None of the usual questions that tend to surround an Olympics mattered here: money, organisation, level of government support and the public's enthusiasm - or indeed lack of it.

Instead, the question China faced was: should a regime like this have the honour of the biggest gathering of people in peaceful sporting competition without agreeing to change its authoritarian ways?

This issue was presented very clearly seven years ago when the International Olympic Committee voted for Beijing.

The leader of the rival Paris bid said China should get the Expo but not the Olympics. China's human rights record, he argued, ruled it out for the Olympics. Even though he himself was one of many businessmen who believed engagement with China was a good thing, giving it the Olympics was held up as an endorsement the country did not yet deserve.

In ignoring that advice, the IOC took the view that the Olympics simply had to come to the home of nearly a quarter of the world's population.

True, it nodded in the direction of human rights with its then director general Francois Carrard saying the IOC would monitor human rights in China.

But, as President Jacques Rogge put it to me, while China has had to open up as a result of hosting the Games, it was unrealistic to expect the Games to go where world leaders had failed.

It was always fanciful to expect that this 17-day festival of sport would completely change China, or that China would change a sporting system invented by a French count and now run by a Belgian count. Not in any fundamental ways at least.

Indeed, as Rogge also points out, the IOC came to China for its own reasons related to the Olympics.

It took the decision in the summer of 2001, when both the organisers for the 2004 Athens summer Games and the 2006 Turin Winter Games were suffering seemingly insurmountable problems.

Athens, having messed up its structure, was so behind schedule that there was real fear it might not be ready.

Turin, whose choice as the 2006 Winter Games was an unintended consequence of the Salt Lake City corruption scandal, did not have adequate facilities, needed more funding and was not certain the Italian government could or would help.

In contrast China simply told the IOC: "Give us the Games and we will do whatever you want."

And that is exactly what has happened.

China has given the IOC great venues - there can be nothing more iconic than the Bird's Nest, a true "object for the world" exactly as Ai Weiwei, its Chinese architect, intended.

The infrastructure development has been amazing, as anyone who has used Beijing's new airport will testify. The transport plan has also worked, making Beijing's previously impossible traffic more than manageable.

And the venues have provided some of the most memorable sports seen in many an Olympics.

We had a first week so dominated by Michael Phelps that we had to scurry through the record books to ask if he was a greater Olympian than Carl Lewis or Jesse Owens.

Then Usain Bolt stole the show in the second week, making the 100 metres once again magical and worthy of a race to decide the fastest man on earth.

And alongside all this, Team GB has broken free from the rather depressing British history of failing to deliver by enjoying its best Games for a century. In doing so, athletes have created some truly great sporting moments, which have been surprising and stunning in equal measure.

Many other countries have also had Beijing highlights to treasure. India, the world's most underachieving sporting nation, won its first ever individual gold, as did Panama and Bahrain, while Mongolia, Afghanistan, Togo, all won their first medals.

The Beijing Olympics will also have an impact on the United States. Since the collapse of the Wall and of the old Soviet Union, its dominance of the Games has not been challenged.

But China will top the gold tally this time round. And that has prompted Americans to ask whether their athletes should get government funding - the US is the only nation that does not provide it.

Indeed, as China and Asia continue to grow as world economic powers, America's sway over Olympic finances may also come under pressure.

Many in the Olympic movement feel that if the 20th century was Europe and America's great century of sport, then the 21st century might belong to China and Asia.

While China's presentation at many of the sporting venues was a pale copy of what you might get in the NBA or at a baseball game, the Chinese have been determined throughout the last two weeks to show they can do sport like the West.

And there can be no doubt that the Beijing Olympics have done just that.

According to the International Volleyball Federation (FIVB), beach volleyball was first played in California as a bit of light relief during the Great Depression.

And, having watched my first slice of the ball-and-bikinis game on Thursday (a day that Manchester in February would be disappointed with), I can confirm beach volleyball has mood-enhancing qualities.

But volleyball's bosses are probably over-egging it to suggest the sport was born for any historical reason. I think people started playing beach volleyball because they could - which reminds me of that old joke about dogs and certain parts of their anatomy.

Quite simply, beach volleyball is fantastic. It's old-school indoor volleyball I'm not so sure about. But before I get to that, let's have some background.

A New Yorker called William G. Morgan invented volleyball (although he called it "mintonette") in 1895. A year later, another American, Alfred T. Halstead, saved the sport from ridicule by coming up with the name of volleyball. This was a huge step as there is no way the International Olympic Committee (IOC) would have agreed to beach mintonette.

The next half-century saw the sport slowly spread to most corners of the globe, and by 1947 it was time for FIVB to spring into life. World championships followed but it wasn't until 1964 that the sport took its Olympic bow.

Recent years have seen the volleyball tweak its rules to make things a bit more exciting and the inexorable growth of its sandy offspring. The key date is July 1996, when beach volleyball packed them in at the Atlanta Games.

It was even more popular in Sydney, no doubt helped by Australia's run to gold in the women's event, and it was soon clear the student had outgrown the master.

In many ways, the strangest thing about beach volleyball as an Olympic sport is that the IOC agreed to it. This is an organisation, after all, that thinks dressage (Strictly Come Prancing) has a place in an international multi-sports event in the 21st century - and before you email in, I'm not knocking it for equestrian competitions, I know it is a supreme test of horsemanship.

By saying yes to beach volleyball, the IOC wasn't just agreeing to a few tonnes of sand and a hundred extra athletes: it was giving the green light to cheerleaders, loud music and a running commentary from a bilingual Ali G. I'm not sure this is entirely what Baron de Coubertin had in mind.

But beach volleyball's biggest weakness is also its biggest strength: the game is played by fit, young things in their swimming costumes. Actually, that's wrong. The game is played by fit, young women in their swimming costumes. The men get to dress like Australians.

This has led to some critics suggesting the sport is more suited Club 18-30 than the Olympics, and many Islamic countries have chosen not to embrace it for precisely this reason.

That, of course, is their prerogative but for the rest of us I've got news - beach volleyball is no more salacious than half a dozen sports here (have you seen women's high jump or pole vault recently?). Not only that, the sporty bikinis make complete sense for what they are doing, namely, flinging themselves around in the sand. The women, in fact, can wear less revealing, one-piece costumes if they want, but choose not to.

And what all of this completely obscures is that we are talking about highly trained, incredibly talented, full-time athletes. The feeling that you have wandered into a party at the Playboy Mansion by lucky accident doesn't last long and you're soon wrapped up in the ebbs and flows of a dynamic sport.

The game I watched - the women's final - had a bit of everything as it pitted the defending champions, the US partnership of Kerri Walsh and Misty May-Treanor, against the coming force in beach volleyball, the Chinese pairing of Tian Jia and Wang Jie.

It was the first time at these Games that teams from the US and China had met in a gold-medal match, and it was played in a deluge. So we had the surreal scene of a packed Chaoyang stadium, clad entirely in pastel-coloured pac-a-macs, watching four women in bikinis attempt to recreate Santa Monica.

"Everybody in Beijing wants this ticket!" screamed the Ali G-alike in English and Mandarin, before reacting to a blocked spike with the immortal putdown, "Not in my house!"

The scoring was tight, with the American pair opting for power (particularly the long-limbed Walsh), while the Chinese duo mixed up their spikes with some angled dinks. Tian, playing in her third Olympic competition, was having a blinder, repeatedly retrieving lost causes or setting up her taller partner Wang at the net.

But it was the Americans, unbeaten for 107 matches, who came up with the big points when it mattered. And before too long they had wrapped up a 21-18 21-18 victory and a second Olympic title.

In the run-up to the final Walsh and May-Treanor hadn't always sounded as gracious as they might but in the post-match press conference they were politeness personified. Beijing was neat, the fans were wonderful and their opponents were great and will get better. They even had a quip about the weather.

"That's another reason we wear our swim suits," said May-Treanor.

The Chinese started off a bit glum but cheered up as the compliments came in from the champions. They also spoke about this being a breakthrough tournament for the sport in China - their second team beat Brazil to the bronze medal - and I think they might be right. There was a full-page, colour advert featuring Tian and Wang on the back of China Daily's main section today - I can't remember anything similar for the country's numerous winners in shooting or weightlifting.

I also can't imagine anything similar for their indoor volleyball compatriots, who lost their women's semi-final in straight sets to Brazil later on Thursday. It's not there was any disgrace in that defeat, the South Americans are a fine team and got better as this match went on, or that the players on the squad are any less lovely than Tian and Wang. It's the sport, that's the problem.

Indoor volleyball is a great game to play (many are the rainy Wednesdays I remember playing volleyball, or something similar, in the school gym as a youngster) and it's an OK game to watch. It's just not as good as beach volleyball.

It's almost as if the game Morgan invented was meant for the beach, not the hard floors of a gymnasium. Cricket, football and rugby on the beach are a laugh but they're not improved as contests by the shifting surface. Volleyball is, though. Being able to dive head-long at the ball without fear is liberating.

A player as skilled as Tian is too short for indoor volleyball, with its near total focus on height, but can operate on sand. And May-Treanor was a superb indoor player before quitting the national team because it wasn't "fun anymore".

The pace of beach volleyball is better too, and the players don't seem to feel the need to get together for a hug every 30 seconds, although I suppose with just two of them it would get a bit odd.

No, I'm a beach volleyball man all the way. And not for the reasons you think. That's what the cheerleaders are for and they appear every five minutes. Even in the rain.

If she were British she wouldn't have been at the Beijing Games, because the British Olympic Association's bye law, still intact after Dwain Chambers' recent challenge, would have prevented her.

The lifetime ban which will now surely follow once the IOC and IAAF have concluded the disciplinary process against her will hopefully bring to an end a career built on a lie.

Sources say this latest infringement is another steroid case, just as it was in 2003, when she was first banned for two years.

Steroids allow you to train harder, build more stamina, add bulk, improve performance. They also threaten your heart, screw your hormones and can shorten your life.

The IOC's perspective has changed from shuffling embarrassment at positive drug tests during the Games, to unequivocal opposition to cheats. They've carried out 4,133 tests to date, 840 of them blood tests, the rest urine.

They take a while to process, 72 hours or so.

To date, four athletes have been disqualified: Greek hurdler Fani Halkia, North Korean shooter Kim Jong Su, Spanish cyclist Isabel Moreno and Vietnamese gymnast Thi Ngan Thuong Do.

Thirty-nine others have been caught in the lead-up to the Games, in tests carried out by international federations, and other national anti-doping agencies.

Athletics govening body, the IAAF, in particular are on the offensive. They really understand the threat to the credibility of athletics posed by cases like Blonska's.

British heptathlete Kelly Sotherton, who finished fifth in Beijing, has suggested that once the due process is followed, the re-allocated heptathlon medals ought to be presented to their rightful owners again at a proper ceremony in the stadium.

I think it's a great idea. It would underline the point that the price of cheating is disgrace.
The more deterrents the better, as far as I'm concerned.

Presumably, it's a call addressed specifically to the athletes, because there isn't anything particularly youthful about the audience.

The average age of TV viewers for the Athens Games was 46! So the challenge for the IOC is to keep the Games relevant to a younger audience.

When I was a teenager, the Olympic Games were one of the most important things in my life. Once every four years, I would sit down for two and a half weeks and not move from in front of the TV. When I was 16 I even opted out of a family holiday to watch the LA Games in 1984.

Now I've got a mortgage to pay and kids to feed, the Olympics aren't quite the central feature in my life that they used to be, but they're still certainly one of the main highlights.

Capturing the attention of a younger audience is something every organisation, every business and every sport needs to do, because if you catch them young you're halfway towards keeping them onside as they grow older.

The My Games team bumped into Michael Phelps' mum the other day and asked her how old her son was when he started to take an interest in the Olympics. She's probably a major reason he's now the most successful Olympic gold medallist of all time.

One way the IOC hopes to capture the youth market is to stage an inaugural Youth Olympics. They will take place in Singapore in 2010, and will have the same 26 sports as London 2012, but with fewer disciplines.

As well as BMX cycling, which is making its debut in Beijing, there will also be some innovative events such as beach wrestling. Excuse me? You mean what teenagers do on the beach every summer? That's an Olympic Youth sport? Apparently so, and to go with the Youth Summer Games, there will be a Youth Winter Olympics, and both Games will follow the traditional four year cycle.

It's all the brainchild of the IOC President Jacques Rogge, but can it work? Will a younger audience be attracted to the Youth Games? Tell us whether you think the Olympic Games are relevant to the "youth of the world" or whether the IOC is fighting a losing battle.

On Friday's edition of My Games we'll be looking into these issues and speaking to some young(er) webcammers to get their thoughts.

You can participate via this blog or you can e-mail us at mygames@bbc.co.uk.

There were perhaps 200 people watching the first-round match between Andy Murray and Lu Yen-Hsun of Chinese Taipei (that's "made in Taiwan" to you and me but not the IOC and certainly not our hosts) on Monday, and, to be honest, I have no idea why any of them were there.

OK, I can guess why Judy Murray was there - she was probably killing time before her elder son Jamie had his big moment in the doubles tournament.

Lu seemed to be enjoying himself too but then he had only won seven of his 19 previous matches in 2008.

But the rest of us? Murray the younger was clearly experiencing the same confusion.

He turned up, fresh from a superb (British) win in the US, under the illusion he was a rising star, playing an unheralded also-ran for a place in the last 32 of the most important, most ancient, most magnificent event in the sporting calendar.

Sadly, it seemed to dawn on the (by now) Scot he was miserably out of sorts and probably wasting his time against a mediocre but far more up-for-it opponent, in an event he shouldn't be playing in anyway when the US Open is only a fortnight away.

"The US Open?!? Why didn't you tell me?" I imagined Murray to be muttering when the game against Lu started to go down the toilet.

"That's one of the four biggest events in my sport and if I win that I'm made for life. It will be a glorious new start for British (again) tennis and my name will be up there in lights with Roger's, Rafa's and Novak's. What on earth am I doing in Beijing?"

The list of names finding reasons not to be here was growing right up until the tournament started on Sunday. It seemed getting the sport's biggest stars to come to Beijing was no guarantee they'd actually take part in the tournament.

Federer and Nadal (the two names are just said together now) played and won today, which frankly saves the tournament as a serious competition, and the Williams sisters appear to be up for it. But what about the others?

Former world number one Andy Roddick made it clear his priority was the US Open, his national championship, and not the Games.

Ana Ivanovic, Amelie Mauresmo, Maria Sharapova and former champion Lindsay Davenport have all made their excuses, and defending champion Justine Henin-Hardenne would not have risked aggravating her asthma in Beijing even if she was still playing the game.

At least the women's event has a grand slam-calibre honours board - since its Olympic comeback in 1988, the female champions have been Steffi Graf, Jennifer Capriati, Davenport, Venus and Henin-Hardenne.

The current Olympic men's champion anybody?

It's Nicolas Massu, in case you'd forgotten: before him the winners include Marc Rosset and Miloslav Mecir.

Massu had to be given a special invite to be able to defend his title, so bad has his form been since Athens. It was Mardy Fish he beat in the final in 2004, by the way, but he's stayed at home with Roddick.

The debate about what should and what shouldn't be an Olympic sport has been going on so long it's almost an Olympic sport itself, but it is actually quite simple.

If winning an Olympic gold medal is not the highest accolade in your sport, you're playing a non-Olympic sport. Tennis fails this test by some margin - are the Games even the fifth biggest event on the sport's schedule?

Watching Murray throw away a winning position in the first set, sulk his way through a tie-break and then battle the voice in his head telling him to give up in the second set was actually quite depressing.

Depressing because I didn't really blame him. If I were struggling with my game and not really feeling the Olympic buzz, I would have started thinking about Flushing Meadows too. It is about priorities.

Of course, the equation is a little different for doubles specialist Jamie and there is a school of thought that says the pairs format should be spared from any Olympic chop, the rationale being doubles is a neglected event that needs the Games' exposure.

It's an interesting idea but I'm not sure I buy it. Would that really raise doubles' profile (Massu and Fernando Gonzalez won the men's doubles in Athens, in case you were wondering)? Wouldn't we just be left with a tournament with even fewer top players?

I think there is a chance that would widen the gap between the two formats, effectively creating two sports: a popular/professional one called singles, and an Olympic one called doubles. Players who chose the latter would probably need funding.

Hold on a minute, this sounds a bit like that other great Olympic anomaly, "amateur" boxing. Best not go there, we've got medal hopes.

The really annoying thing about the inclusion of tennis (and basketball and football, to name two other star-studded but distracted "Olympic" sports) is that it queers the pitch for those sports that really do need and value the Games.

It was interesting to see how the TV cameras kept picking out the tennis players, NBA superstars and top footballers during Friday's opening ceremony. Most Olympic athletes are totally foreign to us; the International Olympic Committee and the people that pay for this whole shebang know that.

I would be surprised if the man on the Clapham omnibus could identify more than a dozen of Team GB here in Beijing (I think most sports journalists would struggle to get more than 50 of the 313).

But that is precisely why these four-yearly gatherings are so precious for the archers, badminton players and canoeists - this is their life's ambition and shop window rolled into one. And I believe the viewing public gets that.

The IOC and ad-men need not fear our lack of familiarity with the back stories of the boys in the coxless four or girls in our 4x200m freestyle team.

Which is why tonight I will be raising a glass to our real Olympic stars Nicole Cooke, Rebecca Adlington and Jo Jackson, and doing my best to forget Andy Murray's tennis campaign.

He won't lose too much sleep over it. He's got his sport's fourth and final big event to look forward to in New York in a couple of weeks.

The IOC later gave him the Pierre de Coubertin medal for showing the spirit of the Oympics.

I know I maybe getting ahead of myself, but I know who my choice for that award would be this time round.

I went to see Georgia's Nino Salukvadze taking part in the the women's 10m air pistol. And while her country is in a state of conflict with Russia, she managed to win bronze.

She might want to share the De Coubertin award with Russia's Natalia Paderina, who took the silver.

Because after the shooting medal ceremony, they hugged and kissed and smiled for the cameras in a moment of pure symbolism.

Salukvadze said afterwards how she couldn't sleep on Saturday night, she was so worried about her family back home. She was close to tears, and I had a lump in my throat as well.

How she kept it together in the media conference, I don't know, but Ban Ki-Moon couldn't have given a better performance.

"If the world were to draw any lessons from what I did there would never be any wars," Salukvadze said.

Paderina was also impressive - emphasising her friendship with the Georgian, which stretches back to when Salukvadze was part of the Russian team.

"We don't get mixed up in political things. Sport is beyond politics," she said.

Perhaps she could give her compatriot Nikolay Davydenko a lesson in diplomacy.

"I don't want to support Russia, Georgia or Abkhazia, but I think Georgia is doing a stupid thing by making war during the Olympic Games," said the tennis player.

Georgia's volleyball president, Levan Akhvlediani, was similarly steadfast, ahead of the Russia-Georgia beach volleyball match on Wednesday.

"If we need, we are ready to go back to Georgia like soldiers, because our country needs it, if we need it, but I think after the president asked us to stay here, we have to respect this and stay here."

So for now the two teams will remain at the Games, and continue to live cheek by jowl in the Olympic village.

And in Nino Salukvadze, the Olympic Games have found a new star - someone who can show how at a time when sport doesn't matter, it still means so much.

The symbolic emblems of the Spirit are the Olympic torch and the Olympic flame. Lit every four years in ancient Olympia in Greece, for these Beijing Games, the flame has been on an unprecedented intercontinental journey.

China's desire is for people everywhere to feel, live and understand its slogan "One World, One Dream". So the torch has been to places it never had before, highlighting the inclusiveness of the Olympic Games.

If you doubt that inclusiveness, consider that there are more competing teams in Beijing than there are members of the United Nations.

The international relay of the Olympic torch was certainly controversial, with vigorous - often violent - protests in some cities, most notably London and Paris.

Dr Jacques Rogge, the President of the IOC, expressed his shock at some of the levels of violence exhibited against the torch procession, but there were also plenty of expressions of support for the torch, such as in San Francisco, most often by expatriate Chinese.

What the international torch relay showed definitively, once and for all, is that sport and politics are indivisible partners. One does not exist without the other.

From Moscow to Havana, from Washington DC to Paris, sporting glory is a symbol of national success, of progress and achievement, a matter of national pride and an indication that a country truly belongs amongst the elite of world society.

For me, the essence of the Olympic Spirit is togetherness, solidarity, understanding, compassion and participation. The Games are meant to unite, and again, as I've said in previous blogs, they are about establishing cultural connections.

But if I'm thinking about the Games themselves, in the here and now, the three words I'd use are multi-disciplined, marketing and money.

I'm not saying every TV viewer will analyze their reactions in such a manner, but watching great sporting achievement can lift the soul. Sporting brilliance celebrates the ascent of man and can be a common denominator for all humanity.

Those moments are also mirrored at the other end of the scale, because while we can all appreciate winners, we can also empathise with the rest, be they fourth, fifth or stone cold last.

Participation is the key, to be a part of the Olympic Games and to feel the togetherness of the biggest sporting gathering on the globe.

In Beijing, there will be more than 10,000 athletes taking part in 302 different events. That means only 906 medals are available for those thousands of competitors. The majority will have arrived here fully aware they stand no chance of winning gold, silver or bronze, but they still want to be here to take part.

Two of the most symbolic and evocative moments of Atlanta 1996 came from completely opposite ends of the spectrum.

First there was the indelible image of the American Michael Johnson, his golden shoes and upright stance sprinting to a world record in the 200 metres.

Then there was the Briton Derek Redmond pulling up injured on the home straight of the 400 metres. Almost unable to walk, his father jumped over from the spectator stands to put an arm around his son and help a tearful Redmond across the finishing line.

The white heat from the flashbulbs around the stadium was just as intense for both moments, and they are both two of the best manifestations of the Olympic Spirit.

What sums up for the Olympic Spirit for you? If you want to appear live on the show, or just have an opinion to share, email us at mygames@bbc.co.uk.

Professor Arne Ljunqvist is a scientist whose entire inclination is to deal in facts.

He's not a man prone to exaggeration or hysteria.

So when the Chairman of the IOC's Medical Commission, and Vice President of Wada calls the suspension of seven Russian women athletes a case of, "systematic planned cheating," we need to take notice.

I know the women concerned haven't faced their disciplinary hearings yet, and are protesting their innocence, but let's just think about this again.

The IAAF are convinced they were tipped off and knew the testers were coming to carry out these out of competition tests.

By whom?

I know the IAAF are sure it wasn't someone inside their own organisation, so let's assume they're right.

Who else could be party to that information? The office issuing the visas to the testers? Someone at the Russian Athletics Federation?

Surely it's a narrow field of suspicion.

That begs the question, what should be done?

The Balco scandal was one of lies and deceit among a relatively small number of people.

The implications of this case could include collusion, systematic fraud, a complete betrayal of trust.

The method of cheating apparently used by the women is a crude old favourite.

Think back to the cases of Katrin Krabbe, Grit Breuer and Silke Moeller in 1992.

All three were found to have given identical urine samples at a training camp in South Africa, although they were later cleared on a technicality...(Krabbe and Breuer were caught out later, and were banned for a year.)

For urine replacement to be effective, the contents of the individual's bladder have to be emptied, then replaced with "clean" urine from a third party, and the sample given promptly.

In other words, it requires prior warning.

The IAAF seem to have little choice other than to carry out a full investigation into the circumstances surrounding this case.

There was a sense of irritation around the place, but (to push the metaphor deep into Alan Partridge territory) he applied the presidential calamine lotion.

After nearly a week of tetchy exchanges between the media and BOCOG about the imperfect internet access, Rogge kicked off his address with a carefully chosen remark about the Athletes' village, describing it as "the best ever".

That's quite a compliment from a man with 40 years' experience of the games, deliberately served up as a subtle reminder that the Olympics is about the athletes and their experience, not gripes from journalists about our working conditions.

When he did come on to the internet issue, he absolved the IOC of responsibility, saying there had emphatically never been a deal to permit some web restriction, talked up the role he'd played in getting some improvements, and signing off by saying the IOC was still working on it.

He wasn't due to appear before the media for another 24 hours, so his early show was also of significance. Officially, it was because the Executive Board had cracked through the agenda and finished in less than the scheduled two days - but in fact it allowed him to try to draw a line under the web woes that were threatening to dominate the headlines for another day.

He also did a neat job of re-focusing everyone on the achievements of the Chinese.

Before Athens, we were invited to recall, the issue was, could the hosts actually pull it off given all the delays and organisational concerns?

Here, said Rogge, there were no such issues, and he had complete confidence in the organisers. In just a few days, he urged, the magic of the Games would hold us in its thrall again.

Flying tonight

A plague has hit Beijing. They're everywhere. I should've twigged when I saw the bats the other night. I thought they were looking cocky, and a bit over-fed.

Moths. Little light brown ones, a bit bigger than a thumbnail. I wondered what the slightly crunchy carpet was on the floor outside as I wandered back in the dark last night. Turns out it was all the dead ones.

They're flinging themselves at every streetlight, back-lit window, white surface. Walk through the grass, and a cloud of them will take to the air, not exactly of biblical proportions, but certainly a gospel's worth.

Out and about today, I watched two blokes with fishing nets trying in vain to clear out the water feature around the aquatic centre. Elsewhere, gangs with brooms are brushing them all up, clearing away the mothy debris from the sides of the pavements.

I've never seen so many, but now I think about it, for a couple of days in Sydney, we had a similar phenomenon. The Games happened during a period of major moth migration, and the blazing lights from Stadium Australia diverted swarms of them, much larger than their Chinese cousins. The sky was thick with them, then in a couple of days they'd moved on.

Perhaps they've got Olympic accreditation... or maybe they just like sport. They're not terribly acrobatic mind you, and the bats have certainly got their measure when it comes to the team pursuit.

Olympic cities in the week before the Games begin are like performers before a long-awaited first night - a mixture of hope, anticipation and some nerves.

Beijing is no different, although my first impression is Beijing is more nervous than some cities such as Sydney, Athens, Turin or Salt Lake were.

I was struck by this the moment I landed at Beijing's airport, an airport that makes you realise how limited Heathrow's Terminal 5 is.

The nervousness seemed to extend even to the immigration officers. This is not as surprising as it seems.

As an Olympic accreditation journalist I was coming in not on a visa granted by the Chinese embassy in London but on a laminated Olympic card which has all sorts of numbers and letters meant to make sure that over the next month I can get into all the right Olympic venues and stadiums.

This is of course a standard requirement, part of the deal the IOC does with an Olympic city. But in a country where the state does everything and passes and permits are all state documents, getting used to official documents authorised by another body, albeit an international sports one, takes some doing.

This may explain why the accreditations are checked so often. Not only are they checked when we enter the media and broadcast centres but they are also checked before being allowed into the press conference rooms.

I have just returned from a visit to the media room set up in the IOC hotel and had the unusual experience of having my pass checked not only when I entered the complex but before I was let into the media work room.

There security staff standing under the gaze of large pictures of chairman Mao and Chou En Lai toasting foreign dignitaries made sure my credentials matched.

However, having said that, I must say the security staff have, at all times, been very polite.

Indeed, I have rarely met such polite security checking - saying "Please" and "Thank you" at all times.

The contrast with Salt Lake, where the security was tight - understandable as they were the first Games since 9/11 - is vivid. The US security was often officious and, at times, rude. So far, the Chinese security has seemed a bit excessive but never discourteous.

It could be argued that they have not been intrusive enough. After all, they allowed a Korean film crew to get into the opening ceremony rehearsal at the Bird's Nest stadium the other day, apparently on a fake ID. It ended up on the net to the great anger of the Chinese.

But I suppose in a land where counterfeit goods are available everywhere we should not be surprised by counterfeit Olympic IDs.

Beijing does seem to be delivering on its promise that it would deal with transport bottle necks.

If you have a car that can go on the reserved Olympic lanes then getting round Beijing is no problem. But even without such a privilege, there are certainly fewer cars than I have seen in any recent visit to Beijing - due to the reduction measures introduced by officials here in an attempt to reduce smog.

There may also be fewer Chinese in Beijing. Locals leaving an Olympic city is not a new phenomenon. This happened in Athens in 2004 and it is understood Londoners will get away for holidays in August 2012.

But that is voluntary. Here the government appears to be making sure Chinese do not come to the city.

I have been told that people who live near an Olympic venue, even within a five-minute drive, require a pass to enter their own homes. And they would require special passes to have relatives and guests visiting them during the Games.

The Chinese government works in mysterious ways. Take the row over internet access of which much has been made in the last few days.

The story has many fascinating aspects. There is the question of what the IOC knew and who made any deals with the Chinese. Kevan Gosper, a very senior IOC member, chairman of their press commission, did not know the Chinese would allow access to only some sites and this shows, if nothing else, lack of communication within the IOC.

The initial Chinese response was that they had given sufficient access and, following a meeting with the IOC, the Chinese did open up more sites.

So, as I found on a visit to an internet café in Beijing, you could access the BBC Chinese site, Amnesty International, Reporters without Borders and even a Free Tibet site. But, of course, not Falun Gong.

A good news story for the Chinese, you would have thought, but the Chinese government did not seem to want to talk about.

Indeed, it has been difficult to get Chinese officials to talk to us about this positive step for China.

After one Chinese press conference, when again there was little to write about, free food was provided to journalists prompting one reporter to comment, "I wish they would give us some news and make us pay for the food."

Let us hope, as the Games begin, China grows in confidence and the officials become less media shy.