5 posts tagged “beijing 2008”
Hi all! Sorry that I haven not been updated the blog last few days because I have some difficulties connecting to vox. This brings us only 3 days left to the Olympics!!
It seems like there are always mascots in big events - and this includes the Olympics. This year, Beijing has "Fuwa" as the mascots.
The Fuwa literally means "good-luck dolls" and they were designed by a famous Chinese artist, Han Meilin.
There are five Fuwa: Beibei, Jingjing, Huanhuan, Yingying, and Nini. Together, the names form the sentence which means "Beijing welcomes you".
There are so many different street markets in the Provence and we only visited 3 of them! There are so many interesting things to see, although you can probably find most products in all of them!!
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With eight days to go, I will keep blogging about my trips to Provence every day, with a little bit of information and my opinion about both China and the 2008 Olympics!
Some says the history of China is very difficult and complicated, and I suppose that's true - when I was in my school in Hong Kong, I had never done well in Chinese history. I suppose that's because China has over 4000 years history, and at the same time, there are so many different "nations" from parts of China, and they want to be independent. Famous examples are Taiwan, Tibet, and perhaps Hong Kong.
I bet you haven't heard of Xinjiang provence (Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region) before. This place has gone famous a few days ago, because East Turkestan Independence Movement released a video clip saying that they will launch attacks to Olympic venues if China hold the games. They also claims the responsibility to bus explosions in China these few weeks, and even a factory fire in "Guangdong".With days to reach the start of the games, the government had said "no" to them.
Facts that might interest you - many people doubt the "truthfulness" of the clip, because it has made serveral mistakes, including some of the dates they mentioned are wrong and the fact that there was no factory fire in Guangdong, but there was one in Shanghai. Some people have said that there are many muslim groups in that area, so they want to be proud and more superior than others.
Briefly about East Turkestan independence movement. The provence of Xinjiang is part of China since 1934. This part has been influenced by Russia very much and other countries nearby. However, the one that we are really interested in Pakistan, one of the 8 neighbouring countries. Apprantly, this group was turned into muslims and related to Bin Laden, and not surprising, became terrorists.
China has set up a lot of military defense in order to keep the game safe, including building anti-missles factilites. Found a news clip on youtube: (there is no commentary)
Believe it or not, China has lots of problems to deal with! One of the biggest ones is control these people in Tibet and Xinjiang, so you can see how harsh action they had done last time in Tibet. Also, Chinese history is really complicated - if you want to be challenged and you love history, this might be the subject you might want to study later on in your life!!
Just in case you cannot be bothered to read these all, here is the bbc clip for it:
Here is the question of today - do you think anyone will attack the Olympics and will China be able to defeat them?? Tell me what you think!!
Sunset there is beautiful!!!
More photos: http://www.flickr.com/photos/happymichael/sets/72157606080148134/
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With nine days to go, I will keep blogging about my trips to Provence every day, with a little bit of information and my opinion about both China and the 2008 Olympics!
Perhaps the second argument is the air quality of the city. I admit that the air is really polluted. According to the BBC readings, the indexes are 3 times higher than the WHO standards. I went to Beijing some years ago, and I can tell you that it was far worse.
I can find a definite reason for its pollution - according to wikipedia, Beijing has a population of 17.4 million, while London has 7.6 million. And the trend is each family has at least one car in Beijing. So you can imagine the pollution to be at least "double London".
However, there is no doubt that China has done a lot of work to try to get its air better - every factories and most gas station is closed down for the past 3 months, and Beijing has banned half of the cars on the street. THe most significant change is that its sulphur oxide concentration has decreased from 71μg/ m3 to 47μg/ m3 in 7 years. Organisations, such as GreenPeace, have recognised the work done by the government, yet it hasn't meet the standards.
I doubt the government can introduce any more measures to help clear up the air because they have done everything they can. Let's hope wind will blow the pollution away from the Olympic city.
Latest update: According to the BBC News records, the pollution level in Beijing finally meets the WHO interim target for developing countries yesterday. (28/7/2008)
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With ten days to go, I will keep blogging about my trips to Provence every day, with a little bit of information and my opinion about both China and the 2008 Olympics!
I think I should start off with the points which people has said the Beijing should not hold the Olympics. Today, perhaps this has been the most popular topic of all few months ago - The Human Rights in China. Many people abroad said that China was wrong and Tibet should be independent. However, I don't think so. China might have done wrong but I am sure that the government has done it in a much better way than in 1989. Tibet has been part of China for hundreds of years and there is no reason for independance in this particular occassion. As I said in one of my blog posts before, this is partly western media's fault. Also, I feel that there was a trend to protest for Tibet and against China. You might be wondering why I said that - anyone realise that after 5.18 earthquake in Sichuan, people all around the world seem to have forget Tibet all together! There is also a clip on YouTube about a news reporter asking the protestors the location of Tibet - unfortunately, no one answered it right!!
One of the leaders in Czech Republic has said that he will wear a Tibet badge when attending the opening of the Games. What I am thinking now, is what China going to do if an athelete shows a Tibet flag when he is getting his medal?? Tell me what you think!!
I think I cannot be silence anymore!! I have no opinion on how China is treating Tibet because I am always confused on why the police cannot do the same thing as the riots do. I have always been thinking that it could be much worse than this if it is not the Olympic year - I have always been imagining what happened in Tiananmen Square in 1989 would happen again.
Okay, back on what happened in London yesterday.. I mean their action yesterday is ridiculous and stupid. The protesters has been wanting freedom and "violence-free" in Tibet but ironically, they use violence against the Olympic torch, so what the point of that??
In my Chinese History lesson, I have been told that Tibet is part of China for a long time and this makes it silly for them to want independence because Chinese Government put so much money in Tibet for schools, hospitals, transportation, etc.. If you think Chinese did invade Tibet, what is the difference between what China did and what the American and English did to Iraq?? Why don't they think about that?? There are often news about how bad the soldiers are treating the prisoners.
I still think that Olympic games is a purely SPORTS event and nothing politically should affect it. However, at the end of the day, it is still a government decision on whether boycotting the games or not. However, as a Chinese, I am proud of my own country and support Olympic games.
Just as I was watching BBC news on Youtube, I found this "related video" which I got really angry and confused at the same time and here is the video - hope you will take time to watch the whole video:
(To turn the music off, the controls are at the bottom and the right sidebar.)
Why do the Western media do that?? Can anyone explain??
