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
Beijing looks so much better at night. The smog that has been enveloping the city by day is far less visible after the heavens darken. Street lights penetrate the gloom and the rainbow colours of innumerable neon advertising signs along the skyline are reflected in the glass-dominated structures of newly-built skyscrapers. The National Stadium, known
The worst place to try to put Beijing’s Olympic Games into context is perhaps actually Beijing. Arrive in the city at present and the overwhelming impression is of a modern, successful, prosperous, happy and western-looking population, greeting the forthcoming sporting festival with a greater pride and joy than it has ever previously been received with.
