Chris Baraniuk is a coach with Cirque du Soleil:
Beijing is bustling, getting ready for the Olympics.
It will be a bit challenge come time for the Games. While I think the venues will be ready, the pollution, transportation, weather, and local behaviour will be huge challenges.
There is ongoing education of the Beijing residents on being polite, to be more hygienic in public (no spitting), basic English lessons (most speak no English: ok, DVD, watch, bag, hello), and learning how to stand in a line and not push people over.
If anyone is planning on going during the Olympics, bring your patience, some valium, and have a good concierge at your hotel.
Most of the construction workers come from the country-side. They leave their families at home for most of the year and send money home. They average $ 100 per month, get housed 12 to a room, 3 meals a day (meat once per week), and have a bucket and cloth to wash with.
Walking on the Great Wall was a once in a lifetime achievement and well worth the trip. Just to think that it was over 5000 km long when built.
Coincidentally, Sunday night I finally watched the Jet Li movie Hero (2002). The cinematography is sumptuous. .
Click PLAY or watch the trailer on YouTube.
This film has faced criticism from abroad at a perceived pro-totalitarian and pro-Chinese reunification subtext. Critics also cited as evidence the approval that had been given to the film by the government of the People’s Republic of China.
These critics argued that the ulterior meaning of the film was triumph of security and stability over liberty and human rights and that the concept of “all under heaven” (translated in the English-subtitled release as “Our land”) was being used to justify the incorporation of areas such as Tibet and Xinjiang within the People’s Republic of China and to promote the reunification of Taiwan with China.
It’s just a movie guys. Lighten up.
Rick McCharles 