Beijing 2008 - The Official Video Game of the Olympic Games is coming to the Xbox 360, PS3 and the PC (aww…no Wii) on 8th July 2008, exactly one month before the official Games commences in Beijing. GameSpot has the hands-on review on this Beijing 2008 game which will be more fun for multiplayers.

Beijing 2008 uses some rather unorthodox controls, so once you’ve picked your sport and nation, your first point of call will be to check out the training mode. As you move between sports you’ll notice some repetition in the way events are handled from a control standpoint, but given the sheer breadth of choice of sports available, you’ll want to watch the tutorial at least once before you attempt having a go. Athletic sprint events use either a rapidly waggled left or right analog stick, or A and B alternating button press combo to build up speed. It can get a bit rough on the wrists and fingers, and we see the potential for a controller or two getting busted along the way given the speed at which you’ll need to mash or waggle to be competitive against the game’s AI.

Because this is a sports title and one that should bring out the competitor in everybody, multiplayer appears to have been given plenty of attention. In addition to offline two-player matches and system link, gamers will be able to go head-to-head over Xbox Live and the PlayStation Network and compete for high scores and fast times using the game’s online leaderboards.

You can preorder Beijing 2008 @ Amazon

The Microsoft Xbox 360 version

The Sony PS3 version

The PC version

Modok has some safety tips for Beijing visitors. He has a top-ten list, including looking out for fake Maobacks and not following the art students in Tiananmen square. And he says:

5. Beware of lady bars. I am personally quite wary of anyone who approaches me on the street to solicit me for anything, especially on a bar street, but I have heard many a sad tale from those who have fallen prey to the 鈥渓ady bar鈥� scheme. Inevitably you are taken to an extremely over-priced bar that may or may not have any 鈥渓adies鈥� and liberated from all of your cash.

6. Beware of offers for tea. As innocuous as this sounds, many people have been lured into having innocent tea with some charming young ladies, only to be charged hundreds of dollars for a single pot! Rule of thumb, unless you are used to being approached by charming young ladies and asked out on a regular basis in your home country, be very wary if it happens to you in Beijing.

I’d also add that that Houhai girls who keep asking my boyfriend and male friends to “drink beer” with them are probably running the same kind of scam. While the girls asking for “English practice” are just hitting on them.

Via Eye of Modok

Last year, 2007, 1010 bikini-cald Australian women set a Guinness World Record by forming 5 Olympic rings at Australia’s Gold Coast. Being the host country and with plenty of pretty babes around, China has just recently broken the old bikini rings record.

With 1202 beautiful babes forming the five significant Olympic rings at Chimelong Water Park, Guangzhou, on 15th June, it is no surprise that one will take some time to take a good look at each and everyone of them.

I really like the colours of the bikinis.

More Bikini Pics

Every father expresses his love differently for their children. In He Gang City (楣ゅ矖甯�), China, a pop, also a barber, named Mr Sun has styled a Beijing 2008 haircut for his son, Sun Yu Peng (瀛欏畤楣�). With “2008″ and the 5 Olympic rings, it is no wonder that the 7-year-old is the talk of his class right now.

Via h1899862

While many European heads of state plan to skip the Opening Ceremonies, Australia’s the only country who’s athletes will be missing the Opening Ceremony. Athletics Australia says it’s not a political statement, just concern that athletes’ performance will be damaged by Beijing’s air pollution.

Athletics Australia says its Olympians will not march in the opening ceremony at Beijing because of concern for athletes’ health and welfare.

It is usual for swimmers and cyclists to miss out on marching because they are competing the next day.

But Athletics Australia has pulled the entire Hong Kong-based squad from the opening ceremony even though athletics events are being staged in the Games’ second week.

Athletics Australia’s national performance manager, Max Binnington, says there are concerns that pollution in the host city will affect the competitors.

Via ABC News Australia

This Mental Floss article talks about 6 awesome “sports”. Too bad these aren’t Olympic sports… yet!

5. Wife Carrying
There鈥檚 no more auspicious beginning for a sport than to start out as a joke, and wife carrying has somehow made the leap from laughable oddity to legitimate sport since its inception in Finland. Originally designed as a play on the legend of men courting women by grabbing them and running off with them, wife carrying is a form of racing in which a man totes his wife (or other female partner) through an obstacle course as quickly as possible. For all the silliness of the endeavor, the rules are fairly technical. The couples pass through a 253.5-meter course complete with a water obstacle and two dry obstacles, and any husband dropping his wife is docked 15 seconds. The wife must weigh at least 49 kilograms, otherwise she is given a weighted sack to make up the difference. If you can make it to Sonkajarvi, Finland by July 4, you can still compete in this year鈥檚 world championships. The sport still has a sense of humor; first prize is the wife鈥檚 weight in beer. Or check out the video first; this style of knees-over-the-shoulder positioning is known as an 鈥淓stonian carry.鈥�

I wonder if there’s also a category for girlfriend carrying… my boyfriend would really like my weight in beer!

The Beijing Olympics is getting nearer (you can almost hear the crowds roaring).

And The Beijing Olympics FAN! blog has been around for over a year now and I have to confess I’m not the very sporty type. Only until recently, I’m picking up running (try to be on a daily basis) again. The main reasons are that there is a great running track just next to where I’m living and the other inspiration is from this blog.

I’m running 6 rounds (about 2.4km) everyday.

It has been 2 weeks and from the initial 20-minute run-jog-walk to the present 16-min run-jog.

Yes, I’m impressed with myself with such improvement as I haven’t been running for nearly 10 years.

What I’m trying to drive at is to tell you to take up a sports…any one you enjoy or prefer and make it a point to do that sports on a frequent basis.

You don’t have to strive to be an Olympian but do strive to be healthy.

I can hear the crowds cheering for me everyday.

Image: DJ Bass

Saw this in a teashop yesterday. Remember when Beijing was just a candidate city?

I just discovered the We Pick Beijing blog while looking for the address of our favorite duck place. I found it, and a lot of Beijing restaurant reviews, on their blog. It’s nice to see people enjoying Beijing without either the newbie culture shock or the old China hand comments. The informal tone is like having a friend tell you the highlights of their trip, andit’s worth a look if you’re planning a visit to Beijing. (I’ll probably take their recommendation for Cafe Sambal as well!)

Jenny Zhu from ChinesePod has some thoughts on the Add Oil cheer I mentioned yesterday. (She also had this cute comic of the Add Oil cheer routine)

This might seem ridiculous. And many of us in China think it is. But China is used to such 鈥榚ngineering鈥�. Much like the idea of making peasants into Frenchmen in Post Revolution France, the authorities have always been concerned with the issue of 鏂囨槑/wen2 ming2/鈥檆ivilised鈥� or 鈥榩roper conduct鈥� in post 1949 China. And there is indeed a lot of 涓嶆枃鏄�/improper conduct around. Spitting, littering and flamboyantly speaking on the phone in cinema are starters. The Shanghai government even has a涓冧笉/qi1 bu4/seven don鈥檛s for its residents. Amongst them are 鈥榙on鈥檛 spit鈥� and 鈥榙on鈥檛 litter鈥�.

You can imagine how the organisers feel about those entrenched behaviours during the Olympics. Therefore, a national 鈥榖e a civilised spectator鈥� campaign/鏂囨槑瑙備紬/wen2 ming2 guan1 zhong4/ was launched. It features basic rules like 鈥檚witch off phone during the match鈥� to specific rules of the sports and how to watch and cheer appropriately.

Via JennyZhu.com