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France 24 asks if the Beijing Olympics will have any longlasting environmental legacy. The answer may have come earlier than expected: the smog has come back to envelop Beijing almost as soon as the restrictions on drivers and factories were lifted.......

The Paralympics may now be behind us, but the story of three-time Paralympian swimmer He Junquan (何军权) continues to inspire the nation. A freak accident in He's childhood days left him without his arms but sheer determination and perseverance led him to become a star in the pool, winning multiple medals for China since the 2000 Sydney Paralympics. Even though He had won four gold medals at the Athens games, this was the first time......

Is water the new oil? Current TV takes us around China for a look at the reservoirs that have dried up, the arable land that's turned into large swathes of desert, rivers in urban spaces that have become dumps for human and chemical waste and the people's lives that have been affected. It also highlights the army of environmental NGO's that have sprung up only recently and their battle against time.......

Yesterday, a newborn baby girl was discovered by a Paralympics spectator in the restrooms of Beijing's Bird's Nest. The mother, who seemed to have given birth in the bathrooms was not to be found. The baby was taken to hospital and declared to be in good health.......

Danwei points us to this creatively produced video of a counterstrike battle set in Beijing's mixed-use office and residential complex Jianwai SOHO. No news on whether the anti-terrorism officials are freaking out yet.......

Jocelyn Ford reports from Beijing:A Tibetan street hawker lives in a community of migrant workers in the outskirts of Beijing. Hostilities toward her escalated after the March riots in Lhasa. She and her son are delighted to find they are welcome at the Olympic stadium.......

From NoComment TV:Athletes, officials and spectators leave Beijing after Olympic Games. The chinese capital begins to return to normal after Olympics.......

The NBA keeps doing its best to dominate the post-Olympic China sports news cycle. The latest: the Milwaukee Bucks and Golden State Warriors will play a pair of pre-season games in China in October. The first will be played in Guangzhou Gymnasium October 15; the second will take place at Beijing's Wukesong Arena October 18. The Milwaukee Bucks are featured in this game, despite trading Chinese forward Yi Jianlian to the New Jersey Nets on......

Manuela Parrino, an Italian woman who has lived in Beijing for the last 41/2 years said she was "fed up with all the visiting journalists talking negatively about China." She decided to prove China's commitment to free speech during the Olympic Games by applying to protest against pollution, with her 4 year old son, in one of the designated zones. After 9 hours, over 2 days, of officials trying to dissuade her cause, and parrying......

THE HEROES: Natalie Du Toit: This 24 year old South African swimmer became the first female amputee swimmer ever to qualify for the Olympics, and placed a very commendable 16th in a field of 24 in the 10,000m swim. Du Toit first started competing internationally at the age of 14, but in 2001, her left leg was amputated at the knee after a car accident. The traumatic experience not only did not stop her from......

The Olympics has come and gone without a hitch and while BOCOG officials can finally heave a sigh of relief, we have a few questions in our mind — Will people on the streets continue to be as friendly? Will counterfeit products be kept off the streets? Will it be as easy to get work visas as it was before all this Olympics hoopla came along? Japan's Fuji TV has the answers to one of......

The Bahamas. Again. One medal for every 153,725 Bahamians. They were followed by Jamaica, Iceland, Slovenia, Australia, New Zealand, Norway, Cuba, Armenia and Belarus. Of the 87 nations that won medals, China ranked No. 68. The United States was No. 46. India brought up the rear. This is all good info to have the next time you tire of your friends arguing over who really "won" the Olympics. [Source]......

Summed up in 3 minutes and 37 seconds.......

The closing ceremony of the Beijing Games was star-studded and glitzy as promised, but those that came expecting to be wowed off their socks as they were by the opening went away disappointed (read the reactions from China-based twitteratti). After all, Zhang Yimou and company did so spectacularly well in the opening they couldn't have possibly done better. Or could they? Quite frankly, we thought the ceremony was going to end after David Beckham's grand......

Photo of the Bird's Nest by stelzer The report card Deutsche Welle: Controversial Beijing Games Close in Spectacular, Surreal Style AP: Mixed legacy likely as China's Olympics conclude Reuters: No medals for China, IOC from rights groups Reuters: China basks in the glow of success of Games Al-Jazeera: Olympic chief praises Beijing games Seattle Times: China put on great show in Beijing, but with iron fist The Scotsman: Olympics: The gold medal for public......

Tonight's star-studded Olympic closing ceremony will feature David Beckham, Leona Lewis and Jimmy Page of Led Zeppelin fame While we aren't able to provide you with any spoilers like we did for the opening ceremony, executive vice president of NBC Olympics David Neal made his way to a college campus 90 minutes west of Beijing where secret rehearsals were being conducted and exclaimed, "It's just unlike any other closing ceremony I've ever seen." While......

The latest edition of Sexy Beijing explores the phenomenon of parents seeking partners for their children at 'Parental Matchmaking Sessions' in parks — a trend that has caught the attention of Singaporean Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong who recently floated the idea to the city-state of 4 million in his National Day Rally speech as a way to increase the republic's fertility rate of 1.29, which is far below the replacement level of 2.1.......

According to China Radio International the Academy of Military Medical Sciences in Beijing has opened a 24 hour hotline "providing advice and technical support in the event of attacks by nuclear, biological or chemical weapons". The hotline number is 010-66880120, we suggest you write it down or add it to you cell phone contacts — you never know when you'll need to report a nuclear attack. Photo by givepeaceachance......

In this video Al Jazeera reports on two elderly Beijing residents who tried to organize protests against evictions in the capital. For these women, who are both in their 70s, this has had far reaching consequences.......

According to the NY Times the IOC team has asked the international gymnastic group F.I.G. to investigate the ages of the controversial Chinese women's team. "According to online sports registration lists in China, half the team — He Kexin, Yang Yilin, Jiang Yuyuan — would be under age." As many as six medals won by the 'women's' team hang in the balance. Also read NY Daily News and The Telegraph.......

With the Olympics winding down, the underground gigs seem to be finally picking up. We still aren't sure what is going on at Yuyintang, their webpage isn't loading and the message they were sending out on Facebook was vague on when they were planning to re-open. Yesterday we text-messaged them regarding The Gar, who were scheduled to play tonight and YYT confirmed the gig was still on. Shanghaiist plans on showing up tonight, but with......

OMG was our first reaction when we saw this recreation of the Olympic Village in Beijing — yes, the Bird's Nest, Water Cube, the media tower and all — which took world record cardstacker Bryan Berg several days to build (in a Hong Kong shopping mall), 140,000 cards and NO super glue! We've seen the real Olympic Village, but this is awesome shit. Apparently some of Berg's works can even support up to 108 kg......

We heard that Beijing has made an effort to rid the city of Chinglish in all public places. Finally the public education banners are also in English so the foreigners can get some proper education too! Thanks to QuirkyBeijing for photos and translations.......

For those of you still dwelling on the age of a certain Chinese gymnast, we've got good news for you: Someone is more obsessed about the controversy than you! A blogger has done some internet sleuthing (see here and here) that has some people convinced that He Kexin (何可欣) is all of 14 years old (Olympic rules state that gymnasts must be 16). All the cyber-digging might be in vain, however — we doubt the......

These days it seems Vice magazine is trying its hand at almost everything. Besides the iconic music magazine and record label they do some interesting web documentaries at VBS. Like every other news organization in the world they decided in the spirit of the Olympics to do a month of pieces on Beijing and China. Since their main focus is music they did a bunch of interesting little stories on bands like PK-14, Subs, Demerit,......

A win against Russia Tuesday night put China into the semifinals of the women's indoor volleyball competition. Defending Olympic champion China won the quarterfinal in three sets, 25-22, 27-25, 25-19. China's semifinal pits it against Brazil, undefeated in these Olympics. Brazil's men's team knocked China out in the quarterfinals. The women's match takes place at 8:00 tonight in Beijing. Cuba and the USA play in the other semifinal and the gold medal match takes place......

Well, if you don't have time to watch all of the Olympic games, here's the ultra-short mime version, performed on Japanese television. We especially like the swimming.......

In honor of the Beijing Olympics, Shanghai’s #1 fag hag scoured the city for info on gay sports. Everyone knows a large gay contingent can be found daily at our most popular gyms. However, did you realize Shanghai also hosts gay swimming (we’re sure Michael Phelps or Zhang Lin are welcome), badminton, table tennis, volleyball and even kungfu! Rainbow League is the fantastic association that organizes many of the gay sports clubs in Shanghai (more......

NBC's US$1 billion deal to become America's official Olympic media for the Beijing 2008 Games was part of a record breaking $2.3 billion deal that included the the 2004 Summer Olympics ($793m) and the 2006 Winter Games ($613m). In what they've called the single most ambitious media project in history, NBC has sent the largest media contingent of about 3,000 to produce a whopping 3,600 hours of coverage. While we were in Beijing last week,......