2008 Summer Olympics

Though we seriously hope not to be waiting so long for our referral that we travel during 2008, we are looking forward to spending a few days in Beijing prior to receiving our daughter. We hope to travel mid 2007... hey, a family can dream can't they?

While in Beijing, we plan to visit so many places, the Great Wall (not the Badaling section, it seems to be very heavily visited, so we'll head further out), the Summer Palace, Tiananmen Square, perhaps a Hutong if possible.

But, we also want to visit some of the 2008 Summer Olympic Venues, many of which are well under way and nearing completion. While chatting with people on my DTC group with Yahoo, someone mentioned the Beijing "Winter" Olympics and it threw me for a loop. I think ever since they switched from both the Summer and Winter Olympics during the same year, to alternating every 2 years, people have trouble keeping them separated.

But, the great news is, that in the process of doing the double take on Beijing Summer vs. Winter I found the Beijing Olympics Website:

One World One Dream

On it, were listed headlines like:

"Beijing to build over 100 new hotels for 2008 Olympics"

"Decades old oven stops operation for Blue Skies in Beijing"

"Beijing to put 144 new subway trains into operation by 2008"

It also talks about the slogan "One World One Dream". It was picked by the Beijing Olympic Committee (BOCOG) in the hopes that people, regardless of their difference in color, language, nationality and belief will share the charm and joy of the Olympic movement as well as the happiness and pleasure in a peaceful society.

I think it's a beautiful and meaningful sentiment and the perfect slogan for the Olympics.

On the website other topics are discussed, things I never thought Olympic committees would think, let alone discuss. One of those topics was about 'the colors of the Beijing Games'.

Chinese Red: With red lanterns, red weddings, red palatial walls and red spring couplets, lives in Beijing are shrouded in the red. The red is the colour of Beijing and that of China.


Jade White: Chinese intellectuals have been wearing jades to show their honesty since long time ago.Jade is also a symbol of luck.


Great Wall Grey: The grey Great Wall winds in mountains and grey siheyuan courtyards lie in hutongs. The grey is the tone of traditional architectures in Beijing.


Blue and White Porcelain Blue: The colour of the blue-and-white porcelain makes the shade of the sky in Beijing's bright summer and golden autumn. The mild blue of the porcelain hints at the city's history and its creativity.



Glaze Yellow: With golden glazed tiles, golden leaves and golden farmlands, the peculiar golden colour of the glaze represents the glorious history and landscape of Beijing.


Chinese Scholar-Tree Green: Chinese scholar-tree has been selected by Beijing residents to represent the image of Beijing. It tells the theme of the "Green Olympics". (hence the shutting down of the coke oven factory and moving it elsewhere... a tremendous endeavor on it's own)

There are some incredibly unique buildings going up for the sporting venues. They may not be 'your cup of tea' but they are unique and cool and amazing architectural feats of engineering. One is the 'Bird Nest', seen at the top of this article and will be used for opening ceremonies, track venues, etc. The iron work on the outisde of the building is meant to mimic, obviously, a Bird's Nest. We've seen a special on the building of it abou 6 months ago, it'a amazing. Another one is the swimming complex, this one is seen to the left and right. It's hard to adequately describe. The special we saw a few months back also had this building in it. It talked about unique heating/cooling issues, building materials, etc.

All in all, the building of an Olympic venue, in any city is a major undertaking, but the Chinese are going about it in a way that sets a standard for architechture, imagination, post games use, etc. It truly is an amazing story and one worth a few minutes of time to explore.