Travel Report From Beijing: Olympic Superlatives
August 4, 2008
Tens of billions of dollars have been spent, hundreds of thousands of police, soldiers and volunteers have been mobilised, and more than 4 billion people are expected to follow the Olympics on TV. With an event of such magnitudes coming up, let’s take a look at some of the other superlatives surrounding the Beijing Olympics so far.
Most surprising: Olympic village facilities. There are many things to love about China but clean facilities is not usually one of them. Surely, the authorities gave their all but to hear statements such as “best Olympic village I have visited” from Norbert Littkopf, a six-time Olympic Games attendee and coach of the German female judo team, is still positively surprising.
Most problematic: Weather and environment. Be it the terrible heat or the still-not-so-great air quality, athletes are going to have a hard time beating world records under these conditions. Despite adding more and long overdue subway lanes and implementing an odd/even faceplate rule for cars, there are still too many cars on the road.
Biggest fear: Rain on the day of the opening ceremony. Despite sophisticated chemical gadgetry to prevent rainfall one can’t help but to imagine the disastrous consequences a major downpour would have on the multi-million dollar publicity event directed by movie director Zhang Yimou (Raise the Red Lantern, To Live, Hero).
Under most pressure: Liu Xiang. Nowadays you can’t walk 100m in Beijing without seeing the face of 2004 Athens man’s 110m hurdles winner and the bearer of the hope of an entire nation. For a country without a single Olympic track and field gold medal until 2004, Liu Xiang was a first. Add the two facts that his world record was just beaten this year by Cuban national Dayron Robles (12.87s) and that Li Xiang himself has failed to break 13 seconds this year, you probably wouldn’t want to be in his shoes right now. Fortunately, he’s not only fast but also a smart guy: he doesn’t read the news and when interviewed about his goals for the Games, he said he just wants to “have some fun.”
Most disappointing: Inbound travel. Tight visa regulations have caused a lack of foreign travelers. This has forced hotels and tour operators to bring prices back to sane levels.
Most innovative: Style guides. Chinese are not famous for their sense of aesthetics, so this latest action by the Chinese government to distribute an etiquette and style guide to over 4 million Chinese households is both innovative and, most likely, futile.
Most cheesy: Chinese flags on cars. A friend of mine derived a simple rule of thumb: the cheaper the car, the more eye-catching the flag will be. Whether that is due to a correlation of income level and nationalistic fervour, or merely for decorative reasons, I do not know.
Most hopeful: Sports. Now that the political and journalistic overtures are coming to a close, I hope the Olympics Games will finally shift its focus towards its original purpose, the celebration of sports. And lucky me who got tickets for the track and field finals.
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