China is in shock with the sudden withdrawal of Liu Xiang, one of the greatest idols. Sad really but our Chinese friends should show understanding, he has been under tremendous pressure. He remains a great athlete and we all wish him a speedy recovery.
Till now the Games are going rather well, the attention being focused on what it is supposed to be: a sports event. Many records are shattered and the performance of Michael Phelps and the whole incredible team of our Jamaican friends are just marvelous.
I am now hooked myself on watching the Games late at night on TV. The coverage is a bit poor at times with the narrow focus on the great great great Chinese. Too little attention for the more modest athletes and countries. Also reflected in the way China counts the ranking: gold medals count, the rest never mind. The USA rather counts the total medals (in their favor) and I think this is fair for the athletes. In China a silver or bronze medal is sometimes regarded as a “loss of face”.

We Belgians are now crossing fingers for the football. Our poor country is not doing so well overall. No medals yet. OK, we are small but I see smaller countries getting medals. What is wrong with us? Where are our cyclists? Are we so crappy?
As for the expectations that China will be more open because of the Olympics, I am not impressed at all. The Internet even today remains censored. Still no way to directly reach Marianne’s blog (see her blog link under my favorites).
The press here remains very muted and nothing “not nice” can be reported. Sad but not a surprise for me.
But things filter out. Like the real bad behavior of the Chinese football team against Belgium – Chinese bloggers called it “The Chinese team just won two red medals” – one being for Tan Wangsong kicking a Belgian player with his foot into his “private parts”. So, as bloggers said, they are confounding martial arts and football.
And the story about the famous dancer hurt during rehearsal for the Opening Ceremony – she is now paralyzed. The media were asked not to report it but eventually the news came out. Press freedom? You must be joking.
OK, we could be worse off. The world is afraid of the “military threat of China”. Better watch the Russians coz those guys really scare the hell out of me.
And the nightlife here, though limited in part is still roaring. Foreigners seem to have a good time.
All under a gorgeous blue sky, no pollution, not steamy hot anymore.
Just as I told you long time ago.

(edited on 21 August, more pics)
Some of you might have seen me…
CCTV2 made a small documentary (15 min) about me and my involvement in the Olympics. For 3 days they followed me around, in the office meeting room, in my private office, near the Watercube, in a Swisscham networking event and, yes, in my gym – California Fitness. We had a good time, even with all the hard work, the heath, the hassle.


See the shooting in the gym, pictures provided by the PR company Edelman.
The documentary was shown on CCTV2 and later several times on CCTV4.

See here also pics from the shooting near the Watercube, with the CCTV9 crew!
Last Saturday (16 August) I was invited by CCTV9 to be part of their “17 Days”, a life program taped in their studios next to the Millennium Monument. The topic is of course … Olympics.
Host was Ms. Tian Wei and I joined the other panelist, Mr. Zhu Yinghuang, Editor in Chief Emeritus of China Daily. We had received a long list of tough questions to discuss but at the end little time was left for us to really discuss in depth. See the CCTV building, the make-up room and the studio.

I enjoyed most the overall experience, the preparations (make-up room…), the intensity of the program with all the news flashes. And the people who were all real nice (which is not exactly always the case with FOREIGN journalists!). Mr. Zhu and me were then invited for a Shanghai lunch where we really discussed in depth…

NOTE: THIS IS FOR TESTING ONLY, SEE VERSION 2!
Some of you might have seen me…
CCTV2 made a small documentary (15 min) about me and my involvement in the Olympics. For 3 days they followed me around, in the office meeting room, in my private office, near the Watercube, in a Swisscham networking event and, yes, in my gym – California Fitness. We had a good time, even with all the hard work, the heath, the hassle.

See the shooting in the gym, pictures provided by the PR company Edelman.
The documentary was shown on CCTV2 and later several times on CCTV4.
Last Saturday (16 August) I was invited by CCTV9 to be part of their “17 Days”, a life program taped in their studios next to the Millennium Monument. The topic is of course … Olympics.
Host was Ms. Tian Wei and I joined the other panelist, Mr. Zhu Yinghuang, Editor in Chief Emeritus of China Daily. We had received a long list of tough questions to discuss but at the end little time was left for us to really discuss in depth. See the CCTV building, the make-up room and the studio.
I enjoyed most the overall experience, the preparations (make-up room…), the intensity of the program with all the news flashes. And the people who were all real nice (which is not exactly always the case with FOREIGN journalists!). Mr. Zhu and me were then invited for a Shanghai lunch where we really discussed in depth…
I enjoyed most the overall experience, the prepations (make-up room…), the intensity of the program with all the news flashes. And the people who were all real nice (which is not exactly always the case with FOREIGN journalists!). Mr. Zhu and me were then invited for a Shanghai lunch where we really discussed in depth…

My real first competition to watch was the football game Belgium – Italy, in the Workers’ Stadium next door. Thanks to the BOIC (Belgian Olympic Committee) lots of Belgians got tickets, I was lucky to have one just next to the VIP area.
It was for the football quarterfinals men in the Beijing 2008 Olympics.
Our chances were considered slim, worse even after the referee (unfairly?) gave a red card to a Belgian player and the Belgians had to face the Italians 10 against 11 and scored a penalty.
Well, the Belgians did great, recovered and managed to win 3 to 2. A full moon was there to watch over us.

The many Belgian supporters were of course ecstatic and we all headed to The Tree to celebrate with lots of Belgian beer.
We have so little to celebrate anyway so we have to take this unique opportunity!
The pics show the Belgian flag, the teams, the penalty goal, the supporters, public, Piet Moons and others from the BOIC and our VIP supporter ambassador Bernard Pierre who also joined us all in The Tree.
Yes The Tree is open but, for the silly reasons of the silly police, last order is 9:30pm to close around 10pm.
More about the highly incompetent police later on.
As for the Workers’ Stadium:
– security checks went fairly well considering the crowd of over 50,000
– indications were good and volunteers helpful
– drink and “food” outlets were a shame, impossible to buy anything unless you were ready to wait in line for 30 minutes. A real screw-up (as it is in most venues where overall the food is kinda horrible). Call that planning.
– the Panasonic screen was OK (north side) but the other one (south side) is of poor quality.
– the replay did not work for most of the game and we were left to guess what happened
– the public was cheerful and behaving nicely, a welcome difference with European hooliganism (though they were clearly favoring Italy, too bad guys)
– quality of repairs done at the stadium look questionable, the staircases already start showing damage.
So, next step – Shanghai on the 19th.