Olympic Games: top blogs from Beijing 2008

It’s only two days until the huge opening ceremony of the Olympic Games 2008 in Beijing before which some 10,500 athletes will compete in more than 300 different events. At the same time a security force of 110, 000 strong has been assigned to the streets and arenas of the capital (including 34,000 troops from the People’s Liberation Army). The Chinese government is watching its guests through 10,000 surveillance cameras installed throughout Beijing, and in turn the rest of the world are watching China through thousands of media crews.

What about us? Which is the best medium to expose the activities in the king of sporting events? Should we switch on the TV? Read the newspaper? Look at the official websites? Or what? Well, at risk of sounding biased, the best way is through blogs!

The 2008 blogs are the best way to explore far worlds and to find out what’s going on through the ordinary eye, devoid of obscured or filtered vision. Blogs are written by real people who lack the agenda of a journalist or a broadcaster, like us – who are keeping you up-to-date on London. And all from in London.

And London is one of the main protagonist of this XXIX Olympic Games, not just because it has a platoon of athletes awaiting at least 40 medals, but more importantly because it will be the next host, for the pearl anniversary in its 30th year.

Chinese and foreigners, organisers, journalists and spectators use the system of a blog to tell us more about what’s going on; the faster way to write and much easier to read. Here are the most read blogs so far from Beijing 2008:

• http://chinaolympicsblog.com/ It’s the 2008 Beijing Olympics Unofficial Blog Site
• http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/olympics/ It’s the BBC blog
• http://blogs.reuters.com/china/ It’s the Reuters blog
• http://timesonline.typepad.com/olympics/ It’s the Times blog
• http://olympics.blogs.nytimes.com/ It’s the New York Times blog
• http://beijingvisitor.blogspot.com/ It’s another unofficial blog
• http://globalvoicesonline.org/ It’s a big rich platform for bloggers

The next appointiment is on Friday 8/8/2008 at 8 o’clock pm (12 am in London) at the Beijing National Stadium or on your favourite blog!

Blogs may turn out to be the solution over the battle of censorship, that still dominates the People’s Republic of China. The concerns on this matter are great: today the Torch feted in Tiananmen, four british tourist have been arrested over the pro-Tibet protest and the journalists from the five continents remain in fear of not being able to do their job. The tailor-made press area may be vast, but a beautifully fitted luxury press-box won’t help the flow of information now will it.