If you couldn’t get tickets to the Opening Ceremony (I hear they’re going for thousands of dollars now!), but you’d like to join in the Olympic spirit, here’s a list of places in Beijing to gather with a crowd at a large-screen TV for live Olympic coverage:

Live Site at Chaoyang Park West Gate
Date: July 13鈥揂ugust 24
Address: West Gate of Chaoyang Park, Maizidian Street,
Chaoyang District
Performing Troupes: Chaoyang Citizen Culture Messenger
Troupe, and Chaoyang Laborers Art Group, others.
Transportation: Bus: Zaoying North Block Stop of Bus No.
852, 419, 985, or 682

Live Site in Gaobeidian Caoyun Park
Date: July 13鈥揂ugust 24
Address: Gaobeidian Caoyun Wharf Historical Site Park,
Chaoyang District
Performing Troupes: Citizen Culture Messenger Troupe,
Community Ethnical Instrumental Music Group, Non-
Material Cultural Heritage Performance Troupe,
Zhangsanmen Free Sparing Performance Group, and
Old Beijing Wrestle Art Performance Group, other.
Transportation: Bus: Gaobeidian Stop of Bus No. 728, 649,
475, or 397

Live Site at The Place
Date: July 13鈥揂ugust 24
Address: A9 Guanghua Lu, Chaoyang District
Performing Troupes: Performance Group from Hong
Kong Fun Entertainment Limited and others.
Transportation: Subway: about 100 meters to the north
of Silk Market Exit of Yong’anli Station, Line 1

Live Site at China Millennium Monument
Date: July 13鈥揂ugust 24
Address: China Millennium Monument Square, A 9 Fuxing Lu
Performing Troupes: Heilongjiang Provincial Art
Troupe, Hebei Provincial Art Troupe, and Ningxia Hui
Autonomous Region Art Troupe, others.
Transportation: Subway: Military Museum Station of Line 1
Bus: Military Museum Stop of Bus No. 1, 4, 21, 68, 320,
337, 728, or 802; Yuyuantan South Gate Stop of Bus No.
32, 65, 414, or 617.

Live Site in Beijing Science and Technology
University Judo Gymnasium
Date: July 13鈥揂ugust 24
Address: Basketball Court, Beijing Science and Technology
University, No. 30 Xueyuan Road, Haidian District
Performing Troupe: Student Art Group of Beijing Science
and Technology University
Transportation: Bus: Chengfu Road South Stop of Bus
No. 902, 398, 392, 375, 331, 26, 816, 810, 753, 749, 748,
743, 719, 603, or 951; North Gate Beijing Science and
Technology University Stop of Bus No. 836, 833, 853, 825,
690, 630, or 307; Xueyuan Bridge East Stop of Bus No.
Yuntong 113, Yuntong 109, 386, 47, 840, 827, 753, 751,
740, 737, 944, or 983

Live Site in Lianhuachi Park
Date: July 13鈥揂ugust 24
Address: No. 48 Lianhuachi Road, Guangwai, Fengtai
District (Beijing West Railway Station South)
Performing Troupes: Cuba Dance Group, Fengtai Culture
Centre, Beijing Folk Art Group, and etc.
Transportation: Bus: Lianhuachi Stop of Bus No. 917
special-line, 993, 822, 982, 927 extension-line, 927
extension-line interval, 927 interval, 927 special-line, 981,
981 temporary express, 620, 715, 719, 721, 349, 477, 704,
340, 57, 122, 613, 6, Special 7, or 38

Live Site in Beijing International Sculpture Park
Date: July 13鈥揂ugust 24
Address: Eastern Part of Beijing International Sculpture
Park, No. 2 Shijingshan Road, Shijingshan District
Performing Troupes: Mexico Folk Dance Group, Anhui
Provincial Sizhou Opera Theatre, Zhejiang Provincial
Art Troupe, “China Electronic Music Performance” from
Central Conservatory of Music, Shijingshan Xiaohe
Children Folk Music Group, and others.
Transportation: Subway: exit the Southwest Exit of the
Yuquan Road Station, Line 1
Bus: Yuquan Road Entrance Stop of Bus Nos. 337, 338,
370, 373, 389, 436, 620, 728, 941, 817; Lugu East End Stop
of Bus Nos. 308, 450, 621, 751, 850, or 958

Live Site in Binhe Park
Date: July 13鈥揂ugust 24
Address: Shuangyu Huandao North, Binhe Road,
Mentougou District
Performing Troupes: Malaysian Saint Maria Middle
School Orchestra, Bahamas Creativity Folk Art Group,
Anhui Provincial Sizhou Opera Theatre, Zhejiang
Provincial Art Troupe, Mentougou Art Group, and others.
Transportation: Subway Line 1 to get to Pingguoyuan
Station, change to Bus Nos. 370, 931 special-line,
931 sub-line, 992, or 645 and get off at Houzhuangzi
Stop, and then walk 100 meters forward; or get off at
Shuangyu Huandao West Stop, and then walk to the
northeast corner of Huandao.

Live Site at Fuqian Square
Date: July 13鈥揂ugust 24
Address: 50 meters south of the No. 1 Liangxiang
Zhengtong Road
Performing Troupes: Shenzhen Nanshan Affiliated
School Orchestra, Shenzhoudafutai Beijing Art Troupe,
Epoch Art Group, Liangxiao Bamboo Instrument Art
Troupe and others.
Transportation: Bus: District Government Stop of Bus
Nos. 917, 952, 616, 971, Liangxiang 1, Liangxiang 2,
Fangshan 1, Fangshan 2, Fangshan 37, or Fangshan 38

Live Site in Yanshan
Date: July 13鈥揂ugust 24
Address: No. 6 Yanshangang South Road, Fangshan District
Performing Troupe: Harbin Children Art Theatre, China
Ping Opera Theatre, Beijing Song and Dance Ensemble,
Yanshan Security Art Group, Art Group from Yanshan
Petrochemical Company, and others.
Transportation: Bus: Take Yanshan shuttle bus from
Qianmen West Street to Yanshan Stop; Take Bus No.
917 and change at Fangshan Wanning Bridge Stop to
Yanshan Bus No. 2 or No. 7 to get to Yanshan Theatre;
take Bus No. 952 or 616 to Liangxiang Beiguan Stop, and
change to Fangshan Bus No. 37 to get to the Theatre.

Live Site at Tongzhou Canal Square
Date: July 13鈥揂ugust 24
Address: Tongzhou Dongguan Bridge North
Performing Troupes: NANA band from Russia, Song
and Dancing Group from Mauritius, Tianjin Ping Opera
Theatre Tianjin Armed Police Forces Culture Troupe,
Beijing Opera and Dance Drama Theatre, Voice of Canal
Art Troupe, Liyuan Popular Art Group, and others.
Transportation: Beiyuan Station of Subway Batong Line,
and change to Bus Nos. 322, 342, 728, or 938 sub-line 9
to get to the Dongguan Bridge Stop, and then walk 50
meters west. The Square is on the north side of the road.

Live Site in Hexie Park
Date: July 13鈥揂ugust 24
Address: Rose Garden, Hexie Cultural Square, Shunyi District
Performing Troupe: Baihua Art Group, Yuanxiang Lion
Dance Group, and others.
Transportation: Bus: No. 915 to Shunyi East Bridge Stop
24

Live Site at Guangming Square
Date: July 13鈥揂ugust 24
Address: Shunyi Guangming Cultural Square
Transportation: Bus: Nos. 915 or 915 sub-line 2 to Shunyi
Hospital Stop

Live Site in Yong’an Park
Date: July 13鈥揂ugust 24
Address: Yong’an Park, West Ring South Road,
Changping District
Performing Troupes: Heilongjiang Provincial Folk Art
Troupe, Hebei Provincial Art Troupe, Shaolin Wushu
School Art Troupe, and others.
Transportation: Bus: South to Changping West Ring
South Road Stop of Bus Nos. 919 sub-line 1, 919 interval,
345 express, Chang 6, or Chang 22

Live Site at Xingcheng Square
Date: July 13鈥揂ugust 24
Address: Kangzhuang Park, Huangcun Kangzhuang
Road, Daxing District
Performing Troupes: Song and Dancing Group from
Senegal, Shaanxi Hengshan Youth Art Troupe, Beijing
Opera and Dance Drama Theatre, Beijing Wanxing Song
and Dance Ensemble, Beijing Wanxing Song and Dance
Group, Beijing Wenqinaoyu Art Troupe, Daxing Beautiful
Note Art Group, and others.
Transportation: Bus: Kangzhuang Road East End Stop of
Bus Nos. 410, 937 sub-line 1, 937 sub-line 4, or 957 express

Live Site at Century Square
Date: July 13鈥揂ugust 24
Address: No. 5 Fuqian West Street, Pinggu District
Performing Troupes: Chengdu No. 7 Middle School
Orchestra, Pinggu Culture Centre Art Troupe, and others.
Transportation: Bus: No. 918 at Dongzhimen Long-
Distance Bus Station

Live Site at Mingzhu Cultural Square
Date: July 13鈥揂ugust 24
Address: Huairou Mingzhu Cultural Square
Performing Troupe: Song and Dance Ensemble from
Russia, Shenzhen Longgang Orchestra, Changshaoying
Man Nationality Variety Performance Group, Longshan
Variety Performance Group, and others.
Transportation: Take Bus No. 916 with air-conditioning
at the Dongzhimen Subway Station and get off at the
Mingzhu Cultural Square Stop; take Bus No. 936 or 916
(general) at Dongzhimen Long-Distance Bus Station and
get off at the Mingzhu Cultural Square

Live Site at Miyun Cultural Activities Center
Date: July 13鈥揂ugust 24
Address: No. 1 Gulou West Street, Miyun County
Performing Troupes: Suzhou Municipal Art Troupe of
Jiangsu Province, Tongjiao Art Troupe of Inner Mongolia,
China Ping Opera Theatre, Beijing Yanshan-Love Art
Troupe, Beijing Golden Land Provincialism Art Group,
and others.
Transportation: Take Bus No. 980 at Dongzhimen Long-
Distance Bus Station to get to Miyun Gulou Stop

Live Site at Yanqing Exhibition Center

Date: July 13鈥揂ugust 24
Address: Qingyuan Street (Opposite the Zhongyin
Hotel), Yanqing County
Performing Troupes: US Orchestra, China Ping Opera
Theatre, Beijing Hebei Bangzi Theatre, Badalin Great Wall
Art Troupe, Star Artistic Group, and others.
Transportation: Take Bus No. 919 at Deshengmen Stop and
get off at the terminal station (Deshengmen to Yanqing)

I believe you’ll need to pay a few RMB to get into some of the parks, but I don’t think there is an admission fee to watch the show.

Living in Beijing, we know the air is bad. The air exacerbates asthma, or brings long-term colds and coughs, or that endless sore throat. We joke that living in Beijing is like developing a pack-a-day habit.

Pollution around the Olympic stadium in Beijing could be five times worse than levels deemed safe by the World Health Organisation.

Chinese officials admit they can no longer guarantee that the air quality will match international standards as pollution tests by The Sunday Times revealed the full extent of the challenge facing British athletes.

With just five weeks to go before the start of the Beijing Games, tests conducted outside the national stadium 鈥� known as the Bird鈥檚 Nest 鈥� and at Tiananmen Square, the starting point of the marathon, showed the air is thick with particulate pollution.

Even the Chinese government鈥檚 official air pollution index 鈥� which monitors a range of pollutants, including carbon dioxide and nitrous oxide 鈥� is running at double the level recommended by the WHO.

Via Times Online

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

I wrote on my own blog a little while ago about the Chinglish signs and menus popping up around the city. Since it’s an Olympic improvement, I thought it might be of interest to you Olympic fans!

Snapping photos of inadvertently dirty Chinglish signs is sort a hobby for me, but personal amusement aside, I’m worried that the almost-English signage is going to cause more harm than good.

Here’s the summary:

The new English signs and menus are prone to other problems, like the typos of normal human error, rush-job spelling mistakes, confusion between similar letters and words, and so forth. At times, it鈥檚 literally easier for me to decipher the Chinese. (Which either means that I rock, or that I鈥檝e memorized the collection of dishes we usually order. You decide.)

…

The plan is great. A few words of English 鈥� even broken English 鈥� have helped me out many times. But in practice, there is an East-meets-West problem. The Chinese praise even the clumsiest attempts at Mandarin and will probably be expecting the same in reverse. They鈥檒l be expecting thanks and praise for their English accommodations. They鈥檙e adding English to places they expect foreigners to visit, with the convenience of foreign visitors (or at least the tourists鈥� wallets) in mind.

But Western visitors of all sorts will be giggling and snapping pictures of Crap Salad or Bland Kitty, which are just too funny not to be shared with folks back home. The offended Chinese will wonder why Westerners have not only failed to thank them for their English translations, but are actually criticizing them, failing to respect the effort that went into creating an English-language menu just for foreigners (even if it was plugged into Babelfish and then printed off).

I鈥檓 worried that this attempt at hospitality is doomed create more international bad blood. Negative comments in the Western press about any aspect of China, are often seen as proof that the Western media is biased against China. I鈥檓 sure this will be a general problem with all the foreign reporters and visitors at the Olympics, someone鈥檚 going to have something negative to say, but it鈥檚 especially rough in this situation. I鈥檓 worried that this will feed the Western stereotype of the Chinese producing worthless garbage, and the Chinese stereotype of rude, anti-Chinese foreigners.

Via Simpson’s Paradox

We went up to see the Water Cube and the Bird’s Nest the other night… Really impressive!

I saw these little ones on the bus home. In case you can’t tell, the shirts say “we are ready” in English.

(I paid the kids back for letting me take the picture by letting them take their photos with me. And I wasn’t even wearing anything special!)

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

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.

Some days I have to look for news, but today I was in a grocery store by my apartment, and politics found me.

…this new shop is pretty good. The produce is fresh, the shop’s clean, the prices decent, and the employees, after shrieking their surprise that I can speak Chinese, are helpful.

When I made my usual stop today, though, one of the shopgirls suspiciously asked me if I’m French.

It really brought the political climate home for me.

Crossposted from my personal blog.