2008 Olympics Updates

There’s one slogan that I’ve now memorized (I had no choice – I’ve heard it perhaps several hundred times today): “Ao yun jia you! Zhong Guo jia you!” (translation: “Go Olympics! Go China!”)

This morning, in the city of Kashgar, teenage volunteers chanted this slogan as the torch relay got underway (occasionally adding “Go Kashgar!” or “Go Sichuan!” – the province hit by last month’s earthquake.)

Security for the torch relay here in the Xinjiang region has been tremendously strict (this region is home to 8 million Uighur people, who are Muslims. China says it faces a real terrorist threat from Uighur separatists – a claim disputed by human rights groups.)

The authorities here didn’t want reporters wandering away off on their own during the relay. So, just after dawn, we were all driven to the square outside the Idkah mosque for the start of the relay (to help identify us, local officials gave each of us two red stickers and politely told us to put one on our chests and one on our backs.)

Once the opening ceremony was over, we were driven straight to another square to get ready for the closing ceremony (as we drove we saw that most – if not all – shops and businesses were shuttered. There were no cars on the road. Local people had been told to stay indoors.)

We weren’t given the chance to watch the relay itself as it went through the streets – the torch was cheered along by carefully chosen crowds. My colleagues and I did manage to wander about 20 metres or so from the site of the closing ceremony to film some roads which were closed off – but we were quickly stopped by officials who told us that we were banned from doing this.

Just after midday, the closing ceremony came to an end, and we were allowed to walk away on our own. We passed one side street and saw a line of Uighur people who’d come out of their homes to catch sight of the relay. They were being watched by a police officer – he told us to stop filming them. So we walked on. We saw people slowly coming back onto the streets – to open up their shops. The Olympics came to their city – but not everyone got to see it.

A three minute silence was observed today at 2.28pm Beijing Time (6.28 GMT), one week after the terrible earthquake in Sichuan. This was accompanied by three minutes of noise by drivers of cars, ship and trains blasted their horns for three minutes of noise.
Here you can see a CCTV report which includes coverage of the [...]

The international news and the blogosphere this week has rightfully been dominated by coverage of the dreadful events in Sichuan, and the relief efforts. It’s difficult to concentrate on other news.

However this Friday saw ground-breaking news that will reflect strongly on the Olympics, if not in Beijing then certainly in future events. After months of [...]

Beichuan was struck by panic today (Saturday) and hurriedly evacuated, as rumours spread through the quake-ravaged city that a river up-mountain had burst its banks. Fear of flood waters bearing down on the remains of the city were enough to prompt a complete evacuation, halting the rescue efforts in their tracks.

The BBC’s Paul Danahar has [...]

It seems rather futile blogging about other issues in light of the fact that thousands of people still left buried by the Earthquake in Sichuan. The death toll now exceeds 12,000 and is sure to increase. The Olympics seem relatively trivial.
The New York Times (via CDT) describes how many people in China have been incensed [...]