Beijing Olympics 2008 - ready or not?

"Less than a decade ago, this city was an industrial wasteland. The sky could be seen from Beijing's ancient monuments less than a third of the year. Nearby lakes were so contaminated that they couldn't be used to water crops. And children were warned not to play outside in the noxious air.

So when China applied to host the 2008 Olympics, it encountered deep skepticism about its ability to pull off the feat in one of the world's most populous and polluted cities. There was real concern about athletes choking on chemical-laden air as they ran the 100-meter dash.

Seven years and $40 billion later, the Chinese have had remarkable success on many fronts. Practically every construction project is running ahead of schedule. The Chinese can brag of heroic feats of logistics and engineering: the "bird's nest" latticework of the 91,000-seat Olympic Stadium, the shimmering blue skin of the Water Cube aquatics center, a 70-mile high-speed railway, four new subway lines, an energy-efficient airport terminal."

It looks like something akin to heaven and earth is being moved in Beijing to be ready for the Olympics, now only one year away. The fall-out of all of what Beijing is, and will have, wrought remains to be seen. Pollution seems to be #1 issue despite all attempts to curb it. Read the full piece here, from the Washington Post, of an insight into what's happening in Beijing.

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