Beijing, China
When Boris Johnson became the London Mayor earlier this year, he was promptly informed that his first major duty would be to receive the Olympic flag on behalf of the next host city, in Beijing in August. “Sorry but that is one thing I cannot do” he is reported to have replied. “In August I will be on holiday with my family in Tuscany as always and there is no way I am going to Beijing.”
Come August and Bo-Jo did not just participate in the Olympic handover from Beijing to London, during the closing ceremony of the 2008 Games in the Bird’s Nest stadium, he stole the show with his “Ping-pong is coming home” speech at the post-event reception with Gordon Brown and Sebastian Coe, held at the temporary London House, near the Forbidden City in the centre of the Chinese capital.
It was a small presence by the forthcoming hosts in the city staging this year’s Olympics.
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