and
B ejing G ames
49
B erlin
Summer 2014 • H A R V A R D I N T E R N A T I O N A L R E V I E W
at the
Photo Courtesy Reuters
N ationalism
not absolutely ready until they
could overcome one problem
unique to these Games--massive
air pollution. Chinese cities,
Beijing particularly, had become
notorious for their bad air. Some
of the Chinese people I met at
the Olympics had never seen
blue skies. To help combat the
pollution, fares for public transportation were lowered to reduce
driving during the Games. People who still wanted to drive were
restricted to driving every other
day, with even-numbered license
plates allowed on the roads one
day and odd-numbered the next.
The Beijing Games were
conducted at 37 different venues,
Soldiers raise the Chinese national flag at the opening ceremonies of the 2008 Beijing
including 12 constructed specifiSummer Olympics on August 8, 2008. The ceremonies took place at the National
cally for the Games. The centerStadium or “Bird’s Nest”.
piece for the Beijing Games
was the National Stadium, also
The goal was to disperse the oncoming rain. Apparently
known as the Bird’s Nest.
it worked, as there was no rain at the stadium that night.
As was the case in Berlin, tickets to Olympic events
The opening ceremonies, which featured 15,000
were difficult to come by in Beijing. This was particularly
performers and cost $100 million, culminated with the
true for basketball games, as player Yao Ming was China’s
entrance of the torch relay’s final runner, former gymnast
most prominent sports hero. He was also the tallest, at 7
Li Ning. (The relay, with its 21,800 runners, covered
feet, 6 inches. Yao, who played center for the Houston
85,000 miles in 130 days.) Suspended by wires, Li comRockets, had been receiving therapy for more than five
pleted a lap of the roof of the Bird’s Nest before placing
months because of a stress fracture in his left foot. But even
the sacred flame in the stadium’s cauldron, where it burned
though an Olympic appearance by Yao seemed doubtful
throughout the Olympics.
because of the injury, tickets for all of the Olympic basThe flame was seen on six continents and in every
ketball games were sold out as soon as they went on sale in
province in China. The torch relay had one unusual
Beijing. Those who were unable to buy tickets to Olympic
twist on its way to Beijing. In an effort to take it “to new
events could watch them on any of the 24 big-screen TVs
heights,” the Olympic flame was relayed to the top of the
set up around Beijing that exclusively telecasted Olympic
world’s highest mountain, Mount Everest.
events, free of charge, 18 hours a day.
As spectacular as