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CHANGING CURRENTS
20 YEARS of REFLECTIONS
BIRDS IN CHINA - PHOTOS
CYCLING to XANADU
THE CHINESE DREAM
CHINESE NEW YEAR ADS
The MEDIUM, the MESSAGE and the SAUSAGE DOG
ANYONE FOR TENNIS?
VIEWS FROM ABOARD THE CHINA EXPRESS:
1 Zola and Retail Marketing
2 Playing the Waiting Game
3 Beware the Ides of March
4 The county not on a map
5 Chinese Chess in Beijing
6 Build it and They'll Come
7 Riding the Water Dragon
8 The Best of Both Worlds
9 Storming the Great Wall
10 Welcome to the Wangba
11 The Catcher in the Rice
12 The Marriage Business
13 The Crouching Dragon
14 Counting the Numbers
15 A Century of Migration
16 Shooting for the Stars
17 Rise of Yorkshire Puds
18 Harry Potter in Beijing
19 Standing Out in China
20 Self-pandactualisation
21 Strolling on the Moon
22 Tea with the Brothers
23 Animated Guangzhou
24 Trouble on the Farms
25 Christmas in Haerbin
26 Dave pops into Tesco
27 A Breath of Fresh Air
28 The Boys from Brazil
29 Rolls-Royce on a roll
30 The Great Exhibition
31 Spreading the Word
32 On Top of the World
33 Moonlight Madness
34 Beijing's Wild West
35 Avatar vs Confucius
36 Brand Ambassadors
37 Inspiring Adventure
38 China's Sweet Spot
39 Spinning the Wheel
40 Winter Wonderland
41 The End of the Sky
42 Ticket to Ride High
43 Turning the Corner
44 Trouble in Toytown
45 Watch with Mother
46 Red-crowned Alert
47 In a Barbie World
48 Domestic Arrivals
49 Tale of Two Taxis
50 Land of Extremes
51 Of 'Mice' and Men
52 Tour of the South
53 Brooding Clouds?
54 The Nabang Test
55 Guanxi Building
56 Apple Blossoms
57 New Romantics
58 The Rose Seller
59 Rural Shanghai
60 Forbidden Fruit
61 Exotic Flavours
62 Picking up Pace
63 New Year, 2008
64 Shedding Tiers
65 Olympic Prince
66 London Calling
67 A Soulful Song
68 Paradise Lost?
69 Brandopolises
70 Red, red wine
71 Finding Nemo
72 Rogue Dealer
73 Juicy Carrots
74 Bad Air Days
75 Golden Week
76 Master Class
77 Noodle Wars
78 Yes We Can!
79 Mr Blue Sky
80 Keep Riding
81 Wise Words
82 Hair Today
83 Easy Rider
84 Aftershock
85 Bread vans
86 Pick a card
87 The 60th
88 Ox Tales
CHARTS
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2018
2017
2016
2015
2014
2013
2012
2011
2010
2009
2008
2001 to 2007
BIRDING in CHINA
PORTS of CALL
FROM BEYOND THE WALL
ABOUT

Build it and They'll Come

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The Bird's Nest stadium on January 1st 2008

The "Bird's Nest" and "Water Cube" were certainly attracting a good crowd.  Dozens of cars were parked on the hard shoulder of the three lane highway, and perhaps fifty people were taking photographs of the stadia and of each other standing in front of them.  One woman looked as if she had just come from a nightclub: her bare midriff looking decidedly out of place as she bravely smiled at her friend as he encouraged her to say "qiezi" [aubergine], which results in a similar expression to "cheese".

 

  A group of young men, who were from the west of Beijing, were asked why they had come here when it was so cold and windy:  “It’s the first day of the New Year,” said one.  “Our Year!” shouted another...


  “We wanted to see the Bird’s Nest on this special day!”


  Despite the busy road, and despite the dangerously high chill factor, everyone there was revelling in a kind of party spirit.  But what do the people building the Bird's Nest think about it?  Do they share the same enthusiasm as the excited onlookers?

 

  Today may be a national holiday, but it’s a day like any other for the thousands of workers building the structure.  The foreman of one of the gangs of workers, Mr Zhu (the name of a famous poet, he says) was in a jolly mood.  


  “Hello,” he said, “have you come to look at what we’ve built.”  


  I congratulated him on his workmanship and asked him some more questions:         

 

  “We’re all from Baoding in Hebei province.  There are sixty of us here; the oldest is Mr Zheng over there, he’s 48; and this is ‘Wang', he’s only 22. 


  “We’ve been working on this for a year and will finish in May.”


  I asked him what he planned to do after that:


  “Go home for a rest!” he said laughing.


  “We don’t know what we will do next, but I’m sure something will come up. It always does.”


  “What about the Olympics,” I asked, “Will you be able to come back and watch it?”


  “My boss will give me 6 tickets to dish out to my best workers.  So, yes, I and they will come back for a day or two.”


  “Who do you think will win the most gold medals?” was perhaps a silly question, but I asked it anyway.


  “China, of course!”


  At this he led his team in a chorus of “Zhongguo dui, jia you!”  ["Come on, China!"]    

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