A few more hours to go before the opening ceremony of Beijing Olympics. Some random news and information about Olympics and happenings in Beijing…

2008-08-08 8.08pm

The number ‘8′ is seen as a symbol of prosperity for Chinese. The Beijing organisers are optimising their wish for prosperity to the max obviously… by running the opening ceremony on 8.08pm, on the 8th of August, 2008.

Renowned director Zhang Yimou and choreographer Zhang Jigang are the co-directors for tonight’s show at the Beijing National Stadium.

It’s still a mystery on who will light the Olympic flame at the opening ceremony. It’s heavily rumoured that gymnastic legend Li Ning will take the honour; we’ll see how true the speculations are.

Ode to the Olympics

A large scale oil-painting titled “Ode to the Olympics” was opened to the public on August 6. Artist Liu Ningyi and his daughter Liu Haomei took seven years to complete the masterpiece, which measures 112 metres (112 years of modern Olympic history) in length and five meters (representing the five Olympic Rings) in height.

Ode to the Olympics gallery in Beijing, China
Ode to the Olympics (Image from Beijing2008)

The Olympic fan

Lu Zhiyuan, a 13-year-old boy from Zhejiang province, has collected more than 300 autographs from Olympic athletes arriving at Capital International Airport.

In the past few days, Lu and his father shuttled between newly arrived athletes and asked for their autographs in his notebook. The signatures include those of Chinese basketball star Yi Jianlian and Spanish tennis star Rafael Nadal etc. [via Cri]

Free hugs?

A foreign lady was ‘asking’ for hugs at a tourist spot in Beijing… probably one of the free-hugs campaigners. The translation doesn’t sound right though; free-huggers normally carry a sign-board ‘free hugs’ offering by-passers a free hug, but those Chinese words read ‘give me a hug’ instead, which actually sounds begging…

A lady offering free hugs in Beijing, China
Give me a free hug? (Image via Xinhuanet)

Google Olympic logo

Search engine Google would create special logos during holiday seasons or special occasions… and here it is, for Beijing Olympics…

Google holiday logo for Beijing Olympics

Follow this tag for more Beijing Olympics’ update


Possibly Related Posts
Beijing Olympics roundup (3)
The tale of Matthew Emmons
Beijing Olympics roundup (1)
Beijing 2008 Summer Olympics… one month to go


7 Responses to “Beijing Olympics roundup (2)”

  1. kyon on August 8th, 2008 at 5:46pm

    i’ll give a hug to the hot chick anytime haha. two more hours to the opening.. i am watching a special tv show for the closing ceremony in athens.

  2. bb on August 9th, 2008 at 3:00am

    hopefully, all these “8s” could bring good luck to this year’s olympics.

    the painting is amazing! 7 years is reaaalllyy long.

    i wonder what the little boy is gonna do with all those signatures. if i met a celebrity, i would ask for a picture instead. but i guess that takes more time and effort.

    so did the lady get any hugs in the end? lol.

  3. cole on August 9th, 2008 at 5:30am

    She’s definitly got my hug! ;p

  4. Yein Jee on August 9th, 2008 at 11:20am

    bb… signatures… sell it on Ebay perhaps? 300 celeb pics sounds like a lot of cash lol.

    Ya, the lady is definitely going to get some hug…. there must be some people like kyon, cole and me in Beijing :p

  5. Beijing Olympics roundup (3) | YeinJee's Asian Journal on August 10th, 2008 at 1:59pm

    [...] the lucky number 8 I mentioned two days [...]

  6. umm on August 12th, 2008 at 10:01am

    that lady will not just get my hug lol


Leave a Reply

All the above fields are optional






RSS and Newsletter


RSS and XML feed
Enter your email address for latest updates