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Posted on 07/19/2008 2:15:20 AM PDT by bad company
Beijing (AsiaNews/Agencies) - For "reasons of safety", bars are forbidden to serve "blacks"" and Mongolians or place tables in the street. Street musicians are being banned, and so is buying medicines containing "stimulants" without a prescription. Prohibitions are on the rise for the Olympic capital, while the first leaks reveal a grandiose fireworks display for the inauguration.
Bar owners around the Workers' Stadium in downtown Beijing say that public security officials are telling them not to let in "blacks" and Mongolians, and many of them have even had to sign a pledge. The official reason is the fight against drugs and prostitution, dominated in the past by Mongolians and persons of colour. Moreover, public places must close by 2 a.m., for security reasons, and the bar owners are being asked to remind their clients that they must always have an identification document with them. There is even doubt over whether the bars within a radius of two kilometres from the Olympic buildings will be able operate, or whether they will have to shut down for the entire period. In some areas, tables are not permitted outside, because "the presence of too many foreigners gathered outside could create problems". There is also an attempt to shut down outdoor musical concerts, to prevent disorder.
Jazz musician David Mitchell says that it is increasingly difficult for his band to find places to play in Beijing "Everything is aimed at creating stability, but they don't understand that is precisely the unfounded prejudice that foreigners have of Chinese society - that it is a highly controlled and not a very cultural place. It seems completely self-defeating".
To guarantee a "clean" Olympics, a doctor's prescription is now required for 1,993 commonly used medicines, or the package must show a warning that the product contains substances believed to be stimulating and not permitted for the athletes. One must go to a hospital to get a prescription, but many of the hospitals ask for as much as 100 yuan for each prescription, causing problems for the elderly and the poor most of all.
Meanwhile, as of July 20 a new regulation will go into effect prohibiting everyday circulation for millions of vehicles, but the three new underground lines are not yet working, and Zhou Zhengyu, deputy director of the Beijing Municipal Committee of Communications, is unable to say when they will be opened.
But the inauguration on August 8 will be very well prepared. The programme is "secret", but it is hard to hide a fireworks display, and those who live near the Bird's Nest stadium and have seen the trial runs say they are impressed. The director Zhang Yimou has been preparing the show for three years with artists from all over the world: there was a general rehearsal on July 10, with hundreds of police standing guard to guarantee secrecy.
So...a news story reported in the foreign press trumps an account told by someone who is actually live and on the scene?
There's no comparison. China is far worse in terms of petty economic crimes. I have no clue about the murder rate, since no one I know has been murdered - on either side of the Pacific. I do know that I am acquainted with ten times more people stateside than in China, and I know many more Chinese who have had stuff ripped off via street robberies or burglaries.
Right. I’m a new guy. But I’m a conservative and I’m here in Beijing. So let’s all be rational, ok?
I agree that China is a repressive state. And I agree that you are free to reject my statements about what I see here as I travel around the city. But I am a Christian and I would swear as to the veracity of what I’ve stated here.
“Your either up early or late??”
Right now it’s about 9:30 PM in Beijing.
CW... Some people here these days just like to insult other posters. Civility around here has been declining over the years, just like the rest of our liberal, media controlled society.
“You really get around! I like lamb a lot. Never had it Mongolian style but it sounds really good. Chinese Muslims also have lots of lamb and mutton soups & dishes”
One of the dishes we had was mutton ribs. Pretty tasty. One thing I could have had less of is yogurt drink. They seem to like it tons up there!
Next week we go to Tengchong, in the far flung regions of Yunnan.
It’s still three weeks until the Olympics start.
There was video of the massacre at tiananmen square? I have never seen any.
Regarding some of the comments about how "no real American would visit China", jeez! Just because some of us have jobs and careers that take us overseas doesn't mean we aren't dyed in the wool conservatives. In fact, the more first hand exposure one has to a fascist regime like China's, the better one can understand where Nazis like Al Gore, Harry Reid, and Nancy Pelosi want to take us.
My next visit to Beijing is in the first week of August and I'll have left before the Olympics start.
I constantly watch my wallet here (and in Shanghai as well). The police did come to our apartment one day to check our status. They were polite but serious.
One thing that I know will be provocative, but I may as well say it. After visiting Shanghai, this thought occured to me: If Ayn Rand woke up one day in the Bund or Pudong, if she could walk around and see the enterprise about her, she’d probably ask something like, “when were the Communists defeated?” Then we could tell her the more complicated story.
And I’m sure you heard the story of about three weeks ago of the 5 Shanghai policemen being murdered by some nut with a knife?
“My next visit to Beijing is in the first week of August and I’ll have left before the Olympics start.”
Hey! Watch for me! I’ll be the middle aged guy with short hair wearing shorts and a t-shirt hanging out on Wangfujing!
In fact, the ChiComs have an enormous establishment in place designed to influence and manipulate global public opinion by posting favorable comments about Red China on blogs and news forums such as this one. That's why you have to be able to recognize a ChiCom troll when you see one since they have a very real and very threatening mission of subjugating U.S. public opinion as part of their ongoing Information War.
New posters (like this one) who suddenly show up spouting eyewitness accounts of supposedly normal, easy going life in Red China should be treated with suspicion.
Here's a new article explaining exactly what the ChiComs are up to.
Yeah...we have to disagree on that, ChiCom mouthpiece. No self-respecting human must go to that wretched, genocidal country. A pox on those who do and further support the ChiComs.
VR - I think BJungNan has returned to the forum under a new guise.
O.K., I’ll watch for it!
Blacks have been thrown under the bus by their masters in the democratic party and by the liberal press for decades now. They just don’t know it. They get used when necessary, and adored when it is convenient for power and votes.
Hey, did you check that article in my #76? The new estimates for the overall number of ChiComs internet operatives is 280,000!
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