Who can go to the Beijing Olympics?

Danwei quoted earlier an entry in a newsletter by Access Asia, bearing the hallmarks of Chinabiz Speaker Paul French, where he wondered who would actually visit the Beijing Olympics. Unlike Paul, I have at least one friend who is very sure he will be there, but I must admit, that is not enough to fill a stadium.

So, I was a bit surprised when I noted a headline by the Dutch newspaper De Telegraaf announcing that almost all flights to Beijing for the Olympics in 2008 were sold out already. The Dutch are mostly pretty serious about planning their holidays and most households would have reached an agreement about their summer destination by Christmas. But one year ahead? Was here a hype brewing I had been missing?

The article itself showed the explanation. Almost all tickets to Beijing, about 6,000, have been bought for the Dutch Olympic Committee and related organizations. So, no hype, only a terrible shortage of flight tickets is developing. I do expect a similar pattern in other European countries. Even if European enthusiasts might want to come to China in that period, there are not enough tickets. Expansion of the flight capacity is hardly possible, so Beijing might have another problem in getting European to the Olympics. They cannot come, unless they arrive a month earlier.

Beijing Olympics has its own nail house

You might still remember those nail houses in Chongqing, Shenzhen and Shanghai? Angry house owners did not want to leave for the bulldozers. Well, Beijing has its own and today it made it to the International Herald Tribune.
Sun Ruoyu is fighting to retain a 1840 bakery that is unfortunately on the route of the marathon of the Beijing Olympics in 2008. They can make a detour, can't they?

Cleaning up Beijing before the Olympics

In my search for new speakers at our now very soon starting speakers bureau I bumbed into this website by Beijing resident Gilbert van Kerckhove, also advisor of the Beijing government regarding the Olympics next year.
On his weblog he describes the still unclear features of what will happen to Beijing during the Olympics and it is not a happy story.

Yesterday I met a lawyer with office in Jianwei SOHO. They received notice they will not be allowed to operate during 3 weeks. SOHO to be closed. Forced holidays. Hm…. interesting. Switch off your computers, lock the door and come back later. More puzzling, many firms in SOHO - and other buildings - will have a peak of workload during the Games as they will be involved in organizing events, assisting visiting foreign colleagues and clients, and much more.

Foreign residents are already planning a holiday in Thailand during the Olympics, he suggests. A much needed call for sanity.

Beijing is full

In Beijing now each 1.46 family has a car, reports China Car Times. The difference between the rush hours and the rest of the day have now mostly disappeared as traffic is hardly moving. More than three million cars are on the road and perhaps it has to look at the situation in Tokyo or New York were using that car is very hard.

The car manufacturers will be happy with that situation. They do not want you to use a car, but only to buy it. Then their job is over.

Eradicating Tiananmen too effective

An interesting twist in the efforts by the Chinese censors to eradicate the bloodshed at June 4 1989 in Beijing from everybody's memory (at least in China then). ESWN translates (h/t Danwei) a report about an incident where a rather young editor of the Chengdu Evening News allowed an ad into the paper remembering the incident. "Salute to the strong mothers of June 4th victims!", the ad said.
The editor, who had no clue about the crackdown on June 4, 1989 was told that the text referred to an accident that happened in the past. It show how effective censorship can be.
Below a few books to improve your knowledge, that is, if the link is not blocked in China.

Update: The editors involved in this incident have been fired, reports Reuters.

Beijing real estate dispute turns nasty

It is still a long way to a really harmonious society. Billsdue reports on a real estate dispute in Beijing that really turned nasty as the real estate developer last night hired some thugs to beat up residents.

Update: More media reports and pictures at Danwei.

Beijing needs a few language teachers

The Beijing Olympics are around the corner, but there is still a lot of Chinglish that is close to hilarious. Paul French made this picture in a Beijing hotel and that was picked up by Danwei.

Beijing internet star makes it to CNN

Su Fei in action

"Sexy Beijing" the TV-show launched by Danwei, starring Su Fei, has made it to CNN.

But at its heart, her Internet TV show "Sexy Beijing" offers a lighthearted peek into daily life in China's capital, with Loewenberg, who writes and edits the show, interviewing the city's people on various topics.

Nice to see the blurring borders between new and old media. Here and here some more reports on the internet.

Hu Jintao beats Bush in Time top-100

Liu Qi next to IOC-president Rogge

Time magazine published its list of the top-100 most influential people and again I had to struggle through a list of people I have often never heard off. (Here is the list, here the link to Time.)

US president Bush has lost his position, while his Chinese counterpart Hu Jintao still goes strong. Beijing Party Secretary Liu Qi made it and that seems closely connected to his efforts to get the Beijing Olympics in 2008 in place. Liu doubles also as the chairman of the Beijing Olympic Committee.
Of course Time had also to include one of the modern Chinese power brokers with weblogger Zeng Jinya, the wife of dissident Hu Jia, to keep the list nicely balanced.

Beijing is getting it too

A beautiful picture of Beijing's emerging infrastructure. Well, from a distance it looks nice, although it is not that good when you are standing under one of the bridges. I picked it up at Virtual China, but to there it made already a long way.