sallyhammond.com.au

LET THE GAMES BEGIN!

My taxi-driver from Beijing International Airport nods vigorously when I ask him if he is looking forward to the Olympics next year. We have just passed several kilometres of late night road works on the major new artery which will whisk the capital’s expected 1.5 million visitors to their rooms with the minimum of delay.

I wonder if he finds it arduous, this inevitable disruption to traffic. It reminds me so much of Sydney in the time leading up to our Games. He lacks the language skills to answer me properly, but I can see from his smile that he is excited.

And why not? This is the biggest, most prestigious world-class event the country has been involved with since its gradual emergence in the 1970s from self-imposed isolation. 

This article continues with details of the lead-up to the games, where to stay in the city and other things to see and do before and after the Games.

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(finishes…)

Not far from the city on a hillside beside the most famous wall in the world, sure to be the second most-visited tourist spot in 2008, a massive sign has been erected across the hillside.

There’s a red symbol of a running stick-figure and the Olympic rings, then: ‘Beijing 2008 One World One Dream’, in Chinese and English’.

Which, really, is the essence of it all.

©Sally Hammond 2007
Picture Credits: ©Gordon Hammond 2007

(Sally and Gordon Hammond travelled as guests of Helen Wong’s Tours)

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