Beijing 2008 Olympic Logo

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digibard posted a photo:

Olympic Logo 2008

Okay, this is not a photo per se, it’s a logo, but it’s related to the Beijing Olympics, and it’s released under a Creative Commons license.

This means you can use it for free as long you follow the license, in this case by providing attribution. This is best done in form of a link to digibard’s Flickr home page.

So, if you need a copy of the Olympic Logo for the 2008 Beijing Olympics, this may be the solution for you.

Also, I just noticed that fdecomite posted another image related to the Olympic Rings:

olympic rings

The Forbidden City And Tiananmen

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The Forbidden City is one of the most photographed places in China. I see many, many photos of it on Flickr, and I normally just ignore them. I’ve chosen to post these ones, because they present the Forbidden City in an interesting light and they work well together as a set.

DSC_0272  DSC_0219

  DSC_0269 photos by unfoldedorigami

Only the second one looks like the normal photos of the Forbidden City. Even that has some extra energy, coming from the people in the foreground of the photo.

I really love the first photo, of a lane in the Forbidden City – the angles are wonderful. I instantly associate the picture with the Forbidden City, because similar lanes are featured in the The Last Emperor – Director’s Cut, which is a fantastic movie. I saw it long before I actually visited the Forbidden City, which really added to the experience. Now I want to see it again!

The photo of the garbage bin is a classic. The colours, the chipped paint, make it art! The last photo is also great. Click on it to go see the original at Flickr. I’m not sure what effect unfoldedorigami is using, but there are some serious angles in the photo.

Beijing Olympic Games and Pollution

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unfoldedorigami posted a couple of photos of the Bird’s Nest Olympic Stadium:

DSC_0310  DSC_0309

There’s a lot of pollution evident in these photos of Beijing, and the photos further down, which is a real concern only two days before the 2008 Olympic Games start.

I won’t be surprised if it rains before the games, which would really clear the pollution up. The Chinese are masters of cloud seeding, so don’t be surprised if it happens.

Leaving pollution aside, I think these two photos work really well together, especially the angle of the gutter. I also like the guy on the bicycle in the front left of the first photo. He really adds some action to the photo.

Here a couple more photos showing the pollution in Beijing, this time by madiko83:

P1040421  P1040434

Here the pollution looks even worse. The story is all over the Western news and in the press, which is a real shame for the Games.

Having lived just outside of Beijing, I can tell you that some days the pollution is terrible, but the next day you can get blue skies.

The pollution is much worse in the south (ie Guangzhou), and I’m hoping that they’ll get clear skies for the majority of the Olympics.

Beijing Olympics – One World One Dream

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myuibe posted a couple of photos:

One World One Sponsor  One World Ond Brand

You can tell the Beijing Olympics is almost upon us. The number of Olympics related photos on Flickr is increasing!

These photos appear to be of the Wangfujing area and they show billboards sporting the One World One Dream slogan. This was chosen as the Official Olympic Slogan after a competition a couple of years ago.

I know this well, because one of the word processing worksheets I wrote for my students, when I was teaching ICT in China, was centred around a passage announcing the slogan!

Anyway, expect to hear this slogan a lot more in the coming weeks as the Olympic Games begin. One World One Dream!

Liptons Tea In China

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Liptons Tea is widely available in China these days. I used to drink it a lot when I lived in China.

DSCN3840 photo by myuibe

They have the full range of different Liptons tea products. That’s the Lemon flavoured one in the photo above. I preferred the straight green tea option. You can get black tea too (although note that the Chinese call it Red Tea, because of the colour when you add water).

I also took a liking to Liptons Milk Tea instant tea powder, although it’s strange to see it packaged like that – it’s basically a mix of tea, sugar and whitener so you have milk tea ready to go.

As for it being Liptons, well you can get almost all the major Western brands in China these days, especially in the bigger cities. Lays chips, Snickers Bar, Pantene Shampoo, anything by Nestle, you name it. That’s just the start. The big companies have moved into China in a big way in the last 5 years.

Summer Palace In Beijing

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The Summer Palace (Yihe Yuan) is a must visit tourist destination in Beijing. It’s huge (290 hectares or 716 acres) and lies next to the Kunming Lake.

My favourite part is the Marble Boat (Shi Fang). You may recognise it from various movies. There’s a story behind it. The Empress Dowager was supposed to put the money towards rebuilding the Chinese navy, but spent it on this instead. She had many critics, although I remember reading that one Chinese academic said that any fleet China put together back then would have been easily destroyed, but the Marble Boat is still there, so it must have been a good decision!

There’s a lot more to see and it’s all very worthwhile. Along with the Great Wall and the Forbidden City, the Summer Palace is part of the top 3 tourist destinations in Beijing.

08.08.02 Summer Palace (111) The Summer Palace in silhouette in front of a brilliant sky – by Amatourist

There are always a lot of tourists at the Summer Palace – any popular tourist destination in China is certainly going to be packed with people, which is a pity really. It’d be great if you could get the Summer Palace to yourself!

Chinese Lion Statue

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MarinaAvila posted a photo:

Lion Statue

This is a most impressive stone lion statue. You’ll see statues like this throughout China (and in Chinatowns throughout the world). In fact, it’s a symbol that most people instantly associate with China.

They are often outside banks and other buildings and they always come in pairs. There’ll be another lion statue just outside of this shot. According to About.com’s Chinese Culture section:

A pair of stone lions, a male and a female, can often be seen in front of the gates of traditional buildings. The male lion is on the left with his right paw resting on a ball, and the female on the right with her left paw fondling a cub.

For more information on stone lion statues, check out the article on About.com.

Bejing Olympics Tactical Response

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aenertia posted a photo:

Bejing Olympics Tactical Response - soldiers on scooters

I’ve read about this – the Bejing Olympics Tactical Response group are apparently well prepared for any terrorist threat that might arise at the 2008 Olympic Games.

As part of this, they’ve trained soldiers who can speed along on little ‘scooters’ called Segways while shooting up the terrorists.

I’m not sure how accurately they’ll be able to shoot while they’re zooming along (I suspect not very well), but they look impressive, like something out of a science fiction movie!

I’m just hoping they can sit and watch the Olympics on TV, rather than being called into action. Lets hope for a peaceful Olympic Games!