Ni hao! The 2008 Summer Olympics, officially known as the Games of the XXIX Olympiad will be celebrated from August 8, 2008 to August 24, 2008, with the opening ceremony commencing at 08:08:08 pm at the Beijing National Stadium in Beijing, China. Some events, including football(soccer), sailing, and new 10 km marathon swimming events will be held in other cities of China. With the equestrian events being held in Hong Kong, this marks the second time the same edition of the Olympic Games has been hosted by two National lympic Committees(NOCs). The Olympic games were awarded to Beijing, China by the IOC on July 13, 2001. The official logo of the games, titled "Dancing Beijing," features the character jing(meaning capital), referencing the host city. The mascots of Beijing 2008 are the five Fuwa, each representing one color of the Olympic rings. The Olympic slogan, One World, One Dream, calls upon the world to unite in the Olympic spirit. Athletes will compete in 302 events in 28 sports, just one event more than was on the schedule of the Athens games of 2004. Several new NOCs have also been recognized by the IOC.
The Chinese government sees the games as a chance for China to highlight its economic rise and emergence as a world power. Despite the efforts of the Communist Party to tightly manage press coverage of the event, there will likely be issues over the environment, human rights violations, and Tibetan independence. This being so, former IOC president Juan Antonio Samaranch has still boasted that the Beijing games will be "the best in Olympic history." Now here´s what I do think about this. I think China is already emerging as this world power in all aspects without the olympic games. The olympic games will only be a feather in the hat! But you will have to rememberthis is a very large country with many people living there, and it is difficult to totally control all things going on in all corners of this enourmous country! Many chinese are already very much aware of the environment questions. They are truely working on this and the future process will show it to the world. Now to the point of my blog post! Unlike many large cities in the world there are a lot of bicykles in this city, 
and also a lot of the local distribution go on bicykles. There is also the question of the hutongs being taken away. Now of the remaing 3000 hutongs some 1000 will be renovated and left for all to see, visit and live in. But my main point here is how has life been living in these old hutongs? You must remember that there are no toilets in the houses, and the fire brigade can not go there in these narrow streets and so on. So all of this is not bad. I think the government of Beijing is really trying to find a working solution for all living in the hutongs as well as for the future and the tourists! But you must cooperate with them or this will not work for you. It will be bad to go against this developement. Though we do really need to preserve the hutongs for the future generations, so they can know how life has been in Beijing. Liping´s home in Maoer Hutong is now becoming an alley street going straight through this hutong. So we know what it is loosing this living. But still the solution is very good. But these some 1000 hutongs must be preserved for the future generations to see and live in. Now, when in Beijing, we are living in the old Dong Yang Wei Hutong at Dong Yang Wei Jie!Zai jian!
Peter
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