Beijing - China

Been cruising the Internet like a lost soul for information about Beijing and China in particular. It is so sad to not be there. I follow the medal count in the L.A. Times and Canada is a proud last with zero medals. They are all happy with M. Phelps, of course. He's 23, and had a ADHD diagnosis as a youth which led him to go into swimming.

Bei-jing means Northern Capital (Nan-jing would mean Southern Capital) although on the map, Nan isn't that much more southerly. Just a big country with a long history. Actually China is a region with many peoples, more so than Canada which is full of relatively recent immigrants. One doesn't really get a sense of the overpopulation because the esthetic bent is precisely to create enclaves of charm and rest. One tourist site mentionned that it is from the air than one sees it with little village lights everywhere.

Beijing itself is a city which has radically transformed itself in the last ten years to become a world metropolis, and the decision to grant them the games merely added to the process. There are some to decry the lost of traditional housing with internal courtyards and they are no doubt correct to mourn the passing of a certain sensibility. Paris as well went through a terrible rasing before taking its present form. Yet from here, China is a country with a relatively decent climate. More power to them!