I Love China

Mens 4 x 100m relay descends into farce as 4 of the 8 teams drop their batons.

Am I the only one who is completely stunned by the relay events last night? Where do I start, seriously. Okay, how about starting with the mens 4 x 100m heats. Out of th 16 teams running in 2 races, 8 teams would go through to tonight’s final, but only 10 managed to finish legally. In heat 1, USA, Nigeria, Poland and South Africa managed to drop the baton and did not finish. In heat 2, Italy and Great Britain were disqualified for changing over outside of the allowed area.

So now, the current gold medal holders from Athens 2004 (Great Britain) are not in the final. The silver medalists and one of the favourites, USA are not in the final. Nigeria took bronze in Athens and are not in the final. So basically Jamaica are almost certain to take gold tonight if they can just hold on to the baton!

I’m not done yet though. Later in the evening, the USA womens 4 x 100m relay team did exactly the same thing as the men and dropped the baton in the final changeover, so they’re also not in the final.

I don’t want to point out the bleeding obvious, but I think a bit more baton changing practice might not be a bad thing for London 2012.

There is some good news though – since almost everyone of the top teams are out, China are in the final pretty much just for managing not to drop the baton! Go China!

Bonus points to the first person to name the group who sang Hold On Tight without using Google.

WoAi outside the Bird’s Nest, Beijing, 16th August 2008

Adidas has the slogan “Impossible Is Nothing”. Li Ning has “Nothing Is Impossible”. WoAi’s new slogan is “Impossible? Nothing Is”.

To prove the point, despite forecasts of full and overpriced hotels, chaos on the roads and sold out tickets, I went to the 2008 summer Olympics in Beijing. Some people plan these things years in advance, booking hotels, flights and tickets for the events. I decided on Wednesday, booked flight and hotel on Thursday, and on Friday night after work, I was on my way, not knowing if I would get tickets to see anything, but willing to take the chance. Swiss James, Neil and John also came along for the ride.

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I, like many of the viewers of the Olympics opening ceremony, were blown away by the amazing show that was put together to launch the 2008 summer Olympic games last Friday night. As expected, it was a show to end all shows and I am personally looking forward to seeing what the London 2012 organisers have by way of reply to Beijing 2008.

Here are some of the quotes that were flooding into my text message inbox as the ceremony progressed:

“It’s unbelievable, I have chills ….” wrote M from the US.

“I think we can already conclude this will shit all over the opening ceremony for London 2012” wrote C from England, about 30 seconds after the ceremony began.

Interestingly though, it’s now been revealed (here in the NY Times, here in The Guardian and also here) that the ever so cute 9 year old pigtailed girl in the red dress, Lin Miaoke (pictured below right), was a fake. She was in fact lip syncing to the voice of another girl, 7 year old Yang Peiyi. Poor old Yang was replaced at the last minute, apparently because she was deemed to be less attractive with her crooked, less than perfect teeth, so the switch was made “in the national interest”. We wouldn’t want the foreigners to think Chinese kids aren’t all flawless now would we.

Yang (left) aged 7. Nice voice, shame about the face!

At the same time, rather amusingly, the Chinese media like the China Daily and China View have been singing the praises (excuse the pun) of the heartwarming mime act. I wonder if they will be swiftly deleting these articles tomorrow!

Personally I think it’s a great lesson for 7 year old Yang, who has learned at an early age that good looks is what’s going to provide you with success in life. (You just have too look at all the stunning twenty-something model types that drive around Shanghai in Porsches and Mercs paid for by their rich sugar daddies.) It’s better young Yang realises that sooner, rather than later.

Results Update: China has beaten Sweden 2-1 in the opening game of the Olympic womens soccer competition. Go China! WO AI ZHONG GUO!!! 中国加油!

Well as usual I have left it till the last possible moment, on the eve of the 2008 summer Olympics, to write on this topic, but you know what they say about it being better late than never.

On July 13th 2001, Beijing was awarded the 2008 Olympic games. Beijing’s win was Toronto, Paris, Istanbul and Osaka’s loss. I was living in Beijing at the time and the whole city just went wild on that Friday night in July.

Ever since then, China has been working hard to ensure that it puts on an impressive show for the rest of the world, clearly trying to prove a point. I’m not entirely sure why the Chinese are so desperate to get approval from abroad. They certainly don’t need it. The Chinese economy is growing at an enviable rate and if anything, it is the rest of the world that needs to gain favour from the Chinese in order to be part of this extraordinary growth.

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Some of my friends claim that prostitution is everywhere in China – in the barber shops, the KTVs, the saunas, the bars, the clubs. I didn’t believe it for one minute, until today when I was visiting the Makro self service wholesale supermarket in Beijing’s Jiu Xian Qiao Road.  Round by the side entrance, I saw this sign:

Or for the optically challenged ….

No wonder they only allow members with cards to make purchases there.  I was in a rush to a business meeting but perhaps next time, I’ll pop in and investigate what’s on offer (in the name of research of course) and report back to you dear readers!