July 29: Be Cool and The Heat Is On

Chinese celebrated the successful bid for holding the 2008 Summer Olympic Games on July 13, 2001 on central Beijing's Tian'an Men Square. [File Photo: Agencies]

By Ning Yan

It's incredible how time works. Only 10 Days to go before the 2008 Olympic Games, the moment when Beijing was announced to be the host city seems to happen just yesterday.

I know it would be a clich to mention how excited China was on July 13, 2001 when the then IOC president Juan Antonio Samaranch appeared before the world audience already holding their breath, then said the word Beijing.

However, after all these seven years, you just can't wipe that picture off your mind, can you? Especially for someone like me, who stayed together with more than a dozen of college mates in a downtown restaurant in Beijing witnessing the historic moment on TV before the whole team headed to Tian'an Men Square to join in the ocean of jubilance, at midnight. And till then, that was one of the few times I stayed up that late in my life!

Back then, 2008 seemed so far away. Everything about the Beijing Olympics was just the beginning of a dream.

But as we speak, the dream becomes more and more real now that everything is in full swing, from Olympic venues like the Bird's Nest and Water Cube, the International Broadcast Centre (IBC) and the Main Press Centre (MPC) for the media, the city's traffic system and policy, to volunteers booths right on the corners of the street and even cab drivers' uniforms and their spoken English

The other day, when I was driving along a main road, a team of athletes in sportswear running on the right side of the road jumped into my sight. It was a sweltering day. And just as I was wondering, I saw a road sign in the distance saying that section was part of the marathon route for the Games.

Of course, not only the athletes and the media are warming up at the last minute. One of my friends told me just yesterdayliterally yesterday this timethat she has designed a couple of clothes herself which she will be wearing while watching the Gamesshe's got tickets for gymnastics and the semifinals for men's 110 metre hurdles and she is hunting for a tailor who can help her make them. The clothes should be striking in color so that the athletes can see me cheering for them. They should also say something about myself, you know, in terms of fashion." And I call her an amateur cheerleader!

August in Beijing has always been hot, and this upcoming one will be no exception, temperature wise, and sports wise. The heat is already on. So, get yourselves an iced watermelon as the Beijingers do and say hello to the Olympics!