Politics broke the surface of Oympics swimming yesterday when Iran’s Mohammad Alirezaei pulled out of the men’s 100m breaststroke heats, and the Olympics, just minutes before he was due to compete against Israel’s Tom Be’eri. According to Iranian’s state-media reports, Alirezaei fell ill and was carried to a Beijing hospital. But Iran has a history…
Across Beijing today, TVs were tuned to the first day of Olympic competition. While most people here were cheering for China, I was cheering for fellow American and fellow Jew Sada Jacobson, who won the silver medal in the women’s fencing individual saber event, after besting Russian, Ukrainian and Cuban competitors. Jacobson is a member…
Ditan Park in central Beijing was once where the Emperor would make sacrificial offerings to please the gods at the Temple of the Earth. Tonight, the red walls and clipped lawns again became a place of ritual celebration — this time, to gaze up at two massive screens broadcasting the Olympic opening ceremony. At 8…
The sky here today is a blinding white. No puffy clouds, no patch of blue. No bright sun. Beijingers will tell you this is normal humid summer haze. China Daily ran an article today under the headline “Air is fine, let the Games begin.” The piece quotes from yesterday’s press conference with the International Olympic…
Beijing is all about Yao Ming today. He is on the front page of every Chinese newspaper, shown raising the “sacred” Olympic torch high as he trotted through the Forbidden City’s Duan Gate Wednesday, under the stoic gaze of that other national hero, Mao Zedong. There he is again on television, in all his 7-foot-6-inch…
Riding my bike home from dinner on Saturday night, I saw flashing lights fill the night sky over the rooftops in the distance. For once the night was a clear one, devoid of the usual smog. Turning a corner I could see the sparkle of fireworks: the opening ceremony rehearsal. I asked my neighbor, a…
The colorful billboards that hang along the highways, boulevards and parks here declare the Beijing 2008 Olympic slogan, “One World One Dream,” in a number of languages, including Chinese, English, French, Spanish and Russian. Hebrew did not make the cut. Given that the entire population of world Jewry could fit into this city of 17…
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