Funny videos about how to speak Chinese for Beijing Olympics

These were really cute videos about how to pronounce Beijing (hint: it’s a “j”, not a “zh” sound, and most newscasters are getting it wrong), how to do the official Chinese Olympic cheer and a bit about the other locations that are hosting Olympic events.

Athletes prepare for running in smog at Beijing Olympics

I read this interesting article today about how runners are preparing for dealing with the poor air quality at the Olympics in China. Precautions include everything from breathing gear to arriving at the last possible moment. Marathon world record holder Haile Gebrselassie, who is asthmatic, won’t even be running the marathon, although he [...]

Will the smog clear in time for the Summer Olympics?

Perhaps you’ve read that Beijing is, um, a bit smoggy these days. Officials have taken drastic measures, including shutting down factories and clearing half the cars off the road, in order to try to cut down on the smog. But perhaps you’re thinking, “What’s the big deal? It’s just a little smog”. [...]

No earthquakes predicted for Beijing Olympics

If China’s seismic monitoring network can be trusted, China should be earthquake free for the Olympics (of course, do you really think they’d broadcast it if they were expecting an earthquake?). There are over 100 earthquake monitoring stations in a 150,000 square kilometer area. They are capable of detecting earthquakes as light as [...]

Two things you won’t see at the Beijing Summer Olympics

Babies and banners. The Chinese Olympic organizers have put out a spectator’s guide book that includes some common sense bans: drunkenness, nudity, and gambling, to name a few. But also included in the ban are banners supporting individual athletes or teams. That’s right. You’ll be seeing no “Go Phelps” signs [...]

Dog out but donkey still available

Chinese health officials have asked restaurants likely to be frequented by international visitors during the Beijing Olympics to remove dog from the menu. However, donkey will still be available. So, if you’re headed to the Summer Olympics and were hoping to try foreign delicacies, you’ll just have to settle for a slice of [...]

2008 Summer Olympics News From Around The Web

My wife and I have been very busy this week, so I wanted to go ahead and share a few of the more interesting 2008 Summer Olympics related stories from around the web this week:

Beijing Olympics Airport: World’s Biggest Airport Opens in Beijing
This post has very cool pictures of the new Beijing airport.

Many [...]

Will Gas Prices Affect The 2008 Summer Olympics?

I was just thinking about the high gas prices and I was wondering if gas prices are going to affect the 2008 Summer Olympics. The huge rise in gas prices has certainly affected people’s travel plans in the United States. In fact, the rising gas prices are affecting all areas of our lives here in [...]

2008 Summer Olympics Tickets Almost Sold Out

Tickets for the 2008 Summer Olympics in China have sold out for all the events being held in Beijing. The only tickets left are for some of the football (soccer to us Americans) matches being played outside of Beijing.

So, if you were planning on going to the Olympics this year I hope you already bought [...]

Food Safety at the Beijing Olympics

If you’re planning to attend the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics, you might want to bring some peanut butter and jelly. China has vowed to crack down on food safety, but a recent report showed a street vendor selling buns stuffed with shredded pork mixed with cardboard. Hopefully, this problem will be resolved over [...]

2008 Beijing Olympic Venues Video

I have to hand it to the Chinese, the buildings being constructed for the 2008 Beijing Olympics are just phenomenal. From the Bird’s Nest to the Water Cube, they are really unique. The following video focuses on four of the new buildings and some of the controversy surrounding them.

Restaurants: The “Golden Tripod Attic”

The “Golden Tripod Attic” (Jin Ding Xuan) is near the Lama Temple, and it‘s perfect if you‘re looking for a place to have dinner either with a couple of friends or a large group of people. You can get there by taking the subway to Lama Temple station (Yong He Gong) and then take the [...]

Beijing has test run clearing roads for the 2008 Olympics

Sports Illustrated ran a recent story about a test run for clearing Beijing traffic for the 2008 Summer Olympics. I don’t think that most of us truly appreciate the traffic problem in Beijing. It’s not simply a matter of too many drivers on the road (think New York City). It’s also the [...]

Beijing Bargaining for Beginners

China used to have a two-price-system, one set of prices for Chinese and one set of prices for foreigners. While that was abolished a while ago, it still sticks in the heads of some people. Vendors think that all foreigners have an incredible amount of money to spend and will often charge you three times [...]

A Night at a Five Star Hotel

I booked a room through www.ctrip.com at the Beijing Nikko New Century Hotel, a five star hotel run by Japan Airlines, The hotel is located in the western part of the city between the third and the second ring road. Booking through ctrip, the hotel was only 788 Yuan ($100) per night.

As I got there [...]

A Trip to… the Hospital

During my one-year stay in China as an exchange student, I was very careful not to have to go to the hospital, and, in fact, the only time I ever had to was when I accompanied someone else. Apart from that one time, I managed to stay away from hospitals and was very grateful [...]

Buying Tea in Beijing

After reading in the newspaper that this year’s tea had just newly arrived in the stores, I definitely had to go to Maliandao to buy some. Maliandao is in the southwest of Beijing, just south of Beijing West Railway Station. It’s basically a whole street just lined with tea stores, some bigger ones, but mostly [...]