The Olympic torch has arrived to Beijing

This morning when I went to work the traffic jam was worse than normal and when we came to Airport Expressway this was closed in south direction - from airport into the city. So we did not meet any traffic until exit 4 and I now I found out why it was closed.
The Olympic torch had arrived to Beijing and at exit 4 we met the wan carrying the torch to Tiananmen Square where there should be a ceremony. Many big black cars and police cars escorted the wan.
















The Olympic hurdler and star of a million advertisements Liu Xiang will carry the torch across Jinshui Qiao (the small bridge that straddles the moat that runs between the Tiananmen Gate and the square) to light the torch in the square later today.
Festivities have already got under way with a lot of plate spinning and fandancing going on at the square, but, details about the ceremony have been kept secret and security is tight. This morning I think there was some demonstrations on the square because I was looking att CNN news and they had a report about the square and suddenly the TV screen was black...
Road blocks have been set up to prevent traffic and pedestrians getting too close to the square, and buses going along Chang'an Dajie as well as trains on the line 1 subway line, are not stopping at the Tiananmen East or West stations.

Keep the Beijing Olympic slogan in mind: "One world - One dream"....

Happy Easter

In China we do not celebrate Easter and here it is a normal working week.
So since Europe had vacation I had time to clean up my mailbox during Friday.....

Shit Zhitings father, mother, brothers wife, brother and their son BaoBao

Tonight we had Shi Zhitings family for Easter dinner and for the second year the had to try some Swedish Eastern food: Swedish herring, egg, raw spiced salmon with salmon sauce and "snaps".
The salmon is now quite a favorite in the family but the herring and snaps I think they never will get used to....

But we also had "pannbiff"with potatoes and gravy, barbecue (beef, pork & chicken), spaghetti with meat sauce and a lot of vegetables.

Thank You IKEA for helping us celebrate our Swedish traditions also in China (herring, salmon, svenska nubbar).

Yesterday 10:05

It is spring in Beijing with the cherry trees blossom in every park. With spring also comes another "sign of spring" - the annual spring sandstorms. This means a few months of dust and dirt blowing through town like a vacuum cleaner on reverse, and when it gets bad, conditions can be downright apocalyptic.

The image below was taken yesterday morning from Landmark Towers on the North East corner of the Third Ring Road. Photo: Coeurdelion

2008 is looking especially grim, according to the Beijing Meteorological Station, which is predicting as many as 11 days of dust storms this year due to a warm winter and less rainfall in the desert areas surrounding the capital.
Recent years have seen an average of 9.7 days of dust storms, though last year saw only three blow through town.

Today the weather is much better even if you still can see the yellow tone in the sky.

Bloody violence on "the roof"

In Lhasa, "the roof of the world" confrontation between Buddhist Monks and other ethnic Tibetans started on Monday and there have been several violent confrontations with the Chinese security forces during the week. On Friday morning it escalated in a busy market area in Lhasa and in vent into bloody clashes. Tibetan crowds burned shops, cars, military vehicles an at least one tourist bus. Media report at least 10 people killed. Since Saturday morning Chinese armored vehicles were patrolling the center of the city.

Beijing is facing the most serious demonstrations in Tibet since the late 1980s, when it suppressed a rebellion with lethal force that left scores, and possibly hundreds, of ethnic Tibetans dead. The leaders in Beijing is now clearly armed that a wave of negative publicity could disrupt the plans for the Olympics and its hopes that the games will showcase its rising influence and prosperity rather than domestic turmoil.

Thousands of Buddhists in neighboring India and Nepal took to the streets during the weekend in solidarity. Concerned that the protests might spread elsewhere in China the government have been moving the military into other regions with Tibetan populations.
According to people in Lhasa, reached by phone by the media, soldiers have not been allowed to fight backs against Tibetans throwing rocks and several soldiers have been killed. The Tibetans are also beating Chinese residents with irons sticks and burning down their shops.

So, I think we have to cancel or planned trip to Lhasa in May. Tibet will probably by "closed" for a long time now - at least till the Olympics is over.

(facts from US and UK news media on Internet)

72 TV channels and You can not get the truth...

You see them everywhere, the signs for the Olympics: "One world - one dream". You hear all this talk about a "open" society.
But, China still have a LONG way to go! I have stayed here now for almost 1 1/2 year and I can not say that we today live in a more open society. Still Internet is controlled by the government, "blogspot.com" (where I have this site) is closed for viewing in China (which makes it a little difficult to edit and longer between the postings).

Yesterday morning I was watching the news from CNN Asia as usual at breakfast and there was a report about revolt and demonstrations in Lhasa with gunfight and several people dead.
After just some seconds the TV screen went BLACK.... and so it was for some minutes - until the report from Lhasa was finished. The Chinese censorship have struck again. Same thing last night - totally black screen.

So, I tried to go into CNN.com on the Internet but it looks like the words "Tibet" and "Lhasa" is blocked in China.

I believe that China promised to open the society before the Olympics - "One world - one dream".
Now they have less than five months to prove it.....

Beijing Airport Terminal 3 open

As one of the most important construction projects for the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games, BCIA T3 will start operation in two stages on 29 February 2008 and 26 March 2008 respectively after four years of construction.
Nearly 2 miles long, the $3.8 billion terminal, which covers 240 acres, is the world's largest covered structure.
One of the 10 busiest airports in the world, Beijing's airport handled 53.5 million passengers last year, far above its capacity of 35 million. With the new terminal, the airport can handle 96 million passengers a year and 1,590 flights a day.

By 2012, the airport will become one of the five busiest in the world, after London's Heathrow , Atlanta's Hartsfield - Jackson , Chicago's O'Hare and Tokyo's Haneda, Arup said in a news release.
Terminal 3, as the new terminal is called, is double the size of two other terminals. Six international and domestic airlines— Sichuan Airlines , Shandong Airlines , Qatar Airways , Qantas Airways , El Al Israel Airlines and British Airways — began operating from terminal 3 on Friday, and 20 more will do so by March 26 .

The terminal has 64 restaurants, 175 escalators, 173 elevators and 437 moving sidewalks— but no bookstore that sells foreign-language periodicals.

T3 consists of three concourses: C, D and E with total scale of 1,000,000 square meters. Concourse C is domestic and international check-in, domestic departures, and domestic and international baggage claim.
Concourse D is temporarily dedicated for charter flights during the Olympic and theParalympic Games.
Concourse E is international departures and arrivals.

29 February 2008:The 1st stage moving,Carriers which are scheduled to move within the first stage are: Shandong Airlines (SC), Sichuan Airlines (3U), Qantas Airways (QF), Qatar Airways (QR), British Airways (BA) and El Al Israel Airlines (LY).

26 March 2008: The 2nd stage moving,Carriers which are scheduled to move within the 2nd stage are: Air China (CA), Shanghai Airlines (FM), Scandinavian Airlines (SK), Austrian Airlines (OS), Deutsche Lufthansa (LH), Asiana Airlines (OZ), Air Canada (AC), United Airlines (UA), All Nippon Airways (NH), Thai Airways (TG), Singapore Airlines(SQ), Finnair (AY), Cathay Pacific Airways (CX), Japan Airlines (JL), Dragonair (KA), Turkish Airlines (TK), Emirates (EK), Air Macau (NX),S7 Airlines (S7) and Egypt Air (MS).
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Passengers may take Airport Shuttle Bus from Xidan, Beijing Railway Station, Gongzhufen, Fangzhuang, Zhongguancun and Wangjing to T3. Personal vehicles or taxis could take Airport Southern Line exit from Airport Expressway to arrive at T3.

A special road and Airport Shuttle Bus will be available for the convenience of transfer passengers among T1, T2 and T3.

2nd Airport Expressway, Airport Southern Line and metro connections are still under construction; the opening time will be announced by Beijing Municipal Traffic Commission in due time.

Back to normal - Spring Festival is over

After two weeks of "constant war" it is finally over! Thursday February 21th was the last day it was allowed to use fireworks inside the fifth ring road of Beijing and this night was almost as another New Years Eve with enormous number of crackers again. This night is the Lantern Festival (Yuanxiao Jie), the last night of Spring Festival, celebrated with tangyuan (sweet glutinous rice balls in soup), family dinner and, you guessed it, firework.

Tangyuan

After midnight it was a strange silence we not heard for several week and we could once again sleep a whole night. The stand selling firecrackers on the street below or windows was demounted in the night and gone next morning - hope not to see You again next year....

Aside from feasting, Beijingers were also busy sending off text messages to friends and family on Spring Festival eve. The official numbers haven't been announced yet, but China's Ministry of Information Industry (MII) was forecasting that across the country more than 17 billion Spring Festival greeting messages would be sent via mobile phone over the holiday season. In Beijing alone 600 million text messages were sent on Chuxi (Spring Festival Eve), which works out at close to 38 texts per person.