China business blogger Bill Dodson talks about the sad feeling that laowai (non-Chinese) were unwanted at the Suzhou torch relay. Dodson’s posts are always insightful, and this post is so telling and so complete that I can’t cut it down to a soundbite. Here is the entire post:

My grandchildren will one day ask me where I was when the Olympic Torch passed through Suzhou, literally just a couple blocks from my apartment. I鈥檒l probably lie, and tell them I was one of the guys running the length of Modern Avenue encouraging the torch bearers onward to the Run鈥檚 conclusion at the Science and Technology Museum.

Instead, I was shuffling around the apartment in my slippers, looking forward to drinking a coffee and reading the Sunday edition of the International Herald Tribune (online, of course). From the panoramic view of the Suzhou Industrial Park (SIP) and Old Suzhou, I could see the traffic paralyzed and enthusiastic flag bearers weaving through the congestion. A bright sunny day was not enough to lure me out to Suzhou鈥檚 Olympics party. I had even bought a couple flags the evening before 鈥� small nylon affairs, one of the the Chinese national flag, and one the flag of the Olympics. I hadn鈥檛 bought them for myself, but instead to give them to my Chinese partner. Indeed, I encouraged her to part in the party that morning.

Recent events surrounding the torch relay around the world as well as portraitures in Chinese news about us devil-worshiping foreigners simply made the event, well, a non-event for me. Plus, I just couldn鈥檛 be bothered with a testosterone-fueled group of youths with too much energy and too few opportunities through which to channel their emotions other than to say annoying things about 鈥渢he laowai鈥�. I鈥檓 sure there were other Westerners out there, mixing with the crowds, waving the Chinese flag 鈥� or even their own country鈥檚. I wasn鈥檛 one of them.

I simply didn鈥檛 have the feeling this Olympics was the world鈥檚 Olympics. Yours, mine, the Lithuanians鈥�, whomever.

It鈥檚 China鈥檚 party, they鈥檝e made it clear. And I wasn鈥檛 invited.

It’s a sad, honest look at the way recent events have made many people feel. Besides one shop assistant asking if I’m French, I haven’t felt a lot of anti-foreigner sentiment directly. (There are a lot of “Love China” t-shirts, and so forth) But it was pretty hard for average people — Chinese and expats alike — to see the torch in Tiananmen Square as it passed through Beijing.

I have such hopes for the Olympics, obviously I’m a Beijing Olympics FAN!, but I’m worried that China isn’t showing its best side.

Via This Is China! Blog

Coming to Beijing for the games? Check out the Beijingology subway guide. This site talks about the current and planned subway lines, which explains the weird subway numbering system. Right now, there are lines 1,2,5,7, and 13, and I was sort of hoping the Beijing engineers were only using prime numbers. There will also be an airport express line opened before the Olympics.

Edit: My boyfriend says 1 and 2 are not prime, I say that the definition of a prime number is an integer whose only factors are one and itself, so that makes 1 and 2 prime. What did your fourth-grade math teacher say?

If you’re getting psyched for the Olympics, check out this National Geographic quiz on Beijing!

This This WSJ blog discusses Olympic hotels and visitors.

One reason for the low booking rates could be the recent changes in China鈥檚 visa policy and subsequent fall-off in tourism to the country. Another could be that people are waiting for hotels to reduce their jacked-up Olympics room rates of five to 10 times the regular prices as the Games draw closer.

I really feel that China is shooting itself in the foot with the visa changes. New policies make extending a Z or F visa (working visas) harder and harder, which is making it difficult for a lot of long-term expats — who love China and have a lot more invested in China than Olympics visitors will — to stay in country through the Olympics.

These new policies are hard to pin down, and as China fails to publicize a coherent standard of visa extensions, the whole process becomes covered in internet rumor and friend-of-a-friend horror stories. This adds to the view of China as an arbitrary, dishonest bureaucracy, eager to grab foreign money in increased visa fees and eager to give foreign visitors a hard time.

Via China Journal

I actually heard about this from my stepmother-in-law, who made me promise that we wouldn’t come back from China without photos of pandes. (Did I mention that she’s quite possibly the easiest person in the world to shop for, especially in China? Although my father-in-law isn’t so crazy about adding to her panda parahenalia…)

Eight special “Olympic Pandas”, selected by popular vote from a field of 16, (though they now seem to be morphing into the “Earthquake Pandas”) arrived in Beijing on Saturday afternoon. The pandas are here for a special 6 month Olympic stint and after arriving on a special “luxury” flight from Chengdu, were set up in their comfortable digs (it’s air conditioned and comes with a daily supply of 200kg of bamboo and 40kg of bamboo shoots especially shipped in from Henan).

Via The Beijinger

Mike of the Beijing Olympic Games 2008 blog recently posted this:

It could be a tough time for athletes who finish their competitions early or for those looking to get out for a bit of shopping or sightseeing. Access Asia reports that athletes will only be allowed to leave the village to attend venues of their competition. Anyone who has been in China can understand this happening. Everyone in China lives, works and studies in a 鈥渃ompound鈥� with surrounding fences and manned security round the clock.

As to the reasons for high security Access Asia says:

鈥淲orries that athletes may leave the Village to do impromptu reporting on human rights or other issues is one; keeping them all close to the people who are sponsoring the Village is another; but the major reason is that if they leave the Village they may be tempted to eat like the rest of us 鈥� i.e. not the specially prepared, reared and grown foods that are being made available in the Village (and in the Village only) 鈥� and that could mean plenty of athletes failing dope tests due to high levels of residual antibiotics and steroids commonly found in meat on sale in China.鈥�

I don’t know what’s most upsetting about this story. An Olympic lockdown seems that China is reverting to its old tourism policies of heavily supervised tours along arranged routes and foreigner-only hotels, which is quite a few steps backward and definitely not the image China wants to project.

It also worries me that getting a normal Chinese meal — the food I’ve been eating for just under 2 years now — has enough random antibiotics and steroids to make one fail a drug test!

Via Beijing Olympic Games 2008 blog and Access Asia

Ok, I’ve been calling JingJing a little jerk for a while now, but I don’t actually attribute any real events to his actions. But a friend mentioned the “Fuwa curse” so I had to look it up. The Fuwa curse attributes one bad event to each Fuwa.

Gossip sites are full of speculation that four of the five cartoon mascots have fulfilled prophesies of doom with one more, connected to the Yangtze River, still to come, the South China Morning Post said.

Jingjing, a panda, is the animal most closely associated with Sichuan province where the earthquake struck.

Huanhuan, a cartoon character with flame-red hair, is being linked by bloggers to the Olympic torch that has been dogged by anti-China protests on its round-the-world tour.

Yingying, an antelope, is an animal confined to the borders of Tibet, which has been the scene of riots and the cause of international protests against China, the bloggers say.

Nini, represented by a kite, is being viewed as a reference to the 鈥渒ite city鈥� of Weifang, in Shandong, where there was a deadly train crash last month.

That leaves only Beibei, represented by a sturgeon fish, which online doomsayers suggest could indicate a looming disaster in the Yangtze River, the only place where sturgeon is found.

I don’t believe in this at all, but some of my coworkers do. What do you think?

Via Truth From Facts blog and the Sydney Morning Herald.

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) is currently training Beijing Olympic officials in radiation training. For instance, officials are taught how to detect and handle dirty bombs.

Dirty bombs contain radioactive material blown up using conventional explosives, which disperse the often highly poisonous radioactive substances.

Security is the key in Beijing 2008.

Via M&C

Nigerian weightlifters are rewarded with cold, hard cash for the effort made in African qualifying tournament (which ultimately ends up in Beijing 2008) in South Africa.

The National Sports Commission (NSC) gave $2500 (about N292,500) each gold medallists while those that won silver earned $2000 about N234,000 and $1500 (N175,500) paid to all bronze winners.

I wonder how much will they get for a Beijing Olympic gold?

Image: Chris-Photo Albums | Via All Africa

The power of the Internet allows netizens to write online petitions and give online blessings. For instance, a “I Love China” website has dedicated itself to collect online dedications, messages and blessings for the Beijing Olympic Games from millions of Chinese netizens in the densely-populated country.

The power of the masses.

Via IT Bear