Boris Liberman <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > I went today to one of the local shops to buy me a pair of trousers. > Apparently the shelves were almost empty. ... The Olympics in > China are the reason. > > I chuckled and went out of the shop...
I live in China. Overall, I expect hosting the Olympics to be a triumph for China, as the media here keep predicting. However, I'm sure there will be problems, perhaps even some catastrophes. Here's something I wrote to a group of friends a few months back: Next year is the Olympics. Eight is a lucky number in Chinese, sounds like the word for "prosperity" (and 4 unlucky, sounds like "death"), so they have scheduled the Olympics to start on 2008-08-08. They'll be in Beijing. My advice to anyone considering a trip to China during that period would be to avoid Beijing unless there are specific Olympic events you want to see. Chinese services for travellers -- hotels, transport and so on -- routinely raise their prices at busy times. I reckon they will almost certainly raise them quite a bit for the Olympics. Also, I suspect half the thieves, beggars and prostitutes in China will be in Beijing for the occasion, looking for tourist dollars. China has lots of all those. Anybody who thinks a city full of prostitutes would be great fun, head for Thailand instead. The business is legal there, which it isn't in China (it is ubiquitous, but that's another story) and you almost certainly do not want to have to deal with Chinese cops over this, let alone visit a Chinese jail. No doubt Beijing is an interesting place, lots of history and monuments, plenty of shopping, good tourist facilities, ... However, this may not be the best time to go there and the rest of China is interesting too. -- Sandy Harris, Nanjing, China -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List [email protected] http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow the directions.
