I’m not sure what the purpose of this is, but Beijing residents can register to take English proficiency exams. I understand the purpose of learning English before the Olympics, I just don’t understand what the purpose of obtaining the certificate is. Do they get some sort of special benefits? It’s unclear to me.
Beach volleyball has not been a staple of Chinese sports for long. They’re hoping for a good showing at the 2008 Olympics, so the team has been sent to Los Angeles to train.
Some people are still deeply disturbed that the 2008 Olympics will take place in a Communist country. There are some good arguments made from both sides. Yes, it seems horrible to “support” the human rights violations that China has committed. On the other hand, perhaps the Olympics can help China move towards a more free society. Whatever the arguments, I think the Beijing Olympics will go forth as proposed. I don’t think there will be a change of venue or a boycott.
I have friends who have been to Beijing, and they say it is, well, let’s just be polite and say “not clean”. Not to mention the traffic. Will this be cleared up in the next two years? The mayor of Beijing says yes.
There are approximately 2.6 million vehicles in Beijing. That’s a lot of cars. Think of traffic in New York City, and you sort of get the picture. But if you can think of New York City traffic, and then imagine that everyone just ignores the traffic laws, that would give you a better picture. Mayor Wang Qishan is aware of the problem and says steps are being taken to enforce the rules of the road. Also, parking fees have been imposed to cut back on driving.
Will Beijing get this under control in time? We’ll see. We have a friend who will be in Beijing probably a couple of times between now and the Olympics, and she will hopefully be able to give us a first-hand look at what is going on.
Somebody really put a lot of thought into creating the emblem for the Beijing Olympics. The emblem is made up of loose interpretation of the character “Jing”, which means capital, as in “Beijing— the northern capital”.
Beijing citizens are concerned about the disruption that the Olympics will cause. Chinese lawmakers are being urged to take their feelings into consideration. We have a friend who has spent time in China, and she feels that it’s unlikely that the organizers are really going to spend a lot of time worrying about the convenience of the locals. She feels the stress will be on a smooth running Olympics and, to the extent that the locals’ feelings affect that, they will be taken into consideration. In other words, if the city is falling apart and makes China look bad, that will be a matter of concern. A few farmers disgruntled about being moved to make room for a stadium probably won’t.
Something about this article just made me laugh. It’s not enough that they need to build a new infrastructure and Olympic venues. They also have to work on teaching a different set of manners.
Hot on the heels of the new figure skating scoring system, gymnastics is also implementing a new scoring system. Similar to the skating system, there will be a difficulty score and an execution score. The new system was used for its first competition at last weekend’s American Cup in Philadelphia. Two Texans won the international competition.
There aren’t exactly a lot of Olympic venues already built for the Beijing Olympics, so the Chinese government will have a huge outlay to prepare for the next Summer Olympics. Because of this, it is highly unlikely that the 2008 Summer Olympics will be profitable. $2.4 billion is expected to go towards constructing the Olympic venues. Another $35-40 billion is expected to be poured into urban renewal. At least those improvements will prove helpful long after the Olympics. It’s hard to imagine what China would do with some of the venues after the Olympics.
The United States Basketball team has been selected. You can read more here.
One of the most notable players missing from the team is Allen Iverson. Iverson played on the 2004 team that won bronze. Even though it was a disapointing team, Allen was one of the few big name players to play for the 2004 team. It seems to me like he deserves to play for the 2008 team, because he was willing to put himself out there in 2004. Not to mention he has exerience in the Olympics. I understand the whole chemistry idea, but what about Dream Team 1 and Dream Team 2, did they have a lot of role players or stars?
What do you think? Should Allen Iverson be on the 2008 US Olympics Basketball Team?
