Let's not take anything away from these Olympics - they were spectacular in every way! When Kyle and I had to fill out our spectators surveys we ticked "Brilliant" in every catagory - they really did outdo themselves. When we arrived in Beijing a year ago I wondered how on earth this nation would manage when the western world decended upon them; but I'll hand it to them - they certainly transformed a rather un-userfriendly city into a place that was warm and accomodating to foreign guests. That being said it is important to remember that this still is China and there are some aspects of these olympics that are quite interesting upon review.
What a lot of people didn't know while they were watching the spectacular opening ceremony on their TV screens was that besides being at the opening ceremony in person, your TV screen was the only way you could enjoy it. Despite living a mere 2 blocks away fron the Bird's nest authorities had cordoned off a 3km radius of the stadium and no one in Beijing could get a glimpse of the stadium or the fireworks for that or the closing ceremony. We were among the people wandering aimlessly through the streets at 20h08 on the 8/8 and missed the entire scene because government were too paranoid to let us anywhere near it. It really did feel like the common man - the locals who had put up with the building and construction and the spirit of Olympia thrown at them for the last 8 years - were not given a chance to partake in the festivities; like the whole show was for the foreigners rather than for CHINA. No large screen TV's were put up or even went on to and so opening night materialised into a case of "so close yet so far" for many of us.
That being said the show they did put on for the foreigners in that stadium was tremendous and many of you may not be aware of the historical significance that each scene carried during that performance. Allow me to explain the cultural significance of one scene that still gives me goosebumps when I think about it: in ancient China, when the Emperor was receiving very respected and important foreign guests it was tradition to entertain them and open ceremonial processions with the playing of ancient Chinese drums. If you were fortunate enough to see the opening ceremony from the beginning you would have seen those drums (excavated for the first time in 2005) with their 2008 drummers all drumming in time. No other guests in history have ever been shown such a warm welcome and it was like 3000 years of history was signally the start of such a momentus occassion.
Many Chinese people were quite fed up by the time the Olympics rolled around. As I mentioned earlier even for the year we've been here we've had nothing but Beijing Olympics shoved down our throats in every media form imaginable. What seemed remarkable though was how after the opening ceremony even the most cinical of Chinese became proud of the Games and the show of splendor put on by their government. It really did unite the nation and in the end did as much for them as it did the foreigners who left with a transformed view of the East.
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