BEIJING, Aug. 2 (Xinhua) -- International Olympic Committee (IOC) President Jacques Rogge said here on Saturday the Beijing Olympic Village was the best ever and he also piled praises on the Games organization.
"I had the privilege to reside in the Olympic Village since the 1968 Mexico Games, and I never saw a village like this. It is outstanding," said Rogge at his first press conference in Beijing. The Olympic Village, which opened on July 27, is a 66-hectare compound for about 16,000 athletes and their entourage.
"By all accounts, especially the athletes, the village is the best ever," he said after touring the compound on Friday. Rogge, who arrived in Beijing on Thursday, also reiterated his confidence in the Games success. "The venues are ready and have produced about 37 tests events...we have absolutely no concern for the organization," he said. "I'm sure that on Aug. 9th, the day after the opening ceremony, the magic of the Games and the flawless organization will take over," he said.
Showing posts with label china culture. Show all posts
Showing posts with label china culture. Show all posts
Monday, 4 August 2008
Friday, 1 August 2008
China President Hu Urges World "Not to politicise" Olympics
With one week to go to the Beijing Olympics, Chinese President Hu Jintao has urged people not to politicise the Games. In a rare news conference, Mr Hu said politicising the event undermined the Olympic movement, and called for dialogue to resolve contentious issues. Hosting the Games showed China's desire for peaceful global ties, he said. His comments came amid apparent concessions by Beijing in a row over internet access for journalists.
More sites which had been blocked in Olympic media centres - such as that of rights group Amnesty International - were accessible on Friday, journalists said. Previously unavailable sites were also available in some cities in China, the BBC confirmed. The move followed talks between Chinese organisers and officials from the International Olympic Committee (IOC) on Thursday. But, said the president, China's core aim for the Olympics was to promote international peace and friendship.
Politicising the Games ran counter to the Olympic spirit and to the shared hopes of people across the world. "It is only inevitable that people from different countries and regions may not see eye to eye with one another on some different issues," he said. "And I think in this context, we should enter into consultations on an equal footing to narrow our differences and expand our common ground on the basis of mutual respect."
Comprehensive reforms - both economic and political - would continue after the Olympics, the Chinese leader said - an answer, correspondents say, to critics who believe any increase in freedoms in China now will end with the closing ceremony of the Games. And Mr Hu emphasised that China's rise should not be perceived as a threat.
"The development we pursue is peaceful, open and co-operative in nature," he said. The Chinese leader also touched on the internet row. Journalists were welcome, he said, and should abide by Chinese rules and regulations. "We also hope you will provide objective reports of what you see here," he said.
Foreign journalists' access to the Chinese president is almost non-existent, reports the BBC's Jill McGivering. So the government's decision to invite foreign media to a 70-minute personal meeting was in itself extraordinary. China is well aware of its image problem, our correspondent adds, and the decision to put Mr Hu in front of the press - and his conciliatory tone - show how desperately China wants the Olympic Games to be a public relations success.
More sites which had been blocked in Olympic media centres - such as that of rights group Amnesty International - were accessible on Friday, journalists said. Previously unavailable sites were also available in some cities in China, the BBC confirmed. The move followed talks between Chinese organisers and officials from the International Olympic Committee (IOC) on Thursday. But, said the president, China's core aim for the Olympics was to promote international peace and friendship.
Politicising the Games ran counter to the Olympic spirit and to the shared hopes of people across the world. "It is only inevitable that people from different countries and regions may not see eye to eye with one another on some different issues," he said. "And I think in this context, we should enter into consultations on an equal footing to narrow our differences and expand our common ground on the basis of mutual respect."
Comprehensive reforms - both economic and political - would continue after the Olympics, the Chinese leader said - an answer, correspondents say, to critics who believe any increase in freedoms in China now will end with the closing ceremony of the Games. And Mr Hu emphasised that China's rise should not be perceived as a threat.
"The development we pursue is peaceful, open and co-operative in nature," he said. The Chinese leader also touched on the internet row. Journalists were welcome, he said, and should abide by Chinese rules and regulations. "We also hope you will provide objective reports of what you see here," he said.
Foreign journalists' access to the Chinese president is almost non-existent, reports the BBC's Jill McGivering. So the government's decision to invite foreign media to a 70-minute personal meeting was in itself extraordinary. China is well aware of its image problem, our correspondent adds, and the decision to put Mr Hu in front of the press - and his conciliatory tone - show how desperately China wants the Olympic Games to be a public relations success.
Monday, 28 July 2008
3-month Cultural Extravaganza for Beijing
BEIJING, July 28 (Xinhua) -- The Beijing Organizing Committee for the Olympic Games (BOCOG) will provide a variety of unique cultural activities during the coming sports gala in August, said a senior BOCOG official here on Monday.
The Ministry of Culture, Beijing municipal government and the BOCOG have jointly developed the 2008 cultural program and mapped out the Olympic Cultural Festival from June 23 to Sept. 17, said Zhao Dongming, director of BOCOG Culture and Ceremonies Department.
"The cultural festival will last nearly three months throughout the Olympics and Paralympics. It will be a marvelous Olympic cultural event with the longest time, the most abundant contents, the largest number of performance teams and the most complete artistic variety," Zhao said at a press conference at the Main Press Center. The festival will host significant cultural activities with "Meet in Beijing 2008" as the theme, including Asia Night, Africa Night, Latin America Night, Arab Night, SCO (Shanghai Cooperation Organization) Night and other song and dance shows. Nearly 20,000 artists from more than 80 countries and regions will feature in 600-plus performances, including those from Hong Kong, Macao and Chinese Taipei. On Aug. 8 when the Olympics officially opens, the Olympic Expo will also be launched in a grand way at the Beijing Exhibition Center.
"During the Olympic Games, we will strive to make opportunities for ordinary citizens to share the joyful atmosphere. All the Olympic cultural squares, as well as most exhibitions, will be opento the public free of charge," Zhao promised.
According to the official, more than 20 Olympic cultural squares will be set up in Beijing and other co-hosting cities will also stage square cultural activities. During the Olympic period, there will be nearly 40 international and over 150 domestic exhibitions for arts, artifacts, painting, photography, sculpture, murals and non-material heritage. While most state-level museums will be open for free during the Olympics, some historical heritage sites, such as the Forbidden City and the Gongwang Mansion, will keep requiring admission fee from visitors in order to better protect the heritages, Zhao explained. As theatre performances will be aimed for public welfare during the Olympic Games, the government has started to provide subsidies for domestic art troupes, together with low-price tickets.
During the cultural activities, "we definitely put security as our priority to ensure a worry-free Olympic Games. We will intensify our efforts to help the public understand the importance of security check," Zhao said.
In the Olympic Center Area and Olympic Village, people can also enjoy Lucky Clouds Theatre, China Story exhibition, Fuwa Mobile Show, Flag-raising Square performance, folk custom shows and Chinese learning areas. Ding Baizhi, deputy director of BOCOG Culture and Ceremonies Department, said "cultural activities in the Olympic Village have three features of evening square performances, exhibitions and experience activities to combine eastern and western culture and help foreign athletes taste Chinese culture themselves." At the flag-raising square in the Olympic Village, art troupes perform every night for 90 minutes, bilingual hostess may invite spectators to the evening performance of traditional Chinese dances and acrobatics as well as foreign songs, and 25 Chinese folk artists made group debut at the commercial street in the village to showcase handcraft art treasures, such as shadow play, clay sculpture with colorful painting.
As long as foreign athletes are willing, they can join to learn at the spot, Ding said. Chinese language learning seems to be the most popular program in the Olympic Village. There is a special venue, always full of people, in the village to teach foreign athletes, coaches and officials how to read and writer Chinese. "The arrangement of language learning had not been seen in previous Olympic Games, a difference of the Beijing Olympic Games," Ding said.
The Ministry of Culture, Beijing municipal government and the BOCOG have jointly developed the 2008 cultural program and mapped out the Olympic Cultural Festival from June 23 to Sept. 17, said Zhao Dongming, director of BOCOG Culture and Ceremonies Department.
"The cultural festival will last nearly three months throughout the Olympics and Paralympics. It will be a marvelous Olympic cultural event with the longest time, the most abundant contents, the largest number of performance teams and the most complete artistic variety," Zhao said at a press conference at the Main Press Center. The festival will host significant cultural activities with "Meet in Beijing 2008" as the theme, including Asia Night, Africa Night, Latin America Night, Arab Night, SCO (Shanghai Cooperation Organization) Night and other song and dance shows. Nearly 20,000 artists from more than 80 countries and regions will feature in 600-plus performances, including those from Hong Kong, Macao and Chinese Taipei. On Aug. 8 when the Olympics officially opens, the Olympic Expo will also be launched in a grand way at the Beijing Exhibition Center.
"During the Olympic Games, we will strive to make opportunities for ordinary citizens to share the joyful atmosphere. All the Olympic cultural squares, as well as most exhibitions, will be opento the public free of charge," Zhao promised.
According to the official, more than 20 Olympic cultural squares will be set up in Beijing and other co-hosting cities will also stage square cultural activities. During the Olympic period, there will be nearly 40 international and over 150 domestic exhibitions for arts, artifacts, painting, photography, sculpture, murals and non-material heritage. While most state-level museums will be open for free during the Olympics, some historical heritage sites, such as the Forbidden City and the Gongwang Mansion, will keep requiring admission fee from visitors in order to better protect the heritages, Zhao explained. As theatre performances will be aimed for public welfare during the Olympic Games, the government has started to provide subsidies for domestic art troupes, together with low-price tickets.
During the cultural activities, "we definitely put security as our priority to ensure a worry-free Olympic Games. We will intensify our efforts to help the public understand the importance of security check," Zhao said.
In the Olympic Center Area and Olympic Village, people can also enjoy Lucky Clouds Theatre, China Story exhibition, Fuwa Mobile Show, Flag-raising Square performance, folk custom shows and Chinese learning areas. Ding Baizhi, deputy director of BOCOG Culture and Ceremonies Department, said "cultural activities in the Olympic Village have three features of evening square performances, exhibitions and experience activities to combine eastern and western culture and help foreign athletes taste Chinese culture themselves." At the flag-raising square in the Olympic Village, art troupes perform every night for 90 minutes, bilingual hostess may invite spectators to the evening performance of traditional Chinese dances and acrobatics as well as foreign songs, and 25 Chinese folk artists made group debut at the commercial street in the village to showcase handcraft art treasures, such as shadow play, clay sculpture with colorful painting.
As long as foreign athletes are willing, they can join to learn at the spot, Ding said. Chinese language learning seems to be the most popular program in the Olympic Village. There is a special venue, always full of people, in the village to teach foreign athletes, coaches and officials how to read and writer Chinese. "The arrangement of language learning had not been seen in previous Olympic Games, a difference of the Beijing Olympic Games," Ding said.
Sunday, 20 July 2008
National pride sweeps China ahead of Olympic Games
LONDON - The Guardian
A wave of nationalist fervour is sweeping across China as it prepares for the Olympic Games. In Yan'an, the once-poor city that was the cradle of Mao's revolution, growing economic and social divisions are being submerged by a heady mix of sporting passion and political pride.
Behind the hills and the skyscrapers the sun is going down on another working day, but Ren Zhirong cannot stop to talk. The carpet still has to be laid on the university's volleyball courts, the spotlights connected, the music chosen. Only then can scores of his finest pupils show Yan'an, a small town in central China, 'what ballroom dancing is all about'.
'This is the moment I have been working towards all my life,' said Ren, 48, as he watched 100 contestants, all from Yan'an University, putting the finishing touches to their make-up and costumes. 'This is my dream.'
The couples adjusting pink nylon gowns and sequinned electric blue trousers do not know it but they - and Ren - are the face of modern China. Far from Beijing, from Shanghai or from the bustling economic powerhouse of Guangdong province, they have grown up in a poor, rural, northern-central province and are often the first in the family to receive more than a rudimentary education - and in some cases the first not to worry about basics like food and a roof.
Shi Tao Jao, in a yellow dress, hopes for a career in 'international tourist management'. Dancing allows her 'to meet boys'. These young people have watched their country evolving at an astonishing pace. In the last competition, Shi came second. Now she wants to be first.
Ren himself knows about change. He set up the club, from which he now earns a good living, with the 60,000 yuan (£4,400) redundancy payment he received when the state-owned factory where he had worked for 26 years shut 18 months ago - bankrupted by the government's free market reforms. 'Once it was just two of us. Now we have 400 dancers,' Ren, a former truck driver, said. And with three weeks to go until the Olympics, Ren's ambitions of teaching all Yan'an the cha-cha-cha have met with official approval.
The Communist party of China is nothing if not flexible. What some might once have considered a bourgeois Western import has been cleverly co-opted. 'We are using ballroom dancing to mobilise young people for the Olympics,' says Shen Chang Liang, in Yan'an's public sports office. As elsewhere in China, local authorities are planning a series of sporting competitions, parades and open days to crank up the popular fervour for the Olympics.
Sports authorities may insist that the games themselves are non-political, but few in China are blind to their internal significance. Bringing the Olympics to the country is widely seen as a vindication of the government's diplomatic skill - and therefore that of the party - as well as its economic competence. It is also seen as a key assertion of a new national identity and confidence.
'Sport is a key part of the project of the party for the nation,' said Liu Haijun, director of the Yan'an Sports Institute.
So Yan'an, population 340,000, now has a new 20,000-seat sports stadium, one of hundreds of such projects across the country. Every afternoon, after lessons in the morning, scores of teenage students train on the stadium's Astroturf. Mainly from poor rural families, they are all students of Yan'an's subsidised Sports Institute. This, they hope, is their way out of poverty.
But equality, sporting or otherwise, is relative. The director's large, new black car is parked outside the students' squalid, rudimentary accommodation and the windows to his air-conditioned office keep the stench from the student's communal latrines at bay.
For the government, sport not only projects national pride and prowess, but is a way of cushioning the pain of immense social and economic changes.
The parents of Lu Fan, 17, an aspiring young sprinter at the academy, live 30 miles north of Yan'an in a flat provided by the factory where they have worked for 20 years. If the state-owned enterprise closes they will lose income, healthcare and their home. Then the £400-a-year fees for the sports institute would be very difficult to find. 'I am always anxious,' said Lu's mother, Li Chunmei. 'But my son has talent, so I am hopeful too.'
Lu says he is 'realistic'. 'I don't dream of the Olympics. But maybe I'll make it on the national stage one day. And I'll make a good living too,' he says.
But sport will only go so far in uniting the nation behind a repressive one-party state ... and the government has other cards to play.
Yan'an is the city where Mao Zedong ended the Long March and built up his forces before finally launching the campaign that brought him and the resurgent Communist party of China to power in 1949. Scattered among the towering new apartment blocks are the simple - but perfectly maintained - huts and halls used by Mao and his comrades more than 60 years ago.
Since 2005, the government has poured huge resources into 'red tourism' here. A vast station is under construction in Yan'an to welcome special trains ferrying visitors from the sprawling coastal cities. The prettiest and brightest local girls are recruited to guide half a million visitors each year. 'The important thing is to transfer the spirit, diligence and patriotism of the old generation,' says Yuan Xin, 23, a guide and local student.
The visitors are mainly on coach trips from factories and schools but increasingly there are individual visitors, too. In the courtyard of Chairman Mao's former home, one woman said she had brought her nine-year-old daughter to learn of 'the sacrifices made by our leaders'. In another, two young boys dressed up as 1930s soldiers and took pictures of each other. 'The hardship the old leaders suffered is really impressive,' one said.
For their guide, there was no doubt. 'The Communist party and the Chinese nation are inseparable. Without the Communist party, there is no new China,' she said.
The success of 'red tourism' reveals one reason for the party's continued hold on China: the legitimacy the party has as a liberator of the country from invaders, colonial proxies and powers in the mid-20th century.
Equally important is a reputation for efficient management, which explains in part why such extraordinary precautions are being taken to ensure a trouble-free Olympics - despite the bad press they provoke overseas. For months, visas have been restricted, dissidents harassed, activists gagged, normally tolerated critics warned to stay silent and even the most innocent tourists vetted.
'If imposing the control of the party on the games means less visitors, so be it,' said one Western diplomat. 'As long as the games are without incident, anything is acceptable.'
Few in Yan'an, or elsewhere in China, mention democracy or human rights. Some are too frightened. For others, perhaps conditioned by 60 years of tightly controlled media, such ideas seem alien. 'China? Democratic? What a funny idea!' one Yan'an housewife exclaimed. Others repeat the government's argument that China is too big and unstable for Western-style democracy to work.
Among the scores of people interviewed by The Observer in Yan'an only one, a Christian woman student from the Mongolian minority, expressed a desire for greater democracy because 'people would then be more free to practise their religion'. She was quick to add that President Hu Jintao and Prime Minister Wen Jiabao were the best leaders for 40 years.
The party is far from a tiny elite, as some commentators claim. Its official membership is 73 million and growing. Its members range from the powerful technocrats in the upper reaches of government to village chairmen. They include committed socialists, bureaucrats of every variety, quality, honesty and competence and, increasingly, ambitious young networkers.
Yet 'socialism' appears as something of a relic in the new China and 'communism' an inherited but empty title. Few states have embraced neo-liberal capitalism so quickly, so enthusiastically and so thoroughly. Decades of economic growth appear to vindicate the choices made by party leaders in the early 1980s and during a second wave of economic restructuring a decade later.
Alongside the legitimacy conferred by their forebears (the famines and brutality of the Mao era are carefully obscured) and the loyalty resulting from decades of social engineering, is the party's trump card: economic development. And in Yan'an, though perhaps less spectacularly than in Shanghai, the new wealth is very evident.
Outside a small rustic restaurant a new Jaguar belonging to businessman Wang Cheng, 45, is parked. 'It cost me 1.5m yuan (£120,000),' he said, tucking into a meal of pork intestines and chilli. 'I have one philosophy in life: a man's worth is his wealth, his value is his riches.' Wang, a property developer, hotelier and son of a government clerk and a farmer, is not a party member. 'That does not mean I am not a patriot,' he insists.
At the university, staff are proud that the car park is full. 'Now we have more than 80 cars for 270 staff. Ten years ago there were none,' said one lecturer. Even menial labourers living 18 to a filthy 'cave' house on the slopes around Yan'an insisted that life was 'much better' - though they complained about rising prices, the cost of healthcare and school fees. And a 61-year-old woman who earns £1 each evening from collecting plastic bottles for recycling said that life was easier, at least compared to the grim days of famine and political brutality of the Great Leap Forward and the Cultural Revolution of 1966-1976.
Drive off the new motorway running down the fertile valley and on to the rutted road that leads east from Yan'an into the hills and, for 120 miles, the landscape does not vary: wooded hills fissured by erosion; small ponds staked with fish nets; terraced fields sparsely planted with wheat; and villages, a hundred identical dusty clusters of brick, concrete, peeling paint, fading slogans and chickens. On the final ridge before the Yellow river gorge, Wang Zhi Hong, 44, is tending his apple trees.
Wang's village, Zaho, is a long way from the sparkling image of the new China that the government hopes to showcase during the Olympics. Wang admits that, like most of his neighbours, he eats meat only about a dozen times a year. Jars beside his earth-and-brick house collect rain from the roof for drinking and washing. Though some villages have mains water, Zaho's 280 inhabitants cannot find the 300 yuan (£24) for each connection. Most young people have gone to work in the cities.
The daughters of Wang Cui, 51, are in Beijing. 'What do you expect?' she asks. 'This place has not changed for 30 years.' Even the new house she has built with cash sent by her children brings worries. 'Now all our poor relatives want to borrow money,' she says.
But however much Zaho's villagers complain - about poor healthcare, the distant school, corruption and partisan local officials - they remain loyal 'to the great project of building a new China', as described in the slogans painted on their walls a year or so ago. They are grateful for recent tax cuts for farmers and proud that their country is hosting the Olympics. There is only a trace of nostalgia. 'In the old days, 30 years ago,' says Wang. 'Everyone was poor and life was tough ... but at least we were all equal.'
Down in the gorge that funnels the Yellow river through the mountains on its way to the plains and the sea, a crowd of tourists - all Chinese - take photographs. The games, the Chinese authoritarian model, the Western statements on Tibet, their country's economic success, all combine in an outpouring of identity and emotion, of pride in their nation, 'their' Olympics and their government.
There are, of course, threats to the party's dominant position that could become serious in the decades to come: the global economic factors and local environmental problems could derail the economic growth that so many believe will bring them or their children wealth. It is clear that the 'rush for growth' is leading to such profound inequality that stability could be threatened. In one shop in Yan'an, where five pairs of Italian-made shoes, each costing what the staff earn in a month, are sold each day, there were rumblings of discontent. 'It does make me angry,' whispered one shop assistant. 'The gap between the rich and the poor is getting too big.'
The real trouble for the ruling party may come not from this generation but the one that follows. But that is some time away yet. For now, in Yan'an and the rest of China, the dance into a capitalist future goes on and the Communist party continues to call the tune.
Cradle of revolution
· Population of Yan'a n: 340, 000.
· Size: 3,541 sq km.
· Formerly known as Yanzhou, city records go back 1,400 years.
· The town was used as a military headquarters during the Sino-Japanese war (1937-1945) and China's civil war (1945-1949) between the communists and the Nationalists (KMT) led by Chiang Kai-shek.
· When the town was razed by Japanese bombing during the the Second World War, Yan'an's inhabitants took to living in yaodongs, artificial caves carved into the surrounding hillsides.
· Yan'an was the end point of the Long March trek of the Red Army to escape attacks from Chiang's Nationalist armies. It began in October 1934.
· It is the location of the general offices of the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist party.
· The town was the venue for meetings and interviews between the communist leader, Mao Zedong, and the American journalist and author Edgar Snow, as well as his fellow American journalist, Anna Louise Strong, who was a communist supporter.
· The town contains 140 sites that are regarded as significant in revolutionary history, such as the Wangjiaping site, Yangjialing site, the Date garden and Pagoda Hill.
· The Hukou waterfall nearby is the only Yellow river waterfall and the second biggest waterfall in all of China.
A wave of nationalist fervour is sweeping across China as it prepares for the Olympic Games. In Yan'an, the once-poor city that was the cradle of Mao's revolution, growing economic and social divisions are being submerged by a heady mix of sporting passion and political pride.
Behind the hills and the skyscrapers the sun is going down on another working day, but Ren Zhirong cannot stop to talk. The carpet still has to be laid on the university's volleyball courts, the spotlights connected, the music chosen. Only then can scores of his finest pupils show Yan'an, a small town in central China, 'what ballroom dancing is all about'.
'This is the moment I have been working towards all my life,' said Ren, 48, as he watched 100 contestants, all from Yan'an University, putting the finishing touches to their make-up and costumes. 'This is my dream.'
The couples adjusting pink nylon gowns and sequinned electric blue trousers do not know it but they - and Ren - are the face of modern China. Far from Beijing, from Shanghai or from the bustling economic powerhouse of Guangdong province, they have grown up in a poor, rural, northern-central province and are often the first in the family to receive more than a rudimentary education - and in some cases the first not to worry about basics like food and a roof.
Shi Tao Jao, in a yellow dress, hopes for a career in 'international tourist management'. Dancing allows her 'to meet boys'. These young people have watched their country evolving at an astonishing pace. In the last competition, Shi came second. Now she wants to be first.
Ren himself knows about change. He set up the club, from which he now earns a good living, with the 60,000 yuan (£4,400) redundancy payment he received when the state-owned factory where he had worked for 26 years shut 18 months ago - bankrupted by the government's free market reforms. 'Once it was just two of us. Now we have 400 dancers,' Ren, a former truck driver, said. And with three weeks to go until the Olympics, Ren's ambitions of teaching all Yan'an the cha-cha-cha have met with official approval.
The Communist party of China is nothing if not flexible. What some might once have considered a bourgeois Western import has been cleverly co-opted. 'We are using ballroom dancing to mobilise young people for the Olympics,' says Shen Chang Liang, in Yan'an's public sports office. As elsewhere in China, local authorities are planning a series of sporting competitions, parades and open days to crank up the popular fervour for the Olympics.
Sports authorities may insist that the games themselves are non-political, but few in China are blind to their internal significance. Bringing the Olympics to the country is widely seen as a vindication of the government's diplomatic skill - and therefore that of the party - as well as its economic competence. It is also seen as a key assertion of a new national identity and confidence.
'Sport is a key part of the project of the party for the nation,' said Liu Haijun, director of the Yan'an Sports Institute.
So Yan'an, population 340,000, now has a new 20,000-seat sports stadium, one of hundreds of such projects across the country. Every afternoon, after lessons in the morning, scores of teenage students train on the stadium's Astroturf. Mainly from poor rural families, they are all students of Yan'an's subsidised Sports Institute. This, they hope, is their way out of poverty.
But equality, sporting or otherwise, is relative. The director's large, new black car is parked outside the students' squalid, rudimentary accommodation and the windows to his air-conditioned office keep the stench from the student's communal latrines at bay.
For the government, sport not only projects national pride and prowess, but is a way of cushioning the pain of immense social and economic changes.
The parents of Lu Fan, 17, an aspiring young sprinter at the academy, live 30 miles north of Yan'an in a flat provided by the factory where they have worked for 20 years. If the state-owned enterprise closes they will lose income, healthcare and their home. Then the £400-a-year fees for the sports institute would be very difficult to find. 'I am always anxious,' said Lu's mother, Li Chunmei. 'But my son has talent, so I am hopeful too.'
Lu says he is 'realistic'. 'I don't dream of the Olympics. But maybe I'll make it on the national stage one day. And I'll make a good living too,' he says.
But sport will only go so far in uniting the nation behind a repressive one-party state ... and the government has other cards to play.
Yan'an is the city where Mao Zedong ended the Long March and built up his forces before finally launching the campaign that brought him and the resurgent Communist party of China to power in 1949. Scattered among the towering new apartment blocks are the simple - but perfectly maintained - huts and halls used by Mao and his comrades more than 60 years ago.
Since 2005, the government has poured huge resources into 'red tourism' here. A vast station is under construction in Yan'an to welcome special trains ferrying visitors from the sprawling coastal cities. The prettiest and brightest local girls are recruited to guide half a million visitors each year. 'The important thing is to transfer the spirit, diligence and patriotism of the old generation,' says Yuan Xin, 23, a guide and local student.
The visitors are mainly on coach trips from factories and schools but increasingly there are individual visitors, too. In the courtyard of Chairman Mao's former home, one woman said she had brought her nine-year-old daughter to learn of 'the sacrifices made by our leaders'. In another, two young boys dressed up as 1930s soldiers and took pictures of each other. 'The hardship the old leaders suffered is really impressive,' one said.
For their guide, there was no doubt. 'The Communist party and the Chinese nation are inseparable. Without the Communist party, there is no new China,' she said.
The success of 'red tourism' reveals one reason for the party's continued hold on China: the legitimacy the party has as a liberator of the country from invaders, colonial proxies and powers in the mid-20th century.
Equally important is a reputation for efficient management, which explains in part why such extraordinary precautions are being taken to ensure a trouble-free Olympics - despite the bad press they provoke overseas. For months, visas have been restricted, dissidents harassed, activists gagged, normally tolerated critics warned to stay silent and even the most innocent tourists vetted.
'If imposing the control of the party on the games means less visitors, so be it,' said one Western diplomat. 'As long as the games are without incident, anything is acceptable.'
Few in Yan'an, or elsewhere in China, mention democracy or human rights. Some are too frightened. For others, perhaps conditioned by 60 years of tightly controlled media, such ideas seem alien. 'China? Democratic? What a funny idea!' one Yan'an housewife exclaimed. Others repeat the government's argument that China is too big and unstable for Western-style democracy to work.
Among the scores of people interviewed by The Observer in Yan'an only one, a Christian woman student from the Mongolian minority, expressed a desire for greater democracy because 'people would then be more free to practise their religion'. She was quick to add that President Hu Jintao and Prime Minister Wen Jiabao were the best leaders for 40 years.
The party is far from a tiny elite, as some commentators claim. Its official membership is 73 million and growing. Its members range from the powerful technocrats in the upper reaches of government to village chairmen. They include committed socialists, bureaucrats of every variety, quality, honesty and competence and, increasingly, ambitious young networkers.
Yet 'socialism' appears as something of a relic in the new China and 'communism' an inherited but empty title. Few states have embraced neo-liberal capitalism so quickly, so enthusiastically and so thoroughly. Decades of economic growth appear to vindicate the choices made by party leaders in the early 1980s and during a second wave of economic restructuring a decade later.
Alongside the legitimacy conferred by their forebears (the famines and brutality of the Mao era are carefully obscured) and the loyalty resulting from decades of social engineering, is the party's trump card: economic development. And in Yan'an, though perhaps less spectacularly than in Shanghai, the new wealth is very evident.
Outside a small rustic restaurant a new Jaguar belonging to businessman Wang Cheng, 45, is parked. 'It cost me 1.5m yuan (£120,000),' he said, tucking into a meal of pork intestines and chilli. 'I have one philosophy in life: a man's worth is his wealth, his value is his riches.' Wang, a property developer, hotelier and son of a government clerk and a farmer, is not a party member. 'That does not mean I am not a patriot,' he insists.
At the university, staff are proud that the car park is full. 'Now we have more than 80 cars for 270 staff. Ten years ago there were none,' said one lecturer. Even menial labourers living 18 to a filthy 'cave' house on the slopes around Yan'an insisted that life was 'much better' - though they complained about rising prices, the cost of healthcare and school fees. And a 61-year-old woman who earns £1 each evening from collecting plastic bottles for recycling said that life was easier, at least compared to the grim days of famine and political brutality of the Great Leap Forward and the Cultural Revolution of 1966-1976.
Drive off the new motorway running down the fertile valley and on to the rutted road that leads east from Yan'an into the hills and, for 120 miles, the landscape does not vary: wooded hills fissured by erosion; small ponds staked with fish nets; terraced fields sparsely planted with wheat; and villages, a hundred identical dusty clusters of brick, concrete, peeling paint, fading slogans and chickens. On the final ridge before the Yellow river gorge, Wang Zhi Hong, 44, is tending his apple trees.
Wang's village, Zaho, is a long way from the sparkling image of the new China that the government hopes to showcase during the Olympics. Wang admits that, like most of his neighbours, he eats meat only about a dozen times a year. Jars beside his earth-and-brick house collect rain from the roof for drinking and washing. Though some villages have mains water, Zaho's 280 inhabitants cannot find the 300 yuan (£24) for each connection. Most young people have gone to work in the cities.
The daughters of Wang Cui, 51, are in Beijing. 'What do you expect?' she asks. 'This place has not changed for 30 years.' Even the new house she has built with cash sent by her children brings worries. 'Now all our poor relatives want to borrow money,' she says.
But however much Zaho's villagers complain - about poor healthcare, the distant school, corruption and partisan local officials - they remain loyal 'to the great project of building a new China', as described in the slogans painted on their walls a year or so ago. They are grateful for recent tax cuts for farmers and proud that their country is hosting the Olympics. There is only a trace of nostalgia. 'In the old days, 30 years ago,' says Wang. 'Everyone was poor and life was tough ... but at least we were all equal.'
Down in the gorge that funnels the Yellow river through the mountains on its way to the plains and the sea, a crowd of tourists - all Chinese - take photographs. The games, the Chinese authoritarian model, the Western statements on Tibet, their country's economic success, all combine in an outpouring of identity and emotion, of pride in their nation, 'their' Olympics and their government.
There are, of course, threats to the party's dominant position that could become serious in the decades to come: the global economic factors and local environmental problems could derail the economic growth that so many believe will bring them or their children wealth. It is clear that the 'rush for growth' is leading to such profound inequality that stability could be threatened. In one shop in Yan'an, where five pairs of Italian-made shoes, each costing what the staff earn in a month, are sold each day, there were rumblings of discontent. 'It does make me angry,' whispered one shop assistant. 'The gap between the rich and the poor is getting too big.'
The real trouble for the ruling party may come not from this generation but the one that follows. But that is some time away yet. For now, in Yan'an and the rest of China, the dance into a capitalist future goes on and the Communist party continues to call the tune.
Cradle of revolution
· Population of Yan'a n: 340, 000.
· Size: 3,541 sq km.
· Formerly known as Yanzhou, city records go back 1,400 years.
· The town was used as a military headquarters during the Sino-Japanese war (1937-1945) and China's civil war (1945-1949) between the communists and the Nationalists (KMT) led by Chiang Kai-shek.
· When the town was razed by Japanese bombing during the the Second World War, Yan'an's inhabitants took to living in yaodongs, artificial caves carved into the surrounding hillsides.
· Yan'an was the end point of the Long March trek of the Red Army to escape attacks from Chiang's Nationalist armies. It began in October 1934.
· It is the location of the general offices of the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist party.
· The town was the venue for meetings and interviews between the communist leader, Mao Zedong, and the American journalist and author Edgar Snow, as well as his fellow American journalist, Anna Louise Strong, who was a communist supporter.
· The town contains 140 sites that are regarded as significant in revolutionary history, such as the Wangjiaping site, Yangjialing site, the Date garden and Pagoda Hill.
· The Hukou waterfall nearby is the only Yellow river waterfall and the second biggest waterfall in all of China.
Beijng's beautifiers complete work on city transformation
LONDON - The Guardian
On the other side of the world from Birmingham - where Britain's athletes are striving to book their places for the Olympics - Liu Xiaohua is making her own last-minute preparations for the showpiece event. Exactly four weeks before the first full day of competiton, the migrant worker from Henan province is sweeping a newly built underpass outside the Bird's Nest Olympic stadium free of construction-site grit, rubbish and the sand that blows in from the Gobi desert.
It may be one of the least glamorous and lowest paid roles in the Olympics (Liu's monthly salary is just over £100) but she is on the front-line of a massive beautification campaign, which will complete a seven-year facelift of the Chinese capital.
As sportsmen and women around the world make their final preparations, Beijing is in the throes of a final clean-up not just of streets and buildings, but "undesirable" social elements and potential troublemakers.
Liu is part of arguably the greatest transformation of a host city in the history of the Olympics. In the past five years, a construction boom has flattened swathes of the old city and surrounding countryside, replacing alleyways and farmland with the world's biggest airport terminal, a subway line, a light railway, hundreds of miles of roads as well as the spectacular stadium, gymnasium and swimming pool and other venues. Over the past few months, the focus has been on brightening up the new concrete and steel with flowers and paint. Formerly drab grey roadsides are now decked with begonias and shrubs. Since the start of the year, 40 million flowers have been planted, tens of thousands of trees re-rooted and countless acres of lawn laid on the naturally arid red earth.
In some areas, even old Cultural Revolution wall slogans, such as "Long Live Mao Zedong thought!" - which were previously out of favour - have been given a fresh lick of red paint. Olympic signposts have been erected around the city, Olympic rings have been painted on motorways lanes reserved for Olympic traffic and Fuwa Olympic Mascots are an increasingly uqibuitous sight on hoardings, in shops and on television.
Ahead of an expected arrival of 21,500 journalists, 10,500 athletes and half a million tourists, the city has replaced its notoriously smelly public toilets with modern, cleaner conveniences. To tidy the streets, it has increased the penalty on spitting, launched anti-litter campaigns and hired tens of thousands of migrant workers like Liu. But the clean-up will soon be extended to many of those doing the cleaning. On July 20, many of the city's migrant workers - who have done more than anyone to build and beautify the Olympic city - have been ordered to return to their home towns.
"We don't want to leave because we won't be able to earn money for two months, but we have no choice," complained Fang Jingshan, a construction worker from Hebei Province.
The closure of building sites and factories is aimed primarily at clearing the air of pollution. For much of the last two weeks, the city has been enveloped in a grey haze. Earlier this week the chairman of the International Olympic Committee's coordindation commission Hein Verbruggen described air quality as an "open issue".
To reduce emissions, cars with odd and even number plates will only be able to drive on alternative days starting from July 20. But the problem of pollution is so widespread in China that many Olympic teams are taking no risks by staging their final training camps in Japan.
For human rights groups, social cleansing is the main concern. While previous Olympic hosts have driven vagrants and other itinerants out before the Games, China has gone further by locking up several dissidents, putting others under house arrest, and forcing petitioners to return to their home towns.
According to the Legal Daily, 100,000 anti-terrorism personnel will be mobilised during the Games and 300,000 surveillance cameras installed. Some Beijing residents complain that the paranoia and emphasis on cosmetic appearances is stifling the gritty, chaotic, down-to-earth humour that is the city's greatest charm.
"It's all so fake," said Lily Chen, a restaurant manageress. "I just want the Olympics to be over with as quickly as possible so that life can go back to normal."
It is hard to argue that this face-obsessed nation has not employed excessive artifice in making a propaganda success of the Games. Many of the flowers, trees and lawns are a terrible waste of water in this dry city. And there is a real risk that the emphasis on security, visa checks for foreigners and controls on journalists could squeeze the fun out of the Games.
But it is not just a "Smile-or-else Olympics," there is a real sense of hope among ordinary people that the Games will mark a change in China and how it is viewed in the outside world. By the fence around the Bird's Nest stadium, throngs of tourists pose for photographs in front of the spectacular steel-lattice sports arena - now closed off until the opening on August 8.
On the other side of the road, an elderly couple watch from afar. The 84-year-old Hao Fukun says he cycled 40 minutes to get here, pulling his wife behind him on a cart. It is the first time they have travelled so far for many year, but they wanted to see the Olympic stadium.
"You simply cannot compare Beijing now with what it was," said the old man, who has lived through war, revolution, famine, political upheaval and modern development. "Life is so much better. I hope the world can see how our lives have changed. When the Olympics starts, I will be so happy, so happy."
The numbers Games:
10,500
The estimated number of athletes competing in Beijing between August 8 and 24
302
Different events featured in the summer Games - from the 28 designated sports
906
The gold, silver and bronze medals up for grabs
37
Separate Olympic venues
21,500
Journalists descending on China's capital from around the world
1.6m
Cars off the road on any given day during the Games as part of new anti-pollution measures
5,000
Different items of official Beijing merchandise available to buy
85,000
Miles the Olympic torch has travelled on its relay, the longest since the 1936 Berlin Games
7,000
Extra buses provided for transport during the two-week period
40m
Flowers planted in the city in the build-up to the Games
On the other side of the world from Birmingham - where Britain's athletes are striving to book their places for the Olympics - Liu Xiaohua is making her own last-minute preparations for the showpiece event. Exactly four weeks before the first full day of competiton, the migrant worker from Henan province is sweeping a newly built underpass outside the Bird's Nest Olympic stadium free of construction-site grit, rubbish and the sand that blows in from the Gobi desert.
It may be one of the least glamorous and lowest paid roles in the Olympics (Liu's monthly salary is just over £100) but she is on the front-line of a massive beautification campaign, which will complete a seven-year facelift of the Chinese capital.
As sportsmen and women around the world make their final preparations, Beijing is in the throes of a final clean-up not just of streets and buildings, but "undesirable" social elements and potential troublemakers.
Liu is part of arguably the greatest transformation of a host city in the history of the Olympics. In the past five years, a construction boom has flattened swathes of the old city and surrounding countryside, replacing alleyways and farmland with the world's biggest airport terminal, a subway line, a light railway, hundreds of miles of roads as well as the spectacular stadium, gymnasium and swimming pool and other venues. Over the past few months, the focus has been on brightening up the new concrete and steel with flowers and paint. Formerly drab grey roadsides are now decked with begonias and shrubs. Since the start of the year, 40 million flowers have been planted, tens of thousands of trees re-rooted and countless acres of lawn laid on the naturally arid red earth.
In some areas, even old Cultural Revolution wall slogans, such as "Long Live Mao Zedong thought!" - which were previously out of favour - have been given a fresh lick of red paint. Olympic signposts have been erected around the city, Olympic rings have been painted on motorways lanes reserved for Olympic traffic and Fuwa Olympic Mascots are an increasingly uqibuitous sight on hoardings, in shops and on television.
Ahead of an expected arrival of 21,500 journalists, 10,500 athletes and half a million tourists, the city has replaced its notoriously smelly public toilets with modern, cleaner conveniences. To tidy the streets, it has increased the penalty on spitting, launched anti-litter campaigns and hired tens of thousands of migrant workers like Liu. But the clean-up will soon be extended to many of those doing the cleaning. On July 20, many of the city's migrant workers - who have done more than anyone to build and beautify the Olympic city - have been ordered to return to their home towns.
"We don't want to leave because we won't be able to earn money for two months, but we have no choice," complained Fang Jingshan, a construction worker from Hebei Province.
The closure of building sites and factories is aimed primarily at clearing the air of pollution. For much of the last two weeks, the city has been enveloped in a grey haze. Earlier this week the chairman of the International Olympic Committee's coordindation commission Hein Verbruggen described air quality as an "open issue".
To reduce emissions, cars with odd and even number plates will only be able to drive on alternative days starting from July 20. But the problem of pollution is so widespread in China that many Olympic teams are taking no risks by staging their final training camps in Japan.
For human rights groups, social cleansing is the main concern. While previous Olympic hosts have driven vagrants and other itinerants out before the Games, China has gone further by locking up several dissidents, putting others under house arrest, and forcing petitioners to return to their home towns.
According to the Legal Daily, 100,000 anti-terrorism personnel will be mobilised during the Games and 300,000 surveillance cameras installed. Some Beijing residents complain that the paranoia and emphasis on cosmetic appearances is stifling the gritty, chaotic, down-to-earth humour that is the city's greatest charm.
"It's all so fake," said Lily Chen, a restaurant manageress. "I just want the Olympics to be over with as quickly as possible so that life can go back to normal."
It is hard to argue that this face-obsessed nation has not employed excessive artifice in making a propaganda success of the Games. Many of the flowers, trees and lawns are a terrible waste of water in this dry city. And there is a real risk that the emphasis on security, visa checks for foreigners and controls on journalists could squeeze the fun out of the Games.
But it is not just a "Smile-or-else Olympics," there is a real sense of hope among ordinary people that the Games will mark a change in China and how it is viewed in the outside world. By the fence around the Bird's Nest stadium, throngs of tourists pose for photographs in front of the spectacular steel-lattice sports arena - now closed off until the opening on August 8.
On the other side of the road, an elderly couple watch from afar. The 84-year-old Hao Fukun says he cycled 40 minutes to get here, pulling his wife behind him on a cart. It is the first time they have travelled so far for many year, but they wanted to see the Olympic stadium.
"You simply cannot compare Beijing now with what it was," said the old man, who has lived through war, revolution, famine, political upheaval and modern development. "Life is so much better. I hope the world can see how our lives have changed. When the Olympics starts, I will be so happy, so happy."
The numbers Games:
10,500
The estimated number of athletes competing in Beijing between August 8 and 24
302
Different events featured in the summer Games - from the 28 designated sports
906
The gold, silver and bronze medals up for grabs
37
Separate Olympic venues
21,500
Journalists descending on China's capital from around the world
1.6m
Cars off the road on any given day during the Games as part of new anti-pollution measures
5,000
Different items of official Beijing merchandise available to buy
85,000
Miles the Olympic torch has travelled on its relay, the longest since the 1936 Berlin Games
7,000
Extra buses provided for transport during the two-week period
40m
Flowers planted in the city in the build-up to the Games
Nose-picking ban for Beijing people during Olympics
(LONDON) - BBC
Beijing citizens have been told not to pick their noses, yawn or scratch their heads when talking to foreigners during the Olympics. They have also been given a list of things not to ask overseas visitors - a list so exhaustive it could make conversation difficult. Ordinary people have also been given detailed instructions on how to talk to disabled people during the Paralympics.
Chinese officials want ordinary people to show the country's most civilised face during the sporting events. A booklet prepared by the propaganda department of Beijing's Dongcheng District gives locals an introduction to the games. It has a special section on dealing with foreigners, including what to do when talking to overseas visitors.
"In conversation, wear a smile, don't stare too long or do anything to make people feel ill at ease," it says. The booklet advises Beijing people to say to disabled people such things as: 'You're really excellent' It also warns Beijing people not to yawn, shout, pick their noses, scratch their heads, play with their fingernails or pull at their clothes while talking. The booklet suggests people abide by the "eight don't ask" principle when talking to foreigners.
Subjects to avoid include what foreigners earn or how much they spend, how old they are, whether they are married and whether they are healthy. Also off-limits are questions about where foreigners live, where they have worked, their religious or political beliefs, or what they are currently doing. In the booklet, propaganda chiefs remind Beijing citizens to be careful when being interviewed by foreign journalists during the Olympics, which begin on 8 August. It tells them not to say or do anything that harms national prestige, the country's image or national security.
Beijing officials are obviously concerned about how disabled people will be treated during the Paralympics, which takes place just after the Olympics. "Before you help [a disabled person], first of all get their agreement and co-operation. Absolutely do not use force or be too enthusiastic," says the booklet. It advises Beijing people to say to disabled people such things as: "You're really excellent".
Officials have long been concerned about their own citizens' behaviour during the Olympics, and have launched several campaigns to stamp out bad habits. The 11th day of the month was designated queuing day, instituted to convince people not to barge onto buses and trains. These campaigns are generally supported by ordinary people.
"The queuing campaign definitely helps people to behave better," said Yang Xiaoyan as she waited to board a train at Beijing Yonghegong Temple subway station. "In the past it was really chaotic at this subway station," she added. Queuing, crossing the road, driving a car, watching Olympic events and talking to foreigners: Officials want to make sure everyone does it right.
Beijing citizens have been told not to pick their noses, yawn or scratch their heads when talking to foreigners during the Olympics. They have also been given a list of things not to ask overseas visitors - a list so exhaustive it could make conversation difficult. Ordinary people have also been given detailed instructions on how to talk to disabled people during the Paralympics.
Chinese officials want ordinary people to show the country's most civilised face during the sporting events. A booklet prepared by the propaganda department of Beijing's Dongcheng District gives locals an introduction to the games. It has a special section on dealing with foreigners, including what to do when talking to overseas visitors.
"In conversation, wear a smile, don't stare too long or do anything to make people feel ill at ease," it says. The booklet advises Beijing people to say to disabled people such things as: 'You're really excellent' It also warns Beijing people not to yawn, shout, pick their noses, scratch their heads, play with their fingernails or pull at their clothes while talking. The booklet suggests people abide by the "eight don't ask" principle when talking to foreigners.
Subjects to avoid include what foreigners earn or how much they spend, how old they are, whether they are married and whether they are healthy. Also off-limits are questions about where foreigners live, where they have worked, their religious or political beliefs, or what they are currently doing. In the booklet, propaganda chiefs remind Beijing citizens to be careful when being interviewed by foreign journalists during the Olympics, which begin on 8 August. It tells them not to say or do anything that harms national prestige, the country's image or national security.
Beijing officials are obviously concerned about how disabled people will be treated during the Paralympics, which takes place just after the Olympics. "Before you help [a disabled person], first of all get their agreement and co-operation. Absolutely do not use force or be too enthusiastic," says the booklet. It advises Beijing people to say to disabled people such things as: "You're really excellent".
Officials have long been concerned about their own citizens' behaviour during the Olympics, and have launched several campaigns to stamp out bad habits. The 11th day of the month was designated queuing day, instituted to convince people not to barge onto buses and trains. These campaigns are generally supported by ordinary people.
"The queuing campaign definitely helps people to behave better," said Yang Xiaoyan as she waited to board a train at Beijing Yonghegong Temple subway station. "In the past it was really chaotic at this subway station," she added. Queuing, crossing the road, driving a car, watching Olympic events and talking to foreigners: Officials want to make sure everyone does it right.
Friday, 18 July 2008
Beijing Games architecture aims to shock and awe
LONDON - Daily Mirror - feats of athletic brilliance may be the main focus of cameras during the Beijing Olympics, the telegenic venues set to host the athletes will draw their own share of gasps from admiring spectators.
Beijing's Olympic construction boom has bequeathed an 800-year-old city with some of the world's most futuristic architectural statements, potent symbols of a resurgent power's desire to showcase its development and mastery of technology.
"I think the venues show a new openness and tolerance among common Chinese people. They also show our amazing achievements," said Zheng Fang, a Chinese architect who worked on the acclaimed National Aquatics Centre, dubbed the "Water Cube" for its shape and bubbly facade.
The Olympic swimming venue, designed by a consortium of Arup engineers, architects from Australian firm PTW and Zheng's China Construction Design International (CCDI), competes with the adjacent National Stadium for the affections of thousands of camera-wielding tourists who flock to the main Olympic Green every day.
Advertisement
The 91,000-seat Herzog & de Meuron-designed National Stadium, known as the "Bird's Nest" for its lattice work of interwoven steel, has made such an impact as to displace late Chinese leader Mao Zedong's face from commemorative Olympic bank notes.
Standing together, the stadium and the swimming venue form "one of the most powerful urban precincts in the world," said John Bilmon, a principal director with PTW.
DRAGON'S BACK
Many Games visitors' first experience of Beijing's building ambitions, however, will start well before they get to the competition venues.
The city's new airport terminal designed by British architect Norman Foster is supposed to resemble a dragon, complete with triangular windows cut into the ceiling as though they were scales.
After touching down at the $3.6 billion (1.8 billion pounds) terminal, passengers will be able to board a brand new airport train to the city centre, and then ride a new subway link to Beijing's business district, where the vertigo-inducing CCTV building looms improbably over lesser towers.
Designed by Rem Koolhaus' Office for Metropolitan Architecture as a subversion of the traditional skyscraper, the nearly completed headquarters for China's staid state broadcaster joins two towers sloped together with a gravity-defying canopy at 80 storeys' height.
The buildings are not just testament to China's engineering skills, but an authoritarian country's ability to rapidly mobilise manpower and resources, according to Ming Liang, a design professor at the Central Academy of Fine Arts.
"Authorities can simply order 1,000 of the country's best welders to leave their homes and come weld the 'Bird's Nest' together in Beijing," said Ming. "This is what can be done here."
Politics, which have re-shaped Beijing's landscape for more than eight centuries, have also played an undeniable part in the city's modern transformation.
Architects see little coincidence in the Olympic Green's location directly north of the Forbidden City and its modern equivalent Zhongnanhai, where the Communist Party's top leaders live and govern in almost total secrecy.
"No wealth or power can be concentrated in the south as that would be challenging the king. All rich people live behind the king on the left and the right," said Ming.
WORLD'S BEST IN BEIJING
The controversial National Theatre, a shiny half-sphere that looms south of imperial-era Zhongnanhai, is an exception to the rule, albeit one endorsed by opera fan and former Chinese President Jiang Zemin, reportedly the first soloist to grace the stage on its completion last year.
While eye-catching and widely praised, Beijing's new architectural marvels have also weathered a storm of criticism, from academics complaining of a developing country's wastefulness, to environmental experts panning the venues for not living up to the "Green Olympics" pledge.
Chinese architect Ai Weiwei, a design consultant for the "Bird's Nest", last year said he regretted that the stadium he helped inspire had become a symbol of a one-party state's "fake" Olympic smile.
Other architects prefer to focus on the benefits derived from the global skills and technologies concentrated for the Olympic construction.
"In reality, in building these stadiums and other buildings like the CCTV Tower, we brought the world's best technology and masters to Beijing," said CCDI's Zheng.
Criticising China for wanting to showcase its development achievements is in any case misguided, said Tristram Carfrae, a structural engineer for Arup and the mastermind behind the Water Cube's playful facade.
"If you look at Beijing's history of architecture and design as being about monumentalism, about the grand statement, then why should these sport venues be any different?"
Beijing's Olympic construction boom has bequeathed an 800-year-old city with some of the world's most futuristic architectural statements, potent symbols of a resurgent power's desire to showcase its development and mastery of technology.
"I think the venues show a new openness and tolerance among common Chinese people. They also show our amazing achievements," said Zheng Fang, a Chinese architect who worked on the acclaimed National Aquatics Centre, dubbed the "Water Cube" for its shape and bubbly facade.
The Olympic swimming venue, designed by a consortium of Arup engineers, architects from Australian firm PTW and Zheng's China Construction Design International (CCDI), competes with the adjacent National Stadium for the affections of thousands of camera-wielding tourists who flock to the main Olympic Green every day.
Advertisement
The 91,000-seat Herzog & de Meuron-designed National Stadium, known as the "Bird's Nest" for its lattice work of interwoven steel, has made such an impact as to displace late Chinese leader Mao Zedong's face from commemorative Olympic bank notes.
Standing together, the stadium and the swimming venue form "one of the most powerful urban precincts in the world," said John Bilmon, a principal director with PTW.
DRAGON'S BACK
Many Games visitors' first experience of Beijing's building ambitions, however, will start well before they get to the competition venues.
The city's new airport terminal designed by British architect Norman Foster is supposed to resemble a dragon, complete with triangular windows cut into the ceiling as though they were scales.
After touching down at the $3.6 billion (1.8 billion pounds) terminal, passengers will be able to board a brand new airport train to the city centre, and then ride a new subway link to Beijing's business district, where the vertigo-inducing CCTV building looms improbably over lesser towers.
Designed by Rem Koolhaus' Office for Metropolitan Architecture as a subversion of the traditional skyscraper, the nearly completed headquarters for China's staid state broadcaster joins two towers sloped together with a gravity-defying canopy at 80 storeys' height.
The buildings are not just testament to China's engineering skills, but an authoritarian country's ability to rapidly mobilise manpower and resources, according to Ming Liang, a design professor at the Central Academy of Fine Arts.
"Authorities can simply order 1,000 of the country's best welders to leave their homes and come weld the 'Bird's Nest' together in Beijing," said Ming. "This is what can be done here."
Politics, which have re-shaped Beijing's landscape for more than eight centuries, have also played an undeniable part in the city's modern transformation.
Architects see little coincidence in the Olympic Green's location directly north of the Forbidden City and its modern equivalent Zhongnanhai, where the Communist Party's top leaders live and govern in almost total secrecy.
"No wealth or power can be concentrated in the south as that would be challenging the king. All rich people live behind the king on the left and the right," said Ming.
WORLD'S BEST IN BEIJING
The controversial National Theatre, a shiny half-sphere that looms south of imperial-era Zhongnanhai, is an exception to the rule, albeit one endorsed by opera fan and former Chinese President Jiang Zemin, reportedly the first soloist to grace the stage on its completion last year.
While eye-catching and widely praised, Beijing's new architectural marvels have also weathered a storm of criticism, from academics complaining of a developing country's wastefulness, to environmental experts panning the venues for not living up to the "Green Olympics" pledge.
Chinese architect Ai Weiwei, a design consultant for the "Bird's Nest", last year said he regretted that the stadium he helped inspire had become a symbol of a one-party state's "fake" Olympic smile.
Other architects prefer to focus on the benefits derived from the global skills and technologies concentrated for the Olympic construction.
"In reality, in building these stadiums and other buildings like the CCTV Tower, we brought the world's best technology and masters to Beijing," said CCDI's Zheng.
Criticising China for wanting to showcase its development achievements is in any case misguided, said Tristram Carfrae, a structural engineer for Arup and the mastermind behind the Water Cube's playful facade.
"If you look at Beijing's history of architecture and design as being about monumentalism, about the grand statement, then why should these sport venues be any different?"
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