BOCOG's list of restricted items

If you're attending any Olympic events, leave your suitcases, long-handled umbrellas and walky-talkies at home. These and several other objects were on the list of forbidden items released yesterday by BOCOG (Beijing Organizing Committee for the Olympic Games). The list on BOCOG's Web site is preceded by four repetitive paragraphs iterating the necessity of these regulations and explaining that similar measures were taken at past games.

Things on the list that could cause some confusion include "hard-packed drink and food" (no glass bottles? no lunch boxes?), "unauthorized professional videotaping equipments" (what are the guidelines to determine when a video camera is professional?) and "wireless devices that interfere with the electronic signals of the Olympic Games."

Here is the complete list:

Restricted articles include hard-packed drink and food; fragile articles; musical instruments; carry-on bags, suitcases and handbags which are too big to carry to the seats; flags of countries and regions not participating either in the Beijing Olympic Games or Paralympic Games and other flags over two meters in length or over one meter in width; flag poles of over one meter in length; banners, leaflets, or posters; unauthorized professional videotaping equipments; knives, bats, long-handle umbrellas, long poles, sharp-ended stands for cameras and video cameras, and other objects that may cause harm and injury to people; animals (with the exception of guide dogs); vehicles (except for strollers and wheelchairs); unauthorized walky-talkies, loudspeakers, radios, laser devices or wireless devices that interfere with the electronic signals of the Olympic Games.

The rule deemed the following behavior as inappropriate: smoking at a non-smoking area; crossing over the guardrail; using umbrellas or standing up for a long period of time in the seating area, thus obstructing the field of vision of other spectators; and flash photography.

The rule banned weapons and equipment including guns, ammunition, crossbows, and daggers; fireworks, firecrackers and other flammable materials; corrosive chemicals and radioactive materials.

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