The Beijing Forbidden palace housed 24 of China’s emperors prior to the end of imperial rule in 1911. It has been undergoing major restoration efforts that are on schedule to be completed by 2020. State media has reported that many of the key areas will be ready for tourists just in time for the 2008 Summer Olympics opening ceremonies.
Pretty cool news for those of you who are heading out to see the Olympics live this year.
March 10th was the deadline for submitting a song to be used as the theme song for the 2008 Biejing Summer Olympics. Over 50,000 songs have been submitted. They are looking for 25 songs for the main Summer Olympic Games, and 10 songs for the Paralympics games.
“Chris Babida” was already named as the theme song for the the 2008 Summer Olympics torch relay, and “I am a Star” by Emil Chau was named as the song to be played for the Olympic volunteers. One song in particular has been getting A LOT of attention, Giorgio Moroder and Kong Xiangdong’s “Forever Friends”. Moroder has already written two Olympic theme song, this would be his third to make it in the Olympics.
Here is a nice rendition of the song by CoCo Lee:
British Prime Minister Gordon Brown announced that he will be skipping the opening ceremony for the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing China. Although, he did say that he will attend the closing ceremonies.
Other major world leaders are considering skipping the games. German Chancellor Angela Merkel has already announced that he is not going to attend the opening ceremonies.
The next step is for countries to start announcing they will boycott the Olympics. I hope that doesn’t happen, but I can certainly understand why countries would boycott the 2008 olympics.
Do you wonder what route the Olympic Torch is taking in 2008?
Well, I just found out that you can track it’s path and find out exactly where it is today, by visiting the Google Maps Olympic Torch relay page.
From the map you can see where the torch is, where it was and where it is going.
Pretty Cool, huh?
I just came across this hilarious news article.
Here are my two favorite quotes from the article:
Chinese President Hu Jintao issued a statement stating that the People’s Republic of China will not send a team to Beijing to participate in the Olympics. Jintao cited China’s poor record on human rights and the environment as primary reasons.
United States President George W. Bush remarked, “Cool! More medals for Americans!”
So funny! Click here to read the rest of the spoof article on China’s boycott of the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics.
