It’s Beijing: A Cultural Lesson for the 2008 Games

Last night, August 8, 2008 the Beijing Olympics began. The date was chosen for the three consecutive 8’s. In China, 8 is considered to be a lucky number, just as 7 tends to be here. The word for 8 is “ba”, which sounds similar to the word for “fortune” or “wealth.”

China has long history, and it is about time they start to be recognized on a global front. The Olympics is something dedicated to the skill of the athletes, but in this case, it has put Beijing in the spotlight and made them “shape” up so to speak. Although the city of Beijing, and country of China is far from perfect, it has made some vast improvements in air quality (even if it is hard to tell), technology, and environment.

Some things we will start to see over the next could weeks are “FUWA” mascots, the Water Cube, and Bird’s Nest. The Beijing Olympics mascot is known as FUWA, and actually consists of 5 mascots known as Beibei (fish), Jingjing (panda), Huanhuan (Olympic flame), Yingying (Tibetan antelope), and Nini (swallow). The names are a combination of the Chinese phrase “Beijing Huan Ying Ni”—“Welcome to Beijing.”

The Water Cube, officially called the National Aquatics Center is built to resemble a cube of water bubbles tightly packed together. It is one of the most environmentally friendly buildings; able to use energy it collects to create a perfect environment year round. The official name for the “Bird’s Nest” is the National Stadium; this is where the opening ceremonies will take place. It is a huge winding “knot” of steel in the shape of a nest, complete with a retractable roof, and will host the track and field competitions and the football finals. It can hold up to 91,000 spectators.

Tonight, the 2008 Beijing Olympics was hailed as the most successful and beautiful opening ceremonies of all the Olympics. Each act presented a piece of Chinese culture or history. It started with a count down that quickly changed to drummers beating drums that were light to the beat.

The children of China’s 56 minority groups paraded across the stage, all dressed in their beautiful traditional dress. Thousands of light up people formed a dove that flapped its wings before morphing into the Bird’s Nest. There was shadow boxing, opera, Taiji, and much much more. Finally there was a parade of countries that began with Greece and ended with China. Instead of doing it alphabetically, it was done in order of the number of strokes in the Chinese character for the country name.

Yao Ming was the flag bearer of China’s parade, and was accompanied by 9-year old Ling Hao, a survivor from the Sichuan earthquake. Lin freed himself from the rubble only to return and save some of his other classmates, he said he was the class leader and it was his job to do that.

Some of the most renowned Chinese treasures are found in Beijing and its immediate region: Forbidden City, Tiananmen Square, Great Wall, Temple of Heaven, Summer Palace, and even the Terracotta Warriors in Xian. The Forbidden City, Tiananmen Square, and Temple of Heaven are all in walking distance of each other with some great shopping areas like Wangfujing Dajie or Pearl Market (or Hong Qiao).

• The official Beijing 2008 Olympic website can be found at http://en.beijing2008.cn/.
• The opening ceremonies can be viewed at http://en.beijing2008.cn/ceremonies/headlines/openingceremony/