Beijing Olympics

Beijing, China Travel Guide

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2008 Olympic Games in Beijing

Overview: When Beijing (the “j”in Beijing should be pronounced with a hard “j” as in jet) narrowly beat out Toronto, Canada in 2001 to host the 2008 Olympics, the powers that be in Beijing considered the win a recognition of Beijing, or China’s, emergence. But, there was a lot of work to be done.

Even four years ago, Beijing seemed a lot more earthy. There were many more rough, rugged yet hutong areas, the streets were a bit dirtier and less accessible and the tourist attractions, less accessible. In light of the Olympics and Paralympics, it’d be hard to find any trash on the sidewalks or streets in the 2nd Ring Road, especially surrounding the Palace Museum, Tiananmen Square and Temple of Heaven. It’s also hard to find a tourist attraction that is not accessible now.

Beijing has done quite a few things to spruce up for the Olympics. It’s cleaned up its city, demolished and/or closed off some of the undesirable parts of the city (i.e., hutongs south of Qianmen Lu) and feverishly worked on controlling air pollution. Beijing also built a massive 1,135 hectacres area known as the Olympic Green where the Olympic Village will house athletes and where some grand venues for the Olympics sporting events will be held.

There are 31 sports venues in Beijing for the nearly 10,500 athletes who will be competing in the Olympics. A couple of standouts are the bubbly Aquatic Center and the National Stadium. The National Stadium is referred to as the Bird Nest because its structure resembles – you guessed it – a bird’s nest. As the centerpiece of the Beijing Olympics and as a symbol of Beijing’s pride, the National Stadium is the site of the opening and closing Olympic ceremonies.

Beijing has certainly geared up to stage the world’s most spectacular sporting event. If Beijing’s intention is to impress the world by beautifying itself, it’s done a helluva job.

The Olympic Buzz
All of China is abuzz about the 2008 Beijing Olympics. How could China not be? How could anyone who visits China not catch the Beijing Olympics fever? On a rainy afternoon in early July 08, there was a mob of tourists and locals around the Olympic Green area where the National Stadium, Aquatic Center and Olympic Village are. Marketing and advertising has helped propel the buzz (though national and cultural pride of hosting the Olympics truly drives the excitement).

Whomever the marketing and advertising gurus are for the Olympics – my hats off. Advertisements for the Olympics appear everywhere. The Olympics get visibility on top of highrise buildings, in airports in China, banks, retail stores, along streets and at the tourist attractions.

But it’s not the omnipresent advertisements that are impressive; rather, it’s the collaborative creative advertisements with companies like Adidas. Take a look at the photo galleries of the billboards. The Beijing Olympic advertisements are slick, ultra sexy and sporty and inspire you to take up a sport and try out for the 2012 Olympics. The taglines on these billboards play on words: “Anything is Possible” and “Impossible is Nothing.” At the very least, we’ll be watching the Olympics.

Olympics Mascots
The FUWA has been adopted by China as the official mascot for the Olympics. The FUWA translates into “Friendlies” and are “good luck” figurines. There are five fuwa and each one assumes a color of the Olympic rings and they represent some of the most popular animals in China as well as the Olympic flame. These fuwa are enormously popular in China and can be seen everyhwere for sale.

Official Beijing Olympics Stores
Olympic stores are present everywhere in Beijing as well. There’s even an Olympics store at the Hong Kong International Airport. These Olypmics stores sell all kinds of gear: clothes, sport bags, sunglasses, jewelery and protected and sealed collector’s items such as tea pot and mug sets, etc. The clothes they sell are good quality and Adidas has its footprints in a lot of the Olympics gear. The Olympics flagship store is in the Wangfujing shopping area.

A Bit of Olympics Trivia
The Olympic Flame is always lit in Olympia, Greece and is transported by runners to the host country.

The Olympic Rings is the Olympics’ most recognized symbol and the intertwined rings represents the earth’s continents. The colors of the rings against a white flag incorporates the colors of all nations.

Beijing’s official Olympic logo is a stylized calligraphic character known as jing, which means capital, or the host city of the Olympics.