official slogan, “One World, One Dream”.
They are fond of George W. Bush in China. There are not many capitals around the world where foreign policy practitioners say hand on heart that they will miss the US president. Beijing is an important exception. Sino-American relations, I heard several times during my trip, have been consistently steadier than at any time since the door to dialogue was opened by the ping-pong diplomacy of the early 1970s.
A high-level Chinese military source secretly disclosed last week that the recent earthquake in Sichuan Province caused a chain-reaction of explosions in the Sichuan mountain areas. The explosions destroyed Chinese army’s largest armory, new weapon test bases and part of nuclear facilities including several nuclear warheads. This information is considered China’s top military secret.
Special thanks to all my Twitterfriends who share interesting news stories about China.
They’ve even put tape over the doors to make sure no one sneaks anything inside. Some larger, more established outlets are still running, such as McDonald’s.
Censoring Chinese TV
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