Flickr Picks: My favourite China related finds from Flickr, the photo sharing website. Click on the image to visit the photo's home page on Flickr.

poeloq posted some photos of the Beijing Olympic Precinct (ie the Bird’s Nest Olympic Stadium and the Watercube):

The 2008 Beijing Olympics were a wonderful spectacle. When people think back on Beijing 2008, the images which will come to mind will be of the spectacular Opening and Closing Ceremonies and of the Beijing Olympic Precinct.

The Olympic Precinct is the area around the Olympic Stadium (containing the athletics track and commonly known as the Bird’s Nest Stadium). The Olympic Precinct also includes the Watercube, which was the pool facility.

Both the Bird’s Nest Olympic Stadium and the Watercube were visually striking, particularly at night, when the use of lighting and colour turned these venues into a work of art. These great photos by poeloq show this to great effect.

Disclaimer: This photo was not taken by me. It was shared by a third-party on Flickr, under a Creative Commons license. For details on the license, see the photo's home page on the Flickr website.

• Photos Of The Beijing Olympics Closing Ceremony (0)
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• Flickr Picks – Birds Nest Beijing Olympics Stadium (0)
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• Flickr Picks – Beijing Olympics – Opening Ceremony (0)

The 2008 Beijing Olympics have finished and the Closing Ceremony was just as spectacular as the Opening Ceremony. I watched it on TV and loved every minute of it.

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.

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• Flickr Picks – Birds Nest Beijing Olympics Stadium (0)
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• Flickr Picks – Beijing Olympics – One World One Dream (0)

The 2008 Beijing Olympic Games are underway and there are many photos of the games being posted on Flickr. I was originally planning to include these in the Flickr Picks series, but there are just too many! Instead, I decided to put them all in one post, which I’ll update as the Games go on.

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:

• Photos Of The Beijing Olympics Closing Ceremony (0)
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• Flickr Picks – Beijing Olympics – One World One Dream (0)

Flickr Picks: My favourite China related finds from Flickr, the photo sharing website. Click on the image to visit the photo's home page on Flickr.

Martin Dougiamas posted several photos of the Birds Nest Beijing Olympics Stadium:

These are incredible photos of the Bird’s Nest Olympic Stadium. It’s the angles that make the Beijing Olympic stadium – it’s not just a great sports stadium, it’s great art.

The first photo is my favourite, showing the stadium at night – the lighting is superb. But then so is the sunlight in the other shots. Fantastic!

When I was last in Beijing, the Bird’s Nest stadium was still under construction, so I haven’t had a chance to see it closeup. Now, I really want to see it in real life. At least Martin’s photos give me a chance to see it. Thanks Martin!

Disclaimer: This photo was not taken by me. It was shared by a third-party on Flickr, under a Creative Commons license. For details on the license, see the photo's home page on the Flickr website.

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Flickr Picks: My favourite China related finds from Flickr, the photo sharing website. Click on the image to visit the photo's home page on Flickr.

Mike Licht, NotionsCapital.com posted a couple of alternative Beijing Olympic Logos:

One related to basketball.

And one with a dolphin.

I think both are great! They are also released under a Creative Commons license, so they are free. You only need to give attribution to Mike. If you’re looking for an Olympic logo which is a little different, you might want to give these ones a try. Thanks Mike!

Disclaimer: This photo was not taken by me. It was shared by a third-party on Flickr, under a Creative Commons license. For details on the license, see the photo's home page on the Flickr website.

• Speilberg Wrong To Withdraw From Beijing Olympics (8)
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• New Terminal At Beijing Airport – World’s Biggest Building (0)
• Flickr Picks – Olympics – Beijing 2008 Olympic Logo (0)

Flickr Picks: My favourite China related finds from Flickr, the photo sharing website. Click on the image to visit the photo's home page on Flickr.

The Beijing Olympics Opening Ceremony was just astonishingly beautiful. It took my breath away. I’ve been waiting for some photos of it to turn up on Flickr, and here are some courtesy of ..· ✈Katherina ➳·..:

Absolutely great stuff. Katherina has a whole heap of photos of the Beijing Olympics Opening Ceremony on her Flickr stream. I couldn’t fit them all here, so I just grabbed a couple. Click on one of the photos above to go back to her home page and check out the rest!

As for the Opening Ceremony itself, well it was just breathtaking. I loved every moment of it, well except for all the teams coming out, because that took just too long.

The Olympic rings in lights, which were lifted up into the sky (ie the first photo), were just beautiful. And well so was the rest of it! I won’t gush too much here, but I will just mention the last photo – I don’t know how they got the people to have the correct angle!

Well Done China! Great Show!

Disclaimer: This photo was not taken by me. It was shared by a third-party on Flickr, under a Creative Commons license. For details on the license, see the photo's home page on the Flickr website.

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Flickr Picks: My favourite China related finds from Flickr, the photo sharing website. Click on the image to visit the photo's home page on Flickr.

digibard posted a photo:

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:

Disclaimer: This photo was not taken by me. It was shared by a third-party on Flickr, under a Creative Commons license. For details on the license, see the photo's home page on the Flickr website.

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Flickr Picks: My favourite China related finds from Flickr, the photo sharing website. Click on the image to visit the photo's home page on Flickr.

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

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:

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.

Disclaimer: This photo was not taken by me. It was shared by a third-party on Flickr, under a Creative Commons license. For details on the license, see the photo's home page on the Flickr website.

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Flickr Picks: My favourite China related finds from Flickr, the photo sharing website. Click on the image to visit the photo's home page on Flickr.

flibblesan posted several photos of the ‘decorations’ for the Beijing Olympics in Tiananmen Square:

These photos show the Beijing Olympic ‘decorations’ (for want of a better word) in Tiananmen Square. Without a doubt, the most famous is the Countdown Clock: a clock counting down the time until the start of the Beijing Olympics.

In this picture, the time remaining shows 9 days, 4 hours, 6 minutes and 42 seconds remaining. As I post this, the countdown will be down to just under 3 days! It’s almost upon us. How quickly time goes. I was still living in China (near Beijing) when the 200 day mark was passed.

I wonder what will happen to countdown clock when it reaches 0. Presumably the decorations will remain in Tiananmen Square until the Olympics are finished. Will it just show 0?

For that matter, what will happen to the decorations after the Games? When Brisbane held the World Expo in 1988, all of the decorations were auctioned off and dispersed around Brisbane. You can still see many of them. In fact, one of them is outside my workplace!

I’d like to see the same with the decorations in Tiananmen Square. I’d had to think they’d just be packed up and thrown away!

Disclaimer: This photo was not taken by me. It was shared by a third-party on Flickr, under a Creative Commons license. For details on the license, see the photo's home page on the Flickr website.

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Flickr Picks: My favourite China related finds from Flickr, the photo sharing website. Click on the image to visit the photo's home page on Flickr.

myuibe posted a photo:

I’m expecting to see a lot of photos of the Birds Nest, as the Beijing Olympic Stadium is called, as we near the start of the 2008 Olympics. This photo however, is great!

The lighting is great, the blurred bus fantastic and the people taking photos in the foreground really add to the action of the shot. Good stuff myuibe!

Disclaimer: This photo was not taken by me. It was shared by a third-party on Flickr, under a Creative Commons license. For details on the license, see the photo's home page on the Flickr website.

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