Today I watched the opening ceremony of the Beijing Summer Olympics.
Unfortunately I left China a few weeks ago, so I could only watch
the event on TV.
What I was waiting for, was the wushu part.
The whole ceremony was staged very artistic, but sadly they didn't
put more attention on the wushu part, to increase its reputation.
The most difficult move I saw in the demo was a Flying
Crossleg Kick - Teng Kong Pan Tui. Maybe there was something
more difficult, but I couldn't see it, because the camera was very
far most of the time. However, it was not bad at all and they did
a great job.
What I found funny was, that what they prepared at my old school
( Song
Jiang Wushu School ) was not a part of the wushu demo.
During my last stay they allowed me to watch a few minutes, but I didn't
find out what it was. They just climbed on top of each other.
Now, after
watching the ceremony, I know it was the
Bird Nest and not the wushu demonstration.
But who knows, they might have practiced both.
They worked in small groups of a few hundred students
in many different martial arts schools in China and every few weeks
they went to Beijing to rehearse the opening ceremony.
Something else I found interesting was the effect of opening of the
Beijing Olympics to the US dollar. In the week before
the opening, the dollar raised to to the same level it hat 5 month
ago.
And on the day of the opening ceremony, the dollar raised another 2
percent. That's the highest increase I have seen in a year.
If you change
1000 USD into Euros, you earn 20 from the exchange rate. Let's
see if the dollar keeps raising during the olympics an until the US
elections in November.
M.V.
One more week Aug.01.2008
Next week, on the 08.08.08 at 08:08 in the evening, the olympic
games in Beijing will begin. Wushu didn't become an olympic event,
but
because
wushu
is chinese culture, a great part of the opening ceremony will be
wushu.
This wasn't an easy year for China and after disasters like the Sichuan
earthquake, China hopes the games will be the most successful olympic
games ever.
After all, the 8 is a chinese lucky number and so far, China got
the perfect year, the perfect month, day, hour and even minute.
I went to China from April to July and must say that I was impressed
from some of the changes. Beijing is much cleaner now and the airport
they built for the olympic summer games is probably the most amazing
I have ever seen.
Of course there are still a lot of things I don't like, but this
sits is not about politics and I guess every nation
would try to show its country from the best side.
Unfortunately I am in austria now, but I will watch the games on
T.
V. whenever there is something I am interested in.
