This is one of the final posts on the Beijing Olympics Blog – the experiment is coming to an end, and to be honest, since getting back from China Bob has found it hard to summon up the time and enthusiasm to keep posting. To sign off it’s time to review the Beijing Olympics and [...]
Archive for the ‘Public expectation’ Category
Lessons for London from the Beijing Olympics
Posted in Beijing, Censorship, Culture, Legacy, London 2012, Preparation, Public expectation, Tickets, tagged 2012, 2012 olympics, Beijing, Beijing Olympics, London 2012, london olympics on 1 November 2008 | 1 Comment »
Liu Xiang Withdraws in Beijing
Posted in Athletes, Public expectation, The Games, Track and Field, tagged 110m hurdles, Beijing Olympics, bird's nest, high hurdles, Liu Xiang on 18 August 2008 | 5 Comments »
Liu Xiang has been forced out of the 110m hurdles at the first hurdle (apologies), due to a leg injury. Round 1 of his event began this morning, and, but not before rumours were fluttering around the Bird’s Nest that he was injured. The crowd were on edge, but when Liu valliently came out for [...]
Mystery of the Missing Olympic Tickets
Posted in Public expectation, Sponsors, The Games, Tickets, tagged Beijing Olympics, BOCOG, empty seats, olympic orgnaisers, olympic tickets on 13 August 2008 | 7 Comments »
The familiar site of a huge sporting event with empty seats has struck again in Beijing it seems. Many of the lower profile events – despite being completely sold out! – have failed to draw a full crowd.
This is really upsetting for fans, particularly those who have not been able to purchase tickets legitimately, but [...]
Opening Ceremony – Top 10 moments
Posted in Beijing, Culture, Legacy, London 2012, Preparation, Public expectation, tagged 2008 opening ceremony, beijing olympcis, beijing opening ceremony, drums, li ning, olympic opening ceremony, olympic pictures, opening ceremony on 11 August 2008 | 2 Comments »
The general concensus appears to be that it was a truely spectacular opening ceremony (and no need to any fears of upset).
Bob watched the whole ceremony with friends, and here are out selection of the top 10 moments:
10 – The sea of printing blocks – representing the creation of printing in China – that [...]
Olympic Opening Ceremony Day
Posted in Beijing, Preparation, Protests, Public expectation, Uncategorized, tagged beijing 2008, beijing olympcis, beijing olympcis blog, beijing olympcis opening ceremony, opening ceremony, shanghai on 8 August 2008 | 10 Comments »
Finally the day has come and everybody – with the possible exception of those who have chosen to time such an auspicious date with wedding/child birth – is gearing up for the main event; the Opening Ceremony.
All over Shanghai people have been working half-days, leaving work early to prepare for the evening’s festivities. Bars and [...]
Taiwan’s Olympic Name – Chinese Taipei or China’s Taipei?
Posted in Architecture, Culture, Protests, Public expectation, olympic torch, tagged china, chinese olympics, chinese taipei, olympic games, olympic protests, olympic torch, olympics, taipei 101, taiwan, zhongghu taipei, zhongguo taibei, zhongguo taipei, zhonghua taibei on 13 July 2008 | 8 Comments »
Attending an Olympic Games hosted by China was always going to throw up some interesting challenges for the Taiwanese team, and the China’ Taiwan Affairs office have decided to spice things up. The controversy revolves around the name that Taiwan competes under at the Olympics…
The situation is this: in 1989 China and Taiwan agreed that [...]
Beijing Olympic Anti-Terrorism Exercises
Posted in Legacy, Preparation, Protests, Public expectation, olympic torch, tagged anti-terrorism, Beijing Olympics, beijing terrorism, chinese military, chinese police, olympic preparations, olympic terrorism, olympic torch on 10 July 2008 | 3 Comments »
This week the Boston Globe has a collection of photos from various anti-terrorism exercises and demonstrations (thanks to Rachel for pointing this out). A number of these come from “a week-long series of anti-terrorist drills called “Great Wall 5″, in preparation for the upcoming 2008 Olympic Games”, so the Globe claims.
Although this may just be [...]
Epic Wimbledon Battle Boosts Beijing Significance
Posted in Athletes, London 2012, Public expectation, The Games, tagged beijing 2008, Beijing Olympics, federer, nadal, olympic tennis, olympics, rafael nadal, roger federer, tennis, wimbledon, wimbledon 2008, wimbledon final on 6 July 2008 | 2 Comments »
This post is being written from SW19 where today Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer made history, beautifully.
It is four years until Wimbledon will be an Olympic venue, but today the most famous tennis club in the world played host to a such exhibition of sporting excellence that the Greek Gods themselves would have struggled to [...]
Liu Xiang’s World Record Tumbles Before Beijing
Posted in Athletes, Public expectation, The Games, Track and Field, World Records, tagged 100m hurdles, dayron robles, high hurdles, Liu Xiang, olympics, ostrava, world record, world record holder on 12 June 2008 | 6 Comments »
Cuba’s Dayron Robles has toppled Liu Xiang’s 110m hurdles world record. The 21-year-old clocked 12.87 seconds, beating Liu’s time by just 0.01 seconds and smashing his own personal best. Liu was not racing.
Check out Robles’ reaction here:
Olympic favourite in more ways than one, Liu Xiang is not only expected to successfully [...]
Olympics = Dialogue
Posted in Media, Preparation, Protests, Public expectation, tagged beijing olympic games, Beijing Olympics, china review on 22 May 2008 | Leave a Comment »
The latest issue of the China Review came out this week, and was predictably packed with Olympic-centric articles. One quote particularly caught Bob’s eye and had to be included here:
“Being pragmatic, people inside and outside China should look past the temporary politics, and celebrate this event as a key moment in the encounter and dialogue [...]
