Beijing Olympics
The End of a Beijing Binge
BEIJING—The last night of the old, normal life, July 19, was mild and beautiful. The air was clear, even though the Olympic rules would not take effect till the next day: the driving ban on half the city’s three million private cars, alternating daily between odd- and even-numbered license plates; the halt to construction digging and cement pouring. Tomorrow, by plan, the Olympic city would be in place.
I had spent the morning and early afternoon 80-some miles away in Tianjin—the Newark to Beijing’s New York. I had in mind that I would return on the brand-new bullet train, but the bullet train isn’t open to customers yet. read more »
Without Spielberg, Beijing's Olympic Production Runs on Time
BEIJING -- When an employee of Rupert Murdoch begins badgering someone about cozying up to the Chinese regime, it's clear that the People's Republic is having a public-relations crisis.
"Spielberg said, 'No, I'm not going to go,'" a reporter said, thrusting a Fox News microphone at British filmmaker Daryl Goodrich on Feb. 23.
Eleven days earlier, Steven Spielberg had publicly announced he was quitting as an artistic consultant to the Beijing Olympics. So why, the Fox man demanded, had Goodrich said yes? read more »
Ripken Goes to China
Cal’s mission for America meets Olympian bureaucracy in Beijing. read more »
