The hopes of 1.3 billion Chinese people rested on the shoulders of Liu Xiang, the golden boy of China’s Track and Field. Today, 90000 strong crowd cramped into the Bird’s Nest in anticipation. Many more had their eyes glued to the television. They expect him to breeze past the qualifying rounds and finally face Dayron Robles, the Cuban who broke Liu’s world record. Their hopes were dashed when Liu limped away into the tunnel, his hamstring apparently injured. It was not the ending everyone wanted. Watching him limping away reminded me of Britain’s Derek Redmond at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics and Tanzania’s John Stephen Akhwari at the 1986 Olympic in Mexico City.

Sportsmanship and Fatherhood – Derek Redmond, 1992 Barcelona Olympic

Redmond was competing in the 400 meters semi-finals when he too, tore his hamstring. He fell to the ground in pain. When he saw stretcher bearers running towards him, he got up again and hobbled on one leg down his lane. He was determined to finish the race. His father barged his way past security to help him past the finishing line. It won a rousing ovation from the 65,000 crowd and the incident has become a well-remembered moment in Olympic history.

Finish the Race – John Stephen Akhwari, 1986 Mexico Olympic

Like Redmond, John Stephen Akhwari finished the marathon last. In fact, he finished the race one hour after the event had been won. He fell during the race, badly cutting his knee and dislocating the joint. Not deterred, the lone runner pressed on and completed the race to the standing ovation of the small crowd left in the stadium. When asked why he did not retire from the race and chose to continue running, he seemed confused but gave a simple answer:

“My country did not send me 5000 miles to start the race. They sent me 5000 miles to finish the race.”

His words inspired countless people.

Credit: Beijing2008

Recently, he appeared in Beijing as a goodwill ambassador in preparation for the Beijing 2008 summer games. During his visiting, Akhwari encouraged the students to be strong-minded, just like him.

Liu Xiang limping cross the finishing line would have showcased his mental strength and humanity’s strength of character…

Popularity: 38% [?]

Aug 8th was finally here and the long awaited opening ceremony would be telecast lived at 20:08. The date and time of the opening ceremony have been carefully chosen to associate with the lucky number 8. The reason for this is that 8, pronounced as ba in Chinese – which is somewhat similar to the pronunciation of fa, means “prosper” or “wealth”.

Many restaurants and pubs installed bigger screens in a bid to attract more customers on this special night. We too made reservations at Katheen 5 (a posh restarurant in central downtown area) to have dinner while watching the event. On our way to the restaurant, we passed by the openair auditorium at Nanjing road. A huge crowd was gathered there expecting to watch the grand Olympics opening ceremony on the 2 gigantic screens.

It’s 7:30pm at Nanjing east road outdoor auditorium. More and more people gather here hoping to watch the Beijing Olympic opening ceremony. We thought that such a important event would surely be telecasted and shown live on the giant screens, so we stopped and waited anxiously with the crowd.

Unexpectedly… at 8pm sharp, they switched off the screen! Holy Crap! A bunch of people went up to the stage and shout “Au Yun.. Au Yun…” hoping they on the screen again.

Stand higher to get more angles? Professional photographer LiuJin from AFP GettyImages.

Jam-packed with people at Nanjing Lu. People started to grumble and leave.

It’s a great opportunity for the Chinese to make money. There’s people selling all sorts of toys, China and Olympic flags.

Watching opening ceremony through a small screen at a cafe in Nanjing Lu.

Watching through a small tv.

At Fountain Xintiandi. Even the cook from another restaurant stopped by to catch a glimpse of the ceremony. Everybody cheer… and it’s more fun sitting at home!

German pub at Xintiandi. The screen was hanging from the ceiling of the 2nd floor and barely visible. There was a live band on the first floor and everyone on the 2nd floor were straining to hear the live coverage. Customers at tables near the stairs and screen started banging on their tables and shouted for the band to turn down the volume.

Popularity: 62% [?]

Has anyone watched the Olympics opening ceremony in Beijing Nest stadium? It’s the most amazing opening ceremony that I’ve ever seen! One of my favourite was “footprints” fireworks “walking” towards the Bird Nest. The arrangement for China National Gymnast LiNing to bear the last torch to light up the Olympic Flame was greatly done by “fly-walking” on top of the Bird Nest with ancient paper rolling as background.

The whole ceremony reminds me about my participation of performance in several national and world events like this when I was young. Beijing Olympics opening ceremony gave me a goose bumps because I was once in their shoes.

Dozens of rehearsals and lots of efforts… I still remember the smell of lunchbox and dinners provided by the authorities, and how many classes have I applied for absence in school. I am glad that I had those experiences and it make me impulsive when I watch the ceremony. The joy of success in performance just can’t be described in words.

Here are some of the backstage photos during the Olympic opening ceremony from my sis:

Popularity: 21% [?]

Since I make a post about “Where to watch Olympic opening ceremony in Shanghai“, I received more then 600 unique visitors these 2 days. I also notice a lot of traffic from the States typing the keyword “where to watch Olympic opening online”.

I founded on CCTV.com, they broadcasts the opening ceremony of the games live online. But due to IOC’s broadcasting regulations, only netizens in China mainland and Macau can access videos related to Beijing 2008 Olympic Games via CCTV.com. There are some interesting clips on the page as well. You need to use IE to load the page:

http://www.cctv.com/english/special/opening/02/index.shtml

If you missed the ceremony, here’s also a list of all Internet rights holders. You will find a list of URLs:

http://www.cctv.com/english/20080806/106217.shtml

CCTV schedule for Olympics live events:

http://www.cctv.com/english/20080807/109433.shtml

If you know somewhere to watch online and not listed here, tell us below in the comment form. Thanks!

Popularity: 20% [?]

People’s Square | Kathleen’s 5 (2 Indoor plasma, 2 outdoor big screen)
Add: 5/F, Shanghai Art Museum, 325 Nanjing Xi Lu. Tel: 6327-2221

While not the first venue that comes to mind for a raucous Olympic viewing, with its unique locale atop the historic Shanghai Art Museum K5′s glass-encased dining area is the perfect grandstand from which to watch the Opening Ceremony on the big screen in People’s Square. Expect to be joined by an upscale crowd while you enjoy dinner and drink specials (10-15 percent off on all drinks) on top of K5′s normal two-for-one happy hour from 5:30-8pm. “We probably have the biggest screen within the whole of Shanghai!” says General Manager Franck Crouvezier. This larger than life experience is definitely gold medal worthy.

Creek Kitchen (60″ ultra-large type projection screen)
Add: 6/F, Creek Art, 423 Guangfu Lu, Suzhou Creek near Datong Lu.
Tel: 63809172 / 63804150*11 Email: cecilia.chen@creekart.org

Creek Kitchen offer the Special Olympic Set, go with your friends and enjoy their delicious food here, with 60 inch ultra-large type projection screen and lucky draw for olympic. Reservation only, one free glass of red wine.

Jing’an & Pudong | Malone’s (2 large screen projectors and 13 LCD flat screen TVs)
Jing’an – 255 Tongren Lu. Tel: 6247-2400
Lujiajui – 1/F Ascott, 3 Pudong Da Dao. Tel: 6886-1309
Pudong – 2/F Thumb Plaza, 17 Fangdian Lu, near Yanggao Zhong Lu. Tel: 5033-6717

Celebrate the Beijing 2008 OLYMPIC Opening Ceremony with MALONE’S. With two large screen projectors and 13 LCD flat screen TVs, you can CATCH ALL THE ACTION LIVE HERE starting with the Opening Ceremony of the grandest and greatest Olympic event of all time. This American café may be the favorite of a lot of Kobe and LeBron supporters, but we’re sure you’ll be able to find a little (or a lot of) Yao Ming love as the basketball tip-off begins.

LIVE Bar (6m wide TV)
Add: 721 Kunming Lu, Yangpu near Tongbei Lu.
Tel: 2833-6764 Email: livebar1@163.com

Get the best of all worlds as you watch the 2008 Beijing Olympic Opening Ceremony live on Live Bar’s (6m wide TV) and enjoy Huan’s tunes during breaks in the broadcast and the post-ceremony action. Those in Olympic gear receive a free drink. RMB25 for members, RMB30 for non-members.

New Heights (giant screens)
Add: 7/F, Three on the Bund, 3 Zhongshan Dong Yi Lu, Huangpu near Guangdong Lu, Metro Line 2 Nanjing Dong Lu Station.
Tel: 6321-0909 Email: newheights@on-the-bund.com

Feel the Olympic heat this Friday at New Heights’s Bar as the 2008 Opening Ceremony kicks off. Watch the action on giant screens as you enjoy free flow of Heineken, thirst quenching Vodka cocktails and a BBQ feast with friends. RMB 248, per person including BBQ and free flow Heineken and Vodka cocktails.

Elia restaurant (42′LCD TV)
Add: 479 Guyang Lu, Gubei/Hongqiao near Yaohong Lu.
Tel: 5175-3077 Email: eliarestaurant@gmail.com

Olympic fever happy hour all night long, late coverage of the opening ceremony on their 42′LCD TV. Buy one free one on all drinks. This Mediterranean restaurant draws from a number of sources for its menu but charms with its Greek-style hospitality. The great service and welcoming atmosphere, complemented some fine food, make for an unpretentious and enjoyable evening out. A real boon for the residents of Gubei.

Former French Concession | O’Malley’s Irish Pub
Add: 42 Taojiang Lu.
Tel: 6474-4533

If you didn’t score tickets to watch the games in Beijing, this Irish pub will immerse you in the action. Screens in the garden and throughout the pub create a “surround screen” experience. Grab a bucket of beer (Sun.-Wed., ¥120 for four different beers), take in “the atmosphere and camaraderie,” says Assistant Manager Jeya Ibrahim, “and get ready for a big crowd!” CW teams up with O’Malley’s on Aug. 8 (or the Opening Ceremony of course), 16 and 22 to host festivities and Olympic-worthy drinking games (read: more Olympics food and drink specials). See Nightlife events online details.

Multiple Locations | Blue Frog
Xujiahui- Lower Level, Unit 12, 131 Tian Yao Qiao Road Tel: 3368 6117
Maoming- 207-06 South Maoming Road Tel: 6445 6634
Jingann – 86 Tongren Road Tel: 6247 0320
Hongmei- #30 Hong Mei Leisure Pedestrian Street, Lane 3338 Hong Mei Road Tel: 5422 5119
Pudong – Ground Floor, 27 Super Brand Mall, 168 Lujiazui Xi Road Tel: 5047 3488

If you hate replays, this Shanghai favorite will be showing everything from the Opening Ceremony to the closing farewells live. Stop by with your family or the laptop for some burgers and beers and enjoy the Olympic event of the moment. The daily two-for-one happy hour from 4-8pm, Wi-Fi access and a menu of delicious favorites make this a great place to recharge during the Olympic frenzy.

Fiesta Latina ( big screen)
Add: 4/F, Kohler Building, 456 Nanjing Xi Lu, People’s Square near Huangpi Bei Lu
Tel: 6359-5367 Email: info@otto-restaurants.com

Celebrate the Opening Ceremonies Latin style with free-flow tapas (until 10pm) at one of Shanghai’s favorite wine bars. You don’t have to forgot the night’s big event, as Otto’s bringing in a big screen to make sure no one misses a minute of the action. RMB100 includes tapas and two glasses of wine.

De La Coast (120″ big screen)
Add: 6/F, 1 Yan’an Dong Lu, Huangpu near Zhongshan Dong Er Lu
Tel: 6330-2615 Email: dorce-gabbana@hotmail.co.jp

Beer garden with 120inchs big screen. Reservation only.

Popularity: unranked [?]

The olympic torch relay began its last stretch in Beijing yesterday afternoon, handed over to the first bearer Yang Liwei, the country’s first Astronaut at the landmark Forbidden city, once home of China Emperors!

First torch bearer Yang Liwei – Source:Xinhua

The flame will travel in the host city for three days before the opening ceremony this coming Friday, passing Beijing landmarks including Tian’anmen Square, the egg-shapped National Center, Temple of Heaven and will end at the National Stadium – Bird Nest.

Among the bearers, there are basketball celebrity Yaoming, and famed film director Zhang Yimou.

Basketball celebrity Yao – Source:Xinhua

We have been kept guessing who will be the last torch bearer to light the main Olympic cauldron at the opening ceremony!

I don’t think Chairman Mao and Deng Xiaoping would ever imagined this! They would have been delighted!

Popularity: 20% [?]

2008 is the year China hosts the Olympics. Most of the focuses, so far, have been on spectacular structures (ex. Bird’s Nest & Water Cube) and the extraordinary efforts & investment by the Chinese officials to make the Beijing Olympics successful.

However, let us not forget that the Olympics are a celebration of humanity. The Olympics have witnessed some of human beings’ greatest triumphs and moments. Without a doubt, the Beijing Olympics will feature inspirational moments that will be talked about long after the event. Let’s recap some of the most motivating and emotional Olympic moments:

In 1936, Jesse Owens, an African-American, surprised many when he won 4 gold medals in track and field. The grandson of a slave and son of a sharecropper, Jesse Owens had to endure racial discrimination to represent United States at the Olympics. Hitler had hoped to use the Berlin Olympics to demonstrate Aryan superiority and African inferiority.

Abebe Bikila became the first African to win back-to-back Olympic marathon gold medals in 1960 and 1964. In 1960, he did it running bare-footed. In 1964, he won even though he was diagnosed with acute appendicitis and operated on one month before the Tokyo Olympics.

In the 1988 Calgary Olympics, the Jamaican bobsled team made its first debut. Many joked about this team from the tropical nation. The Jamaicans, however, managed to silence their critics and win respect & admiration by finished in 14th place, beating well-established teams like United States, Russia, France and Italy.

At the 2000 Sydney Olympics, North and South Korea put aside their differences as their athletes march together as a single nation under a single flag. Even though the relationship between South and North Korea was tense, the spirit of humanity shone through as politics took a backseat at the Olympics.

Gabriela Andersen-Schiess represented Switzerland in the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics as a marathoner. She staggered into the stadium 20 minutes after Joan Benoit had won the event. Suffering from heat exhaustion, her right leg was stiff and her left arm limp. She limped round the track, waving away medical personnel and occasionally stopping and holding her head. She collapsed across the finished line as the deafening roar from the crowd cheered her on.

I am very sure the Beijing Olympics will add more fantastic stories to this archive of special moments.

Popularity: 16% [?]

The 2008 Olympics is THE event of the century in China. The authorities are doing everything they can to make sure that absolutely nothing goes wrong. During this period, factories have been told to stop production. People have been told to drive less and use public transportation. Heck! Local Chinese are even told to learn English. Some of it may seem overboard (Stop production for one month!? It would be great if the authorities can compensate but I really doubt it). However, some of the measures are pretty commendable. For instance, we really hope the instruction to drive less can be extended indefinitely!!

Firstly, air pollution would be considerably less. People should really consider car-pooling.

Secondly, sound pollution would be drastically reduced. In China, most drivers’ hands are practically glued to the horn.

Finally, we hate it when the little green man appears and we starting walking across the road, the cars still try to weave & horn their way through.

Popularity: 12% [?]

A police officer in Beijing who can greet tourist in 13 languages was interviewed by CNN. He never took any language classes, but taught himself through watching foreign movies. He was determinded to leave a positive impression on visitors to Beijing.

The coming olympic in Beijing has spur English language fever in China. As they prepare to welcome the world, tens of thousand of people across China, young and old, even Beijing mayor have made an effort to learn English. They said they wanted to speak English so they could serve as a volunteer for the games. Those who have a language barrier may be left behind.

If you walk on the street, you will still find 1 out of 10 adults can barely speak English. This include cabbies and restaurant waitress. Apparently, many can read and write English.

While the entire China is learning English, Olympic is serving as a booster for oversea students to learn Chinese language and culture as well. Top prize winners will win full sholarships to study in China and all of them will have the opportunity to be a volunteer for the games.

Popularity: 17% [?]

The clocks across China are counting down to the day in the evening of August 8th, the moment when Beijing will launch the games of the 29th Olympiad. In preparation for its moment in the centre of the world stage, the city has transformed itself from the downager of old to a dazzling young star decked out in a stunning display of architecture haute couture!

Beijing National Stadium aka The Bird Nest is a stadium finished for the Olympic Green will be an icon and new landmark for Beijing.

The stadium will host the opening and closing ceremonies, track and field as well as soccer events. It has a total capacity of 91,000 and 11,000 temporary seating will be removed after the Game, leaving a permanent capacity of 80,000.

Pritzker¹ Prize -winning architects – Herzog & de Meuron Architekten , a Swiss architecture firm founded and headquartered in Basel lead the design.

The structural form of the roof is decsribe as a "nest", an interwoven structural elements of the facade produce a single surface, upon which further elements are arranged in a chaotic manner to blurr the distinction between the primary and secondary structure. The roof is saddle in shaped, and the geomatry is developed from an ellips based. The steel roof, a single 330m long by 220m wide structure weighting 45,000 tonnes is clad with a series of ETFE (Ethylene Tetrafluoroethylene) panels on the structure to make the Nest one of the most ingeniously designed "green" buildings in the world. This layer reflects and absorbs sound to maintain the atmosphere in the stadium.

An interwoven structure elements arranged in a chaotic manner.

ETFE
ETFE, a transparent plastic related to Teflon is taking the place of glass and other plastics in many of the most innovatibe buildings being constructed today. It is also known as the material of the future. Compare to glass, it’s 1% the weight, transmit more light, is a better insulator, and cost far less to install. It’s also recycleable, self-cleaning and far tougher, with an estimated 50 years life span.

The nest was build using a polymer called ETFE.

This amazing Nest didn’t come cheaply but still, Beijingers love this building!

Viewing from Google map when it was in construction.

___
¹ One of the world’s premier Architecture prizes awarded "irrespective of nationality, race, creed, or ideology. Some of the Laureates are: I.M Pei, Richard Meier, Kenzo tange, Frank Gehry, Tadao Ando, Renzo Piano, Sir Norman Foster, Zaha Hadid…

Popularity: 41% [?]