The finals of the Good Luck Beijing 2008 track and field event, this evening at the "Bird's Nest" stadium that will be the center of the Olympic Games, was on the whole a promising omen on the "is Beijing ready?" front concerning the Olympics.
On the "hmmmmm" side: Air pollution still pretty bad today, 75 days before the opening ceremonies; interior of stadium, especially bathrooms, showing surprising wear and tear for a place that awaits its official debut; visually-striking exterior beams also already sooty and stained. And whole Olympic area still full of projects with a fair amount of work to do.
But: crowd flow good for the event (it looked as if only about half the seats had been opened for sale, perhaps as a test for handling scale); security screening quite quick and non-intrusive; the stadium's design truly is stunningly impressive, more so up close than from a distance; and hordes of young guides were peppy, helpful, cheery, and ready with English-language "Welcome to National Stadium! Enjoy the games!" greetings.
Most touching moment of the evening, by far: Men's 4 x 100m relay. The Chinese national team bungled the final baton pass and was out of contention. The anchor man for the Japanese national team was surging toward the tape -- when out of nowhere, maybe from fifth place overall, the anchor runner for the Sichuan provincial team stormed ahead to nip the Japanese runner at the last possible instant and win by .01 of a second.
Cheers absolutely rocked the stadium -- 10%, I thought, because the Japanese had not won, and 90% in appreciation for beleaguered Sichuan, which is of course the province devastated by the earthquake.
Triumphant Sichuan Province men's 4x100m relay team on the stadium big screen just after its victory, heroic anchorman in the middle:
Oddest moment: playing of the national anthem at award ceremony for each event. Some 95%+ of all competitors were from China -- a typical event would have someone from Beijing, someone from Guangdong, someone from Shanxi, someone from Xinjiang, etc etc, plus the occasional Malaysian or Australian. But when the medals were given out, it was the national rather than provincial song that was played, as if the Star Spangled Banner were played after each event at a NCAA track meet. We became quite familiar with China's national anthem.
Still, on the whole an exciting and encouraging event -- and touching, thanks to the Sichuan team.
