Italy 2 - Belgium 3

Sat Aug 16

18:00
Men's Q/Final - Match 26 - D1 vs C2 Italy vs Belgium

Workers' Stadium

Ready for Olympics

Everybody asks themselves is Beijing ready to host the biggest Sports event of the year?

This is a very tough question. I would have to answer yes and no.

Yes because every major infrastructure is of course completed. Beijing even opened 4 new subway lines and 20 new bus lines in one month. It's really unbelievable how fast the shape of Beijing changed. I went to Beijing in May to witness a major change in July. New hotels, new communication buildings, new subway stations in just a period of 2 months. That's really crazy, but that's China's strength. So on this part China will really amaze the world.

Starting from 21 July the government stopped all construction activities and all factories around Beijing for 2 months! Also cars were only allowed to enter Beijing on even or uneven days according to the number plates. This is a way to reduce the air pollution that's poltergheisting the Chinese capital. One of the 3 traffic lines on Beijing's highways is exclusively reserved for Olympic use.

Only one electable party makes it of course easy to control the whole country. If you combine this with the group-thinking any Chinese citizen herited from the time of Confucius, you can start to understand how such preparations are possible.

No because China stays China and people are not really used to foreigners.

I took some taxis in Beijing last month and was a bit disappointed as I heard that most taxi drivers will possess a GPS system to help the foreign guests, but none was available. In every taxi I saw I never noticed a GPS system. Although every taxi driver could follow a free course of Basic English, it is still very hard to converse with them without any knowledge of Chinese. So the obligatory business cards or a Chinese friend's phone number will still be needed.

And that my friends is of course only the taxi drivers. I can already imagine a few chaotic and funny situations in restaurants, hotels, shopping malls, ...

Oh by the way the officially promoted restaurants for the Olympics were forbidden to serve dog meat. All the other restaurants in Beijing were kindly asked to do the same.

Another thing that bothers me is China's attitude towards foreign residents; Most of Beijing's foreign residents were kicked out of Beijing because their visa was not extended. I suppose the Chinese government wants to limit the troublemakers, and troublemakers in Chinese's minds are always outsiders.

Even getting through the security check at the airports is for a foreigner a braver mission than for a Chinese citizen. Any unidentifiable item (so no Chinese on it) will find it's way to the nearest garbage bin.

So my conclusion can be that what you will see on TV will be perfect (I guess if anything happens the Chinese will just cut off all transmission). But all around Beijing a lot of problems will occur for every non-speaking traveler. So better take a guide, gives me more work haha.

Please don't miss the opening ceremony on 8/8/08 at 8 minutes past 8. It's by famous director Zhang Yi Mou.

Pictures taken near the Olympic Green :

Apartments for the athletes. They will become luxurious apartments once the Games end.




Whole set of apartments. The top of the tower symbolizes the Olympic Flame.




Famous new icon of Beijing, the Bird's nest.



View on the Olympic Green. The tower in the middle will support the Olympic Flame.




Watercube, venue for all swimming contests. After the Games it will become a public swimming pool.

New Olympic Sport?

Pole Dancing schools are the newest fashion in China.

As I reviewed in an earlier post, young women love to show off their new moves when going out. But joining a pole dancing school is also a way of daily training and some even do it to excell and to be able to work in night clubs for a good salary.

The pictures here are taken in Hefei, Anhui province in a dance school which opened 2 months ago.

Bird's nest

Christmas and New Year coming soon! That means a lot of reviews and lists will be published about 2007. One of those list is published by the famous magazine TIME. TIME compiled a top 10 of architectural marvels. In this list 3 architectures from Beijing were included.

Beijing National Stadium, the new CCTV headquarters and the office building project "Linked Hybrid" represent the modern side of Beijing.

The Bird's nest as the Beijing National Stadium is called will be finished around March 2008. The design was developed by the Swiss architecture firm Herzog & de Meuron. The 250,000 km² stadium is to be built with 36 km of unwrapped steel, with a combined weight of 45,000 tonnes. It is clear why the stadium gets its peculiar name. Since November last year the stadium can stand on its own without any support. The works started in December 2003 and when it will be completed the stadium will have a capacity of 100.000 spectators. The stadium will be used as the main stadium and most track and field competitions as well as the opening and closing ceremony will take place in The Bird's nest.

As I have seen it, the stadium (most other stadia as well) look finished from the outside. The Olympic green, which includes the Olympic village and the stadia, is well guarded and no unauthorized visitors are allowed.

The CCTV Headquarters is a skyscraper which will be used as the new headquarters of the Chinese Central TeleVision. It is a strange site nowadays in the busy Central Business District of Beijing. Like two towers of Pisa bending towards each other. The Dutch architect Rem Koolhaas designed the building. It is seen as a architectural challenge to be realised.

The remaining architectural wonders of 2007 according to TIME magazine:


Linked Hybrid, Beijing. Steven Holl's retail/office complex will have sky bridges connecting each of its eight towers.

Heathrow Five, London. Richard Rogers' firm is giving Heathrow a big new terminal under a vast, column-free arch.


Caja Madrid Tower, Madrid.Norman Foster's oil-and-gas-company headquarters will have rooftop wind turbines.


IAC Headquarters, New York Frank Gehry Partners.


The New Museum of Contemporary Art, New York Sanaa.


Bloch Building, Nelson-Atkins, Museum of Art addition, Kansas City, Mo. Steven Holl Architects.


Federal Building, San Francisco Morphosis.


Olympic Sculpture Park, Seattle Weiss/Manfredi.

Zhang Yi Mou 张艺谋

Zhang Yi Mou is one of the stars of the growing Chinese movie business. He is probably the most internationally known Chinese filmmaker (producer, director, writer, cinematographer).

Yi Mou was born in Xi'An (where the terracotta army is situated) in Shaanxi province on 14 November 1951. Because of the support his family gave the Kuomintang, he got a hard life during the reign of the Communist Party. During the Cultural Revolution he had to do forced labour on a farm and later in a textile mill. This period give him inspiration for later movies and already during his youth he was interested in painting and acting.

After Mao's death and the end of the Cultural Revolution, Zhang Yi Mou started to develop his talent. He graduated from the Beijing Film Academy in 1982 and started to handle some projects with his former classmates.

In 1987 he produces his first his directorial debut, Red Sorghum, starring Gong Li. Red Sorghum narrates the hard life of a young woman working on a distillery for sorghum liquor. His debut wins him the Golden Bear for Best Picture at the Berlin Film festival in 1988.

His next international recognition will earn him an Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film with his movie Ju Dou. Ju Dou tells the story of a young girl, again played by Gong Li, sold to a dye merchant. Again a real life movie about the more hard rural life in earlier China.

Raise the Red Lantern is considered as his best work and is about the struggle of 4 woman, concubines and wives, in a rich family compound. The movie stars Gong Li and was internationally acclaimed and nominated for an Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. Unfortunately it was banned from China, because politically not correct.

His next movies win him different awards on various International Film festivals. Still starring his best star Gong Li. His most recent movies still show different aspects of Chinese life and society but are more going on the Hollywood tour. Bigger, more budget and reaching a bigger audience. His 2002 movie Hero has an impressive line-up of Asian stars, the likes of Gong Li, Jet Li, Maggie Cheung and Zhang's new protegee Zhang Ziyi. Thanks to the help of Quentin Tarantino the Movie becomes a big international hit and gets a nominee for Best Foreign Language Movie.

House of Flying Daggers follows the line of Hero and brings a mixture of great cinematography and action scenes. Also starring Zhang Ziyi and Japanese actor Takeshi Kaneshiro.

His latest movie Curse of the Golden flower, again with his favourite Gong Li was well received but not seen as his best. In China this movie has been titled "Curse of the big boobs", because of the intensive focus on Gong Li's pushed-up bosom.

Zhang Yi Mou not only produces movies he also has some Impression productions running in China. Impression are huge shows set on landscapes with artist performing with their environment in front of a stage being able to host about up to 600 people.

Momently there are three Impression shows. One in Yangshuo, one in Lijiang and one in Hangzhou. More info about Impression shows.

Zhang Yi Mou also directed a portion of the Closing Ceremonies of the 2004 Olympic Games Athens in Greece. For the Olympic Games of 2008 Beijing Zhang Yi Mou will direct the opening ceremony and that will be a stunner, so I highly recommend you not to miss this Opening Ceremony of Beijing 2008!

Zhang Yi Mou
Gong Li in Curse of the Golden Flower
Zhang Zi Yi in House of Flying Daggers


Filmography Zhang Yi Mou:


- 1987 Red Sorghum, 红高粱
- 1989 Codename Cougar, 代号美洲豹
- 1991 Ju Dou, 菊豆
- 1992 Raise the Red Lantern, 大红灯笼高高挂
- 1994 To Live, 活着
- 1995 Shanghai Triad, 摇啊摇
- 1995 Lumière and Company
- 1997 Keep Cool, 有话好好说
- 1999 Not One Less, 一个都不能少
- 1999 The Road Home, 我的父亲母亲
- 2000 Happy Times, 幸福时光
- 2002 Hero, 英雄
- 2004 House of Flying Daggers, 十面埋伏
- 2005 Riding Alone for Thousand of Miles, 千里走单骑
- 2006 Curse of the Golden Flower, 满城尽带黄金甲
- 2007 To Each His Cinema (in production)

Friendlies

Next year in August the Olympic Games will come down to Beijing. An event that is changing a lot in China and especially it's capital. The Chinese government is doing all to have the perfect Games. Many people have their doubts about the "success" of the Games. It's a subject that I surely will discuss in the future, but now I want to introduce you to the "FRIENDLIES".


Everybody in China knows them already for more than one year. When you are walking around in Beijing you can not miss them in the daily street life. And soon the world will meet these 5 cuties. Everything around them is a really intelligent marketing trick (yeah you have to buy 5 different dolls in stead of just one $$) and what they symbolise is quite thought-out very well.


Each of them symbolises one of the 5 Chinese elements and each of them is of course related to an Olympic ring. When you take half of their name and put it together you get the Phrase "北京欢迎你 Běijīng huānyíng ni" which means "Beijing welcomes you".


Now let's meet them!

Beibei (贝贝) is a Female and first mascot. She is the Blue Olympic Ring and stands for all the aquatic sports. She represents the Chinese Water element. This Friendly is a Fish, which has the same pronunciation in Chinese as prosperity. But she symbolises a fossil of a fish (old Yangshuo culture seen in the head worn by BeiBei) and therefore wants to show that China has an enormous long history.

JingJing (晶晶) is a brave male Friendly who stands for the Black Olympic Ring and for the Chinese element of Metal. He is shaped like an Giant panda an animal almost only found in China. Because of his strenght he is the ambassador of strong sports such as Weightlifting and Judo. He represents happiness. The panda is an endangered species and the Chinese government wants to show it's contribution to the preservation of the environment through JingJing.

HuanHuan (欢欢) is a male friendly standing for the red Olympic Ring and of course for the Fire element. He is designed to resemble to Olympic Flame. Fire stands for passion and this mascot is extrovert and playful. He supports all ball sports. His meaning to China is of course the fire and passion that spreads to all the Chinese to make the Olympic Games a huge success.
YingYing (迎迎) is a lively female Friendly. The yellow Olympic Ring and the Chinese element of Earth is what she stands for. She is running and symbolises health and she is the mascot for track and field. She is modelled on an Tibetan antelope, which is also an endangered species. Because this animal mainly lives in Tibet she also stand for the diversity of the Chinese population (and also a political statement to say that Tibet is part of China?).
NiNi (妮妮) is the last mascot and also male. The green colour for the green Olympic ring and the element of Wood. Friendly of the gymnastics. She represent an owl. Owl are associated in China with the coming of spring and are an omen of good luck and good fortune. One of the old names of Beijing, Yanjing (also name of a pretty good Chinese beer) is written in Chinese with the character for owl. So NiNi also refers to Beijing, the place of the Olympics