Beijing Olympics 2008

Restaurants, bars and nightclubs in one of Beijing’s main nightlife centers and celebrity hangouts are to be closed to help ensure security at an Olympic football venue, said authorities.
“About six restaurants and bars inside the Beijing Workers’ Stadium compound will be ordered to suspend operation for more than 20 days before and during the Olympic Games,” said He Zhenxing, stadium vice manager.
The venues, popular among Beijing residents, would suffer lost business, but the order was issued to guarantee security for the Games, he said.
“The stadium will not pay compensation to them, but may extend their leases or give preferential treatment after the Olympic Games,” he said.
Managers of the establishment said they had not received formal notification from the government, but said they would accept the order, although they felt “very unhappy” about it.
Most of the venues are still open, but some are carrying out renovations.
“More than 130 employees in my restaurant will be out of work during the suspension. If they don’t return after the Games, I will have to hire new hands and start over again,” said Zhang Youjing, manager of Youjingge Restaurant.
Zhang said his 700-square-meter restaurant had hosted celebrities, including David Beckham, Wayne Rooney and Jacky Chan, and took 20 million yuan (2.7 million U.S. Dollars) in sales in 2004 when it opened.
“I really don’t know what it will look like after the Games,” he said, “I’m not a threat to the Olympic Games and I cannot resist the official order by any means. I only wish myself good luck,” he said.
The manager of Club Mix nightclub, surnamed Guo, said he would have no choice, but to obey the order. “We have almost 800 customers every night. More than 200 workers will stay at home on a minimum salaries during the closure.”
“The club was closed for two months when the stadium was being renovated last year, and every worker here earned 600 yuan a month while staying at home. All of them returned,” Guo said.
“The suspension during the Olympics would definitely hurt our profits, but I believe we can withstand that cost,” said Guo.
An Outback Steakhouse restaurant is still open and the chain manager said he was not much worried about the suspension. “Dozens of colleagues and I will sit it out and I guess our salaries will not drop sharply,” he said, without giving his name.
“If we need to pay a reasonable price for the Beijing Olympics, we are willing to do so,” he said.
Almost a dozen sports shops under the stands have been closed and moved out of the stadium since 2006 when the venue started renovation.
“At first, I planned to sue the stadium because the profits dropped sharply during the renovation, but I gave up after my lawyer’s mediation,” said Wang Zhongdong, manager of a shop selling golf equipment. “For a successful Olympics, I’m prepared to make a contribution.”
The stadium, which held the 2004 Asia Cup and four national games, will stage football during the Beijing Olympics. It covers 80,000 square meters with a holding capacity of 62,000 audiences.

from: chinadaily.com.cn 

Steve Olarinoye, secretary of the Nigeria Weightlifting Federation (NWF), is confident that the country’s weightlifters will be at the Beijing Olympics in August.
Olarinoye said here Wednesday that the morale of the lifters in the Abuja camp was high following the approval of the increase in their allowance by the National Sports Commission (NSC).
Nigeria will take part in the African Weightlifting Championships, which would also serve as the Olympic qualifiers scheduled to hold in South Africa in May, according to a report by the News Agency of Nigeria.
“The athletes are in high spirits in camp here in Abuja. They are training very hard and are quite happy over the increase in their camping allowance by the NSC,” Olarinoye said.
“The athletes are doing fine in camp in terms of accommodation, feeding, and transportation. They are well motivated,” he added.
NWF invited 10 men and 10 women lifters to camp in Abuja immediately after the two-day national open trials for the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games qualifiers in January in Lagos.

from: chinadaily.com.cn 

North Carolina - They are rivals, both seeking gold at the Beijing Olympics, but American hurdler Allen Johnson and China’s top athletics hope Liu Xiang are also friends.
“When I see him run well, I am genuinely happy for him, and I feel like when I run well, he is happy for me,” Johnson, the 1996 Olympic gold medalist and seven-times indoor and outdoor world champion, told Reuters.
“We both respect and admire one another,” Johnson said of the Chinese world record holder and 2004 Olympic champion whom he first met in 2001.
The language barrier prevents anything more than limited conversations, but there are other ways expressing their respect, Johnson, a three-times Olympian, said.
“There have been a couple of times I have been in races (with him) when I didn’t run so well,” the 37-year-old American said.
“He kind of patted me on the back like it was going to be all right. Don’t worry about it. It was just one race.
“Even though those weren’t the words that he said, that was the body language,” Johnson said.
The two will renew their friendship at the world indoor championships in Valencia, Spain from March 7-9. Both will compete in the 60 meters hurdles.
Johnson finished second to countryman David Oliver in the U.S. championships last weekend.
Johnson believes Liu is the man to beat at the Olympics.
“I guess you have to go with the defending world champion, the home favorite,” Johnson said.
“He is very good. He doesn’t make a lot of mistakes. He is very consistent … If you aren’t ready, he is going to whip you.
“I couldn’t imagine what he goes through. I think he has handled it well so far, but Beijing is going to be totally different. I can only imagine all the people will be pulling him in a million different directions.”

from: chinadaily.com.cn 

Australia’s triple Olympic gold medallist Jodie Henry announced on Friday that injury will prevent her from competing at the 2008 Beijing Games but it won’t end her swimming career.
The former 100m freestyle world record holder officially withdrew from next month’s Olympic selection trial in Sydney, after succumbing to a pelvic complaint that has hampered her preparations.
“It has been a very hard decision to make as the Olympics is every swimmer’s goal and I would have loved to be able to go to Beijing and try and defend my (100m freestyle) title and to help the girls win another relay,” the Australian Associated Press quoted Henry as saying in Brisbane in east Australia.
“I have been struggling with an injury which has meant that I haven’t been able to train as much as I would have liked, and as much as I have needed to, to be ready for the Olympic trials.
“Whilst missing the Olympic team is a huge disappointment for me, I am pleased because now that my injury has been finally diagnosed I can start the road to recovery,” she said.
Swimmers must compete at the cut-throat selection meet in order to qualify for the Australian Olympic swim team and Henry said her injury meant she would not be sufficiently prepared.
Henry made clear her intentions to return to the pool as soon as possible.
“I am happy to say that I am definitely not retiring as there is no way that I want my swimming career to end like this,” Henry said.
Henry’s absence will be a major blow to Australia’s defense of the women’s 4×100m relay title in China.

from: chinadaily.com.cn 

Beijing opened a huge new $3.6 billion, Norman Foster designed airport terminal on Friday ahead of the expected influx of millions more visitors coming to this summer’s Olympic Games.
The impressive new terminal’s nearly 3-km (2-mile) long concourse, which is divided into three sections and connected by a shuttle train, will boost capacity at the airport to 76 million compared with the 52 million who used the airport last year.
Six airlines will use Terminal 3 initially, including Sichuan Airlines, Shandong Airlines, Qatar Airways, Qantas Airways , British Airways and El Al Israel Airlines.
More will move in from March 26, including Air China, Lufthansa , Singapore Airlines and other Star Alliance members, as well as Emirates and Air Canada.
The terminal is designed to look like a dragon, complete with triangular windows cut into the ceiling as though they were scales.
A train will zip people downtown in just under a quarter of an hour and the high-tech baggage system will handle 19,800 bags per hour.
The terminal also has special bridges to handle Airbus’s giant double-decked A380.
It has almost double the number of boarding gates of the old terminals and nearly 300 check-in desks. The terminal has been build to maximize the use of natural light, with walls of glass.

from: chinadaily.com.cn 

South Korea, the United States and Germany were all knocked out from the quarter-finals of the world table tennis team championships Wednesday evening.
South Korea’s trio of Dang Ye Seo, Lee Eun Hee and Kwak Bang Bang, two of whom are former Chinese, failed to resist Li Jiao, Elena Timina and Li Jie.
Germany, comprised of Chinese-born Wu Jiaduo, former European leader Elke Wosik and Amelie Solja, succumbed to 2007 European champions Romania, and the U.S., led by former world doubles champions Gao Jun and Wang Chen, lost to an Austrian trio including Liu Jia, Li Qiangbing.
In the other evening elimination games, Krisztina Toth-led Hungary knocked out Croatia with a 3-2 victory.
Reigning champions China received a bye after making the second stage as the top finishers of the previous round robin stage in Group A and will meet Romania in the women’s team quarter-finals on Thursday.
Hong Kong of China, Japan and Singapore also reached the last eight with leading results from the first stage, and face respectively the Austria, Hungary and the Netherlands.
On the men’s part, China scored its fourth consecutive victory after thumping Austria, and Hong Kong of China bounced back to tie on points in Group D with a victory over leaders Singapore.

South Korea’s Dang Ye-seo returns a shot to Li Jiao from the Netherlands during the women’s round of the last 16 of the World Team Table Tennis Championships in the southern Chinese city of Guangzhou February 27, 2008. South Korea, the United States and Germany were all knocked out from the quarter-finals of the world table tennis team championships Wednesday evening. [Agencies]

Asian powerhouse South Korea also entered the last eight on the heals of China after beating Chinese Taipei 3-1. They are now leading Group B on eight points after scoring a string of dominant wins over Poland, the Czech Republic and Sweden.
In the day’s other plays, Belarus beat Denmark 3-1, Spain dumped Greece in four games, Italy overcame Croatia 3-2 and Belgium succumbed to Romania 3-0.
The defending champions hardly broke a sweat as Wang Liqin, Wang Hao and Ma Long trampled the Austrian trio of Bernhard Presslmayer, Robert Gardos and Daniel Habesohn without losing a game in the lopsided one-hour match after beating Belgium, Romania and Croatia on the previous days.
Triple world champion Wang Liqin, defeated by 74-ranked Romanian Andrei Filimon on Monday, said he was still not in best form despite the continuous victories, admitting that the high expectation of home audience and media put himself under enormous pressure.
The match between Hong Kong and Singapore saw a clash of all-Chinese players with both regiments forming strong lineups.
Tang Peng opened the match by beating former Chinese player Yang Zi 11-8, 9-11, 11-9, 13-11, 11-7 and ended it with a 11-7, 11-3, 7-11, 11-8 victory over top Singapore paddler Gao Ning, also from Tang.
Veteran Li Jing, who lost two points in Hong Kong’s 1-3 defeat to Denmark on Tuesday, failed to pull himself together in the following match and lost 8-11, 11-4, 11-4, 11-7 to 10th-ranked Gao Ning and lost the only point of Hong Kong.
Li claimed Hong Kong’s first Olympic table tennis medal in Athens partnered with Ko Lai Chak, after losing to Chinese duo Ma Lin/Chen Qi in the men’s doubles final.
Twenty-four teams are vying in four groups in championships division in the week-long tournament.The last round group matches on Thursday will see top finishers in each group earning the berths for the quarter-finals and the second and third ranked squads striving for the remaining spots in the last eight later in the evening.from: chinadaily.com.cn

Five short films about the preparation for the Beijing Olympic Games shot by world renowned directors will be broadcast by television stations in and out of China as from Thursday.
The five films will be shown on China Central Television as well as on Beijing TV, the national TV stations of Italy, France and Iran.
Meanwhile, sohu.com will put the films online for viewers across the world.
In July 2006, Beijing invited Giuseppe Tornatore from Italy, Majid Majidi from Iran, Patrice Leconte of France, Daryl Goodrich of Britain as well as Andrew Lau Wai Keung from Hong Kong to make a short film each telling stories concerning Chinese people’s preparation for the August 8-24 Games.
As Tornatore’s first trip to China, the Italian director made “Reunion”, telling a story about how a group of students and their teacher got back together after 30 years.
It was also the first time Majidi had visited China. He chose his favorite subject, children. In “Colors Fly”, Majidi focused on children looking forward to the Games.
Leconte was a stranger to Beijing too, but he was soon up to pace with his knowledge of the Chinese capital, and shot “Beijing — A Film Impressionistic”, in which he depicted Beijing through various structures including the Summer Palace and Olympic venues.
Having retired as an athlete, Goodrich found his career in a combination of sport and film-making. His five-minute film, entitled “Belief”, focused on the hard work and thrill of athletic competition.
Hong Kong director Lau, the only Chinese director invited to the project, showed his love for Chinese food and culture in “Color, Fragrance, Taste Beijing”.

from: chinadaily.com.cn 

German diver Sascha Klein secured a happy ending to his Cinderella story in the men’s platform final Sunday at the FINA World Cup diving tournament, upsetting the usually dominant Chinese divers to take the title.
Klein relegated China’s multiple World Cup event winner Zhou Lixin to second place in a back-and-forth battle with a stunning last dive that earned him a remarkable 108.3 points, the record for the night.
Zhou, the 2007 World Championships silver medalist, could not match the German’s achievement despite trailing by just 0.15 points going into the last dive. American David Boudia came in third, pushing another Chinese diver Lin Yue, also a multiple World Cup event winner, into fourth.
It was the first major victory for the unknown German. It was quite a surprise for the diver who claimed he never looked at the scoreboard.
“It is so unexpected and I cannot believe it,” Klein said. “It’s hard to describe my feeling right now. It just feels really good.”
It was indeed a welcome victory for the German, who has toiled in obscurity for the better part of his 15-year diving career. But beating the overwhelming Chinese favorites felt like redemption after all the years of struggle.
“Everyone can be good and you just need to believe it,” Klein said.
The rest of the world has been seeking a way to challenge China’s domination in diving for the past decade. Before yesterday’s competitions, the Chinese had taken every title on offer.
But Klein seemed to find the key to beating Chinese divers - a brave heart, extremely difficult dives and error-free execution.
Klein, who qualified for the final as the third-place finisher, unveiled a routine with a total degree of difficulty of 21, the highest among final competitors and 0.9 higher than Zhou.
He surprised a skeptical crowd by executing near flawless dives from start to finish, scoring over 90 points on each of the six dives except the third. His routine included a dive rarely seen, his second one, in which he somersaulted forward four and half times.
“I have been trained with such difficulty for a long time,” he said. “I used the second dive in the national competitions but never internationally.
“Tonight I just want to show the people that I can do that.”
The strategy worked well, especially after Zhou managed to cut the gap to 0.15 points before the last dive.
But their final dives made the difference. Klein held his nerves to make an over-100-point dive. It all but decided the outcome because Zhou needed to score almost 110 points on a dive with a much lower difficulty level. Zhou’s final dive only earned him 85 points.
“I just tried to not be nervous,” Klein said. “I always try to give my best and I made it.”
The Chinese divers bowed to the pressure that has been building since they lost the title at last year’s World Championships. A similar story unfolded in the 2007 Melbourne tournament when a determined Russian diver, Gleb Galperin, defeated Zhou, again with a strong and difficult routine.
Chinese divers still managed to win the last event of the tournament yesterday when Wu Minxia and Guo Jingjing convincingly won the women’s synchronized springboard.
China won a total of seven gold medals in the seven-day tournament, which was also as a test event for August’s Beijing Olympics.

from: chinadaily.com.cn 

Beijing Capital Airport is designating about 100,000 square meters of tarmac for Olympic Games and Paralympics charter flights to tackle the unprecedented travel rush.
The D section of the tarmac in the newly-completed Terminal 3 (T3), or one 10th of its total floor space, will be especially designated for the charters with 12 boarding gates during the Games, airport officials told a news conference here on Tuesday.
“We are well prepared and confident of ensuring convenient and comfortable services to passengers“, said Dong Zhiyi, the airport’s general manager.
He applauded the end of the four-year construction of the terminal, adding it manifested the great resolution and capabilities of China to deal with such an event.
When the world’s largest single terminal starts operation on Friday, the airport will have the capacity to carry 76 million passengers annually, against the present 36 million, he said.
The airport, China’s busiest, handled 53.47 million passengers last year, putting it among the world’s 10 busiest.
The Olympics, to be held in the Chinese capital in August, are expected to bring more passengers to the city.
A total of 26 airlines will use the new terminal. The first six — Sichuan Airlines, Shandong Airlines, Qatar Airways, Qantas Airways, British Airways and El Al Israel Airlines — will use the operations immediately.
Other carriers, including Air China and Lufthansa, will begin using the terminal on March 26.
The terminal, which started construction in March 2004, covers a floor space of 1 million square meters. The expansion, which cost 27 billion yuan (3.65 billion U.S. dollars), covers 1,467 hectares, 1.6 times larger than the former space.
The third runway became operational in October and greatly eased the traffic volume.
The present airport will see its passenger flow exceed 60 million this year, seven years earlier than anticipated, Yang Guoqing, China’s General Administration of Civil Aviation (CAAC) deputy head, said last month.

from: xinhuanet.com 

The organizers of the volunteer program for the sailing events of the Beijing Olympics launched a project to recruit 10,000 “social volunteers” in Qingdao on Sunday.
The social volunteers will join Games-time volunteers and city operation volunteers in serving the sailing events to be held from August 9 to 21, 2008, the Qingdao Daily reported.
Qingdao residents who were born before June 30, 1994, and are healthy and able to take part in training activities, a pre-Games service every month and full services during the Games, can apply to join the volunteer contingent. Those who want to be assigned to special posts or offer translation services, need to have the required skills.
After recruitment ends, the signboards of six service posts such as queuing maintenance, translation, traffic order, environmental protection, information service and special service, will be erected in the city’s important public places, bus stations, transport hubs, major sidewalks and tourist spots.

from: beijing2008.cn