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Rob_Hugo@PortNWThe May 14th issue of The Economist includes an article about a group avant-garde artists in Beijing who have turned a complex of old military factories – now known as ‘798’ – in Beijing into “a centre of trendy modernity.” While these same artists “court[ed] trouble with the government,” and were seen only as a temporary nuisance by the state-controlled land-holding group (who sought to profit from the rents before redeveloping the land) when they opened their modern-art galleries, stores, and teahouses there in the late 1990s, their success, along with the approaching Beijing Olympic Games, have led the government to prioritize the area as ‘a cultural creative industry.” This may be a hopeful sign for freedom of expression in China as the government continues to concede reform for profit, but putting a price on reform, The Economist notes, leads to the question of “what’s worse for artists – communism or capitalism?”
AnonymousBeijing Olympic organizers (BOCOG) Saturday, June 23, announced its plan to recruit torch bearers for the longest relay route in Olympic history.
BOCOG has planned to have a total of 21,880 torch bearers both home and abroad for the 137,000km torch relay route which will also cover the world's highest peak Mount Qomolangma.
"There are two ways of becoming a torch bearer," said Jiang Xiaoyu, executive vice president of BOCOG. "The first one is through recommendations by various organizations and institutions." These organizations and institutions, Jiang said, included the Chinese mainland's local governments, Chinese Olympic Committee, Beijing Torch Relay Presenting Partners, the Olympic Family as well as cities on the relay route and BOCOG. "Another way is an open process in which public recommendations are accepted," he said.
BOCOG has set no limits on gender, career, nationality or health conditions but Jiang said the applicants had better be older than 14. Foreigners can account for at most five percent of torch bearers on the Chinese mainland which will have 19,400 in total. People with a disability are welcomed to take part.
The deadline for submitting applications is October 31 before the BOCOG make the final confirmation before December 30 this year.
If you are interested in being one of the torch bearers, you better hurry to grab this chance now.
AnonymousOn Tuesday, June 19th, TIME published and article titled, “China Plans Highway on Mt. Everest”. According to the article, in order to ease the Olympic torch journey to the top of the highest mountain, China plans to build a highway 67 miles up the top of Mount Everest. The construction cost is estimated at $19.7 million and will take 4 months to complete. While this seems to be a short amount of time, we all witnessed how quickly buildings go up in China. The pathway will then become a major route for tourists and mountaineers. Because Tibet is still ruled by China, the Tibetans have no say in the matter. Communist rule once again.
AnonymousBookings for Beijing Olympic tickets have far exceeded the supply. The first phase of ticket sales for the 2008 Olympic Games has come to a close with more than 700,000 people booking over 4.9 million tickets, officials said on Sunday. Of the 700,000 orders, about 90 percent were over the Internet, with the rest through Bank of China branches or by mail.
Though bookings far exceeded the supply volume of 2.7 million tickets for the first phase from April 15 to June 30, it doesn't mean all are sold out. Some hot events such as the opening and closing ceremonies are over-subscribed, while a few other events are a little unpopular.Last week, it was said that the tickets for opening and closing ceremonies would be done by lottery. Other popular ticket choices were for football, basketball, volleyball, table tennis, badminton, diving and gymnastics.Tickets will be assigned between July and August before the second leg of domestic sales kick off in October and run through December.
In a country with a population of 1.3 billion, many believe that only the luckiest will have chance of watching the Games, though three-quarters of the seven million very affordable tickets are reserved for domestic sales.To offer the largest number of people the opportunity, Beijing Olympic Organizing Committee (BOCOG) has limited the number of tickets each individual can buy - one each for the opening and closing ceremonies, and two tickets for events in high demand. For other competitions, each buyer will be limited to three to five tickets based on demand.