Bob is delighted to be writing the Beijing Olympics Blog from China; admittedly not Beijing, but one step at a time. Unfortunately getting here has meant that it’s been a quiet time on the blog recently just the media has been full of enough Olympic news to satisfy the most eager observe. Bob would like to share responsibility for the lack of posts with KLM who run a very relaxed corporate policy towards punctuality, and the Chinese government who have an equally vigilant policy of internet censorship.
You may notice a difference in the coverage of the Beijing Olympics Blog as Bob hopes to provide a more personal experience of the Olympics, as the mainstream press are sure to be full of any and every Beijing story going.
Bob was pleased to be greeted at Shanghai’s Pudong Airport by a host of young and eager volunteers sitting underneath a Beijing 2008 banner and wearing matching uniforms.
“Do you have information about the Olympics?”
“No, sorry.”
“Oh, do you have information about the Olympic football in Shanghai?”
“No, we just have information about Shanghai.”
“Or how to get to Beijing from Shanghai?”
“No, just Shanghai.”
Still, they did have lots of information about Shanghai!
For the record, although a lot of news coverage appears to have been given to the government’s relaxation of censorship on parts of the web – including the BBC, certain Amnesty sites and content about the 1989 Tian’anmen Square incident – they have not unblocked WordPress. This will probably be enough to appease the IOC who had demanded that the Great Firewall of China be lowered for the Games. This has made accessing and updating the Beijing Olympics Blog quite difficult, and of course it is extremely frustrating that hardly anyone in the mainland will be able to read it. The next update will come as soon as possible, all things considered J
Chinese are the most happiest citizen in the world with their government rule
http://www.cnn.com/video/?/video/bestoftv/2008/08/04/zakaria.week.in.history.8.4.08.cnn
Nice Blog. Where do you get your pictures from specifically? Did you take them yourself? if not, from what site or source? Thanks
Thank you very much Kim. Pictures come from a range of places, and many are personal; the one above was taken at Shanghai Pudong Airport last week.
The Guardian is a good source for images; you can find their gallery here:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/gallery/2008/aug/05/olympics.pictures.today?picture=336223242
[…] over Shanghai people have been working half-days, leaving work early to prepare for the evening’s […]
Can I just get this right – you’re actually blogging from China? I’m impressed!