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26th September 2007

China gymnastic’s team gets tougher

After the success of the United States’ in the gymnastics at the Stuttgart championships, the Chinese team is knuckling down to prepare for the Beijing Olympics.

“In terms of our Olympic preparations, mistakes help us to summarise our advantages and highlight our weaknesses,” China’s coach Huang Yubin told Tuesday’s Beijing Morning Post.

“As to raising difficulty levels, there is only one way forward as there are no boundaries placed on difficulty in gymnastics,” Huang said. It can be seen from the past two world championships, all our champions’ (difficulty) scores were all very high, and their movements steady. So our method of raising difficulty will not change.”

Read more: China to stick to tougher routines for Olympics-coach

Plenty of new hotels in Beijing

Beijing is seeing an increase in new hotels being built for the Beijing Olympics next year. W Marriott Hotel and The Ritz Carlton have just opened hotels in Beijing.

The hotels are already booked for the Olympic Game period. Half a million tourists are expected to hit Beijing during the Olympic Game period. The question is, will this increase in hotels be sustainable in the future.

Source

Special Olympics - World Summer Games Shanghai 2007 3 replies

Shanghai is getting ready for the Special Olympics - World Summer Games. It is to be held from October 2nd to the 11th 2007 . It is the first time for the Special Olympics to be held in Asia.

The event is expected to have over ten thousand athletes and their coaches. There will be twenty one including the following the sports: bowling, outdoor bowls, sailboat, golf, weightlifting, basketball, equitation, volleyball, table tennis, handball, aquatic sports, gymnastics, track and field, tennis, badminton, cycling, canoeing, judo, ice skating, soccer and baseball.

Click here for more information on Shanghai Stadium.

For further details, see the official website: World Summer Games Shanghai 2007.

Special olympics World Summer Games Shanghai 2007

Special olympics World Summer Games Shanghai 2007

Special olympics World Summer Games Shanghai 2007

Trains

You haven’t been to China unless you have taken at least one long train trip. The trains in China can sometimes be a little slow and crowded but they are fairly efficient and are a great way to experience the country. Trains cover almost every town and city across China. Tickets can be bought at train stations and through travel agents.

At busy times lines to buy tickets at the station can be fairly horrendous, so it can be a good idea to buy tickets through a travel agent or your hotel. The small fee you might be pay will save you a lot of time and hassle.

Tickets come in several classes: hard seat, soft seat, hard sleeper and soft sleeper. For long or overnight trips getting a “sleeper” is definitely worth the extra money. Despite the name, hard sleepers have very comfortable beds with blankets and pillows. There are usually six bunk beds to a compartment. If you think you might have trouble negotiating the ladder up a bunk, you should request a lower bunk.

Soft sleepers usually have four beds to a compartment and are a little more private. They could be good for families traveling together, but are a little more pricey. Traveling in hard seat or sleeper class is a great way to meet with Chinese people and have more of a real China experience.

Most trains have a dining car, serving reasonable food. Carts also come around to the carriages selling lunch boxes, fruit, drinks and instant noodles. Hot water is available in most carriages. It can be a good idea to stock up on your favorite drinks and food at a supermarket for long trips. Most of the toilets have toilet paper, but it can be a good idea to bring your own.

The soft sleeper (1st class) compartments are fairly private.

China trains soft sleeper

Despite the name, hard sleeper beds are pretty comfortable.

China trains hard sleeper

The dining car is a good place to escape to for a bite to eat and a warm beer.

China trains dining car

The food on China’s trains is not too bad, but it is a good idea to take some of your own favorite snacks and drinks.

China train food

Most public toilets in China are of the squat type.

China trains toilets

Pay up or else

Payments for Olympic tickets are slow coming in. Rong Jun, director of the Olympic Ticketing Center said that a “considerable” amount of people who have won tickets are yet to pay for them.

“In order to avoid cancellation of bookings, people must present their identity cards and ticket booking numbers to complete payment procedures at the 1,000 designated Bank of China branches as of Tuesday,” he said.

A deadline for payment is yet to be set and failure to pay for the tickets may result in people getting banned from purchasing tickets in the future.

A second round of tickets will go on sale in October, but people who are yet to pay for the first round will be illegible to buy further tickets. Payments can be made at the Bank of China or by Visa credit card.

Read more: Buyers risk consequences, if late to pay

Beijing Olympics tickets to sell again in late Oct

Agnes Szavay wins China Open

Eighteen year old Agnes Szavay from Hungary, won the China open beating Jelena Jankovic in three sets.

Szavay is looking forward to play in the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

“I’ll definitely come back, that’s the one of the reasons I came this year.

“I wanted to prepare for the Olympics, I really like to play here.”

Read more: Szavay stuns Jankovic to win Beijing title

Official licenced products store - Shanghai 1 reply

I just took a look at the “Beijing 2008 Official Llicenced Products Store” in Nanjing-Lu, Shanghai. The store has a whole heap of pins, medals and T-shirts to commemorate the 2008 Beijing Games.

Beijing 2008 official-licenced products store Shanghai

Beijing 2008 official-licenced products store Shanghai

23rd September 2007

Liu Ying and Christoph Sauser win in mountainbike competition

Liu Ying from China won the women’s cross country and Christoph Sauser from Switzerland won he men’s international mountain bike invitational competition in Beijing, Saturday.

“The course was really hard. You have to slow down at every turn. I was familiar with this course, so I took some advantage over some foreign riders,” said Liu, who just won the title of the World Cup last week.

The course was the same one that will be used in the Beijing Olympics.

“I hope I could get the chance to race on the same course here in 2008. I will try my best to get good result,” added Liu.

Silver medal went to Sabine Spitz of Germany and bronze to Lene Byberg of Norway.

In the mens, Bart Brentjens of the Netherlands goth the silver and bronze to Carlos Coloma Nicolas of Spain.

Read more: Liu Ying and Christoph Sauser win golds on Olympic course

22nd September 2007

Tickets can only be resold once

To prevent people from profiteering from reselling Olympic tickets, BOCOG have placed restrictions on the resale of tickets. Each ticket holds the details of the ticket owner. The original owner also needs to get permission from the Beijing organizing committee to transfer ownership.

People have been placing their tickets on internet auction sites, a practice which is basically illegal as BOCOG are also placing limits on how much tickets can be resold for.

“Those who are putting their tickets online on sale may not be the real owner of these tickets as the procedure hasn’t been completed,” said Ren Rongjun, who is in charge of ticket sales.

See here more information on purchasing Olympic tickets.

Read the full story: Beijing Olympics tickets can only be resold once

Torch relay to skip Taiwan

Discussions have broken down over the torch relay passing through Taiwan.

Taiwan Sports Minister Yang Jong-her said the two sides “were not able to reach consensus over the arrangement of the relay after more than one month of discussions.”

“We deeply regret the result,” the minister said.

It is unfortunate that the two sides could not reach a compromise over the issue. Having the Chinese and Taiwan governments come together and work on an event would have shown the world that both sides can work together and overcome political obstacles.

China views Taiwan as a state of the PRC, while most Taiwanese including the President Chen Shui-bian support Taiwan becoming an independent state.


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