My Experience of the Beijing 2008 Olympics

Beijing, the capital of China, has been… for a lack of better words.. amazing.

I can remember going there a few times throughout my life but this time I was really shocked and awed. It is one thing to build facilities to host the Olympic games in, but another to ‘rebuild’ the entire city with grand structures, each of which would but the tallest building in my home state to shame. Thousands of volunteers will cheerfully help you along the way wherever you are. These volunteers willingly stand, sit, or patrol wherever they are needed, regardless if they can actually see the games themselves or not. Inside the venues, not a trace of advertisements are seen, only the Olympic symbol. The crowds of people all yelling “Jia You” at the top of their lungs, even if no Chinese athlete is playing, is truly a show of sportsmanship. Of course there will be a few times when unsportsmanlike behavior occurs, but it is few and far between.

Furthermore, the streets are amazingly clean, and the attitude of everyone around is genuine and welcoming. Something I enjoyed a lot was cruising down the street in a taxi with the window opening and waving to people in other cars, and watching their faces light up and see them waving back at you. This may sound corny, but there is a great spirit of friendship enveloping the city. As this is the first olympics I have been to, the “Olympic Effect” is a new experience for me. I hope in the future I can go to more olympics, but I believe it hard to match China’s effort in these 2008 games. This is truly history in the making.