Loading
May 07

Olympic torch enjoying a smooth relay in China

Written by Buxi on Wednesday, May 7th, 2008 at 5:21 pm
Filed under:News | Tags:
Add comments

This article is the positive (and in my opinion, non-political) message most Chinese would like the Olympics to represent. I can only hope that this sentiment wins out.

Crowds in Haikou were friendly to foreigners, showing little of the angry, anti-Western sentiments of recent weeks after protests in London, Paris and San Francisco that some Chinese saw as an attack against China and the Olympics.

“Welcome to China!” university students called out, some sporting face paint and tooting plastic horns as the convoy streamed by.

Others following the torch were celebrating that many in China have left the hard life behind after 30 years of free-market economic reforms.

In a dusty field outside the closing ceremony in Haikou, 64-year-old retiree Ren Anqing stood out from the young crowd in his old-style undershirt, shorts and sandals. “When I was young, I raised cows,” he said, smiling. “These kids? They have everything.”

Ren has a computer now so he can e-mail his son, who’s about to earn a doctorate after studies that included a year in Singapore — all unimaginable when his father was growing up.

“If I was young again in China? Wah!” Ren said, his smile getting wider. “That would be a great thing.”

And here’s a little French/Chinese Fraternité in Guangzhou:

More snapshots from the relay in Guangzhou, after the jump.


There are currently no comments highlighted.

2 Responses to “Olympic torch enjoying a smooth relay in China”

  1. little Alex Says:

    What about the other photos from Tianya:
    http://cache.tianya.cn/publicforum/content/no04/1/699094.shtml

  2. Buxi Says:

    What about them, Alex? China has warts, and plenty of them. Tianya is a great place to go to be reminded of them.

    I hope that these warts will be eliminated with time.

    In the mean time, I will continue to celebrate the tremendous progress that China has already achieved.

Leave a Reply

301 Moved Permanently

Moved Permanently

The document has moved here.