In Beijing: The Inescapable Games

Travel Blog  •  Eva Holland  •  08.08.08 | 8:17 AM ET

imageI know, I know. Every Olympic host city gets really worked up just before the Games. Still, a day after my arrival I can’t help but suspect that Beijing has taken things a little further than most. Why? I expected to be bombarded with billboards and logos from the moment I landed here—what I didn’t expect, though, was the Olympics-themed China Airlines flight from San Francisco, complete with “Beijing 2008!” headrest covers, and an “Olympics Special” in-flight radio station. (Think Chariots of Fire, plenty of John Williams, and the theme from Ben-Hur.) The first movie to air was Blades of Glory. Coincidence? I think not.

Related on World Hum:
* In Beijing: Not So ‘Sanitized’ After All?
* In Beijing: Red Tape and Roadblocks
* In Beijing: A Rainbow of Nations

Photo by Eva Holland

Tags: Asia, China

Eva Holland is the senior editor of World Hum. She is an associate editor at Up Here and Up Here Business magazines, and her writing has also appeared in Reader's Digest Canada, NationalGeographic.com, the National Post, the Montreal Gazette, the Ottawa Citizen and WestJet's Up! Magazine, among other publications. She's based in Canada's Yukon territory.


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