Fortunately, someone who was there has posted a lot of great photos on Flickr, with a Creative Commons license that allows me to share them with you here. I’d like to thank rich115 for his great photos! Here are some of them.

The End…

Or at least as far as the Beijing Olympics go… I’m planning to cover the lead up to the 2012 London Olympics, now I’ve had a small taste of Olympics blogging.

Note, all of these photos have been posted on Flickr under a Creative Commons License. Click on a photo to visit that photo’s home page on Flickr.

Athletics:

By Martin Dougiamas:
  
  
By koka_sexton:
  

By West Zest:

Michael Phelps

By M@rcopako:
  
  

The Pool

By M@rcopako:
  
  
By koka_sexton

Gymnastics

By koka_sexton:
  
By jkalleyne:

Basketball

By rich115:
  
 
By koka_sexton:
  
By enviziondotnet:
  

Beach Volleyball

By West Zest:
  

By PhotoBobil:
  

Cycling

By Martin Dougiamas:
  
  
By koka_sexton:
  
By poeloq:
  
  

Boxing

By koka_sexton:
  

Taekwondo

By M@rcopako:
  
  
  

Archery

By shizhao:
  
  

Shooting

By koka_sexton

Badminton

By koka_sexton:
  

Table Tennis

By enviziondotnet:
  
  

Baseball

By West Zest:
  
  
By koka_sexton:
  

Handball

By Aplomb:

The Bird’s Nest Stadium

By magcafe:

By Martin Dougiamas:
  
By pjmorse:
  
By kafka4prez:
  
  
By sHzaam!:

By West Zest:

By PhotoBobil:

The Watercube

By magcafe:

By West Zest:

The Crowd

By QiFei:
  
By shizhao:
  
  

Fuwa

By enviziondotnet:
  
By PhotoBobil:

Various

By kabatology:

By koka_sexton
  

By myuibe:

I don’t want this blog to become political, but I can’t let this pass. I’ve been watching the media storm about Steven Speilberg withdrawing from the Beijing Olypmics opening ceremony preparations because he’s not happy at the Chinese involvement with what’s happening in Darfur.

I’m now awaiting his announcement that he will no longer make movies in the US, because of:

1. the waterboard technique the CIA uses (okay because London was bombed)
2. the illegal imprisonment of inmates at Guantanamo bay (okay because it’s not actually in the US)
3. the huge number of civilians which have died in Iraq since the invasion (okay because Sadam wasn’t a nice man)

I’m not trying to turn this into a pro-China / anti-US thing. There’s no doubt that China does have issues – some big ones – but so does every country.

I’m Australian and our government has only recently said sorry for taking tens of thousands of Aboriginal children from their families, up to the early 1970s, to be raised in white families!

My point is that Western countries are very good at criticising China, whilst ignoring their own problems. If the 2008 Olympics were in the US, would people be talking about boycotting the Olympics?

Before I lived in China, I believed most of what the Western media said about China. Some of it’s true – maybe most of it’s true – but it’s often one sided and ignores the problems that Western nations have.

It’s very unlikely that Steven Speilberg’s action will have any effect. If anything it’s like to have a negative, rather than postive, effect.

I’ve learnt that trying to force the Chinese to do something with direct action very rarely works. Threaten if necessary, but not in public! They’ll then be obliged to defy you. If you make them lose face, they are less likely to do what you want, not more likely.

It’s better to find subtle ways of doing things which can avoid any loss of face. I’m talking in stereotypes here, which is never good, but there’s a definite element of truth to what I’m saying.

Steven Speilberg could have found much better ways to use his influence. Of course, the West has never really tried to understand China and the West’s preferred diplomatic strategy is often akin to bullying.

Anyway, end of rant. Much has been written on this elsewhere, so I won’t say any more.