News on the One Year Countdown to Beijing Olympics - From CNN

Here are some video links to CNN news reports to the Games.

In this clip, you can see the performance in the countdown:

http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/international/2007/08/08/stevens.cdb.olympics.one.year.cnn

Here're some some other clips that features on the preparation work on Beijing 2008! Enjoy! :)

http://www.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/asiapcf/08/08/olympics.beijing.reut/index.html?iref=newssearch

Tunneling through the Four Seasons with the Olympic Subway Line

Beijing is building a new subway line to service the Olympic Park. There are altogether 4 stations with the 4 seasons as the theme for the line! The base color of the four stations will be red/back, yellow, blue and green respectively. The Olympic Subway Line is 4.398km long. Its theme is borrowed from the “rhythm of music”. Each station represents a fermata (rest) in a musical performance, while the tunnel between the stations represents a string of musical notes (the tunnel is decorated!). As the train moves through the four stations, the traveler will experience five different “music pieces” with each station being the end and the beginning of the next.

The “Pan-Island Panda Station” (literal translation, not official) has red and black as the main hue represent the passionate Summer; The Olympic Center Station is yellow signifying a brilliant Autumn. The Olympic Park Station is blue representing the expansive Winter; and lastly the Forest Station is green as hopeful Spring. In addition, the walls of the stations will be gray representing the continuity of the culture of Beijing.

P.S.: There will be water coolers in the stations (first in the Beijing Metro System). There will also be special access gates and lifts to facilitate people with disabilities.

NBA in Wukesong Stadium in 2008

Looks like not only NFL games are planning to be held in the Bird Nest Stadium in 2007! Even NBA is expressing interests in staging the pre and post-2007 NBA season games in the Wukesong Stadium!!!

It's 2007! Not 2008!!! These events will help Beijing build its sports city brand name and at the same time, test the stadiums ahead of the Beijing 2008 Olympics.

This will catalyse the Sino-ising of America and the Americanising of China!
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First Aid in Beijing

How many Basic First Aid-ers are there in Beijing? The answer is around 225,000. This works out to be about 1.5 per 100 people in Beijing.

The Beijing Multiplicity has been engaging the Red Cross to help build the first aid skills of Beijing citizens. They are aiming for 1 first aid trained person for every 50 people by 2008.

The priority goes to the volunteers of the Beijing 2008 Games! These include drivers, police, parks, hotels and shops attendants! Do other countries do this as well?

Han Meilin - the Man behind the Running Man and Fuwas

Here's an interesting news article about the man who designed the 'Fuwa' and the logo of the Beijing 2008 Olympics. In essense, this 70 year old man by the name of Han Meilin is ranked as a first-class artist in China.

He's rewarded with 1 yuan (USD$0.13) for his designs....

Beijing uses GPS to track down and demolish illegal construction

(translated from 2008.sina.com.cn)
In the beginning of 2006, Beijing city planned to demolish 4.5 million m2 of illegal houses and buildings. This operation is now completed. To date, 1.6 milion m2 of the cleared land has already been converted to public areas.

A further 3 million m2 of illegal construction are planned for demolition in 2007. This is announced during an Urban Development Forum organized by the Beijing 2008 Environment Development Agency.

According to the agency, the current development to transform the urban environmental landscape has been smooth. They have step up the frequency of satellite tracking from once a quarter to bi-monthly to prevent new illegal construction. In the last 3 tracking, they have identified 40 different spots covering an area 87,200 m2.

The demolishment and relocation operation includes many of the “city villages”. The agency has planned for 80 “city villages” to be demolished and re-located to better quarters this year. 36 of these are already relocated while the rest should be completed by year end. Similar plans are in the work for the peripheral “villages” of the city.

The remaining 22 “city villages” will be demolished and relocated next year and mark the completion of the urban relocation plans for all the “city villages” in Beijing.

At the same time, relocation project of the villages in the Aviation corridor are also going on. 3 of the 9 villages are in the relocation phase while the rest are preparing for the shift.

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The Beijing University Stadium now the Tan Sri Khoo Teck Puat Stadium?

Today, the Beijing University received a $173.3million rmb ($22million USD) donation from the Khoo Foundation (Singapore) to aid the construction of the Beijing University Stadium. This stadium will the venue of the Ping Pong competition in Beijing 2008.

The late Tan Sri Khoo Teck Puat was the richest man in Singapore. He had an estimated fortune of $5 billion usd. As a result, the stadium will be renamed after him.

It's kinda interesting and heartwarming how many overseas Chinese are willing to give huge sums of money to help build the stadiums. The Water Cube is fully funded by overseas Chinese. So is the equestrain competition venue in Hong Kong. Many of these overseas Chinese are decendents of the very poor who were forced to leave their villages to seek a better life for themselves and the family.

For those who made it, many will give millions of dollars to help build schools, factories, houses and now stadiums in China. Even when they are died, they will give a sum of money, like the Khoo family.

It's ironic at the same time because if China wasn't weak for the first 80 years of the 20th century, many of these people won't have left, become rich and contribute back right now. Will they make it rich if they have stayed on in a stronger China? Nobody knows. The only thing we know is that many Chinese love their motherland no matter how far they are away from it.

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Beijing building the Olympic dream

By Carrie Gracie
BBC News, Beijing

"The Olympics is seen as a chance to show China as rich and united

The Beijing Olympics may be almost two years away for you, but this city lives and breathes it.

Ever since it won the bid, the Chinese capital has been straining every sinew to make the 2008 Olympics the best ever.

The stadiums rising over the Beijing skyline are cutting-edge, a firm statement about China's growing confidence on the world stage.

And it is not just Olympic architecture - subways, roads, railways and a huge new airport from one of the world's top architects are also being built.

Beijing is using the Olympics to transform itself into a fitting capital for a 21st century superpower.

Making up for lost time

For the ruling Communist Party this is also an important re-branding exercise. If it can demonstrate to its own public that Beijing is accepted and respected on the international stage, and if it can persuade the world that - political corruption and repression notwithstanding - China is strong, rich and united, it wins twice over from the games.

A win on the field would be gratifying too. Arguments over Taiwan kept Chinese athletes out of the Olympics until 1980, but they have been making up for lost time.

China was only three gold medals behind the US in 2004, and to come top on home turf would make Beijing's 2008 celebration complete.

Sports chiefs have just told their athletes to cut out socialising and avoid all the lucrative distractions of advertising and self-promotion, so they can focus their energy on training.

Critics mutter that China pushes its athletes too hard and still harbours drugs cheats in some sports.

But Olympic gold medallist Deng Yaping told me China's athletes are cleaner than most others, and that the authorities are determined to stamp out drugs altogether.

As for being bullied, she was picked as a future table tennis star at the age of five and spent 20 years inside the sports system.

She insists that it is the athletes who push themselves. She says she got only encouragement from her coaches.

Good impressions

The public is in training too. Mass campaigns of self-improvement are under way, with schoolchildren taking part in Olympic quizzes and essay competitions, and their parents are being urged to learn English and study books on etiquette.

China wants to make the best possible impression on the world in 2008. Spitting, jostling, swearing or surliness will not be permitted.

When I carried out a random survey of Beijingers in a vegetable market and on a bus, I did not find anyone complaining about all of this. They said the Games had helped modernise their city and boost the economy.

Even the builders from southern China I found squatting at the roadside over a mug of rice and vegetables had more complaints about their lunch than the Olympics. They said the Games would be a proud moment for the nation.

Outside China, not everyone is convinced. Political and religious exiles argue that Beijing should never have been awarded the Olympics and that anyone who cares about human rights or democracy should boycott the 2008 event.

Beijing's backers say the opposite is true, that the Olympics is opening China to the world in every field from sport to broadcasting and architecture.

The legacy of 2008, they hope, will be not just stadiums, medals and fireworks, but a government which is more responsive to its own people."

The last paragraph is really heartwarming. I hope it turns out this way.
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