I have to admit to a certain satisfaction in seeing the “Georgian” pair playing beach volleyball receive a comprehensive whupping from a U.S. team this morning. That’s not because the U.S. won–no one who knows me would accuse me of being overly nationalistic; many others sins perhaps but not that one–but because these two distinctly …

When a Chinese team plays at the Beijing Olympics, the volume of crowd support can be impressive. And when two Chinese teams play each other? It was far short of deafening this morning when the team of Tian Jia and Wang Jie met Xue Chen and Zhang Xi in the …

After a busy week, even eight-time gold medalists like Michael Phelps need to blow off some steam. Here he is at Beijing’s hottest club, China Doll, posing with Ying Shea, one of the club’s owners. Nice shirt, Michael.

KAZUHIRO NOGI / AFP / GETTY IMAGES

The excellent China Media Project based in Hong Kong University has put up an post examining the contradictory reporting in the Chinese press of the age of China’s “secret weapon” and multiple medal winner He Kexin. It cites a bunch of stories last year referring to her as a 13 year old (here’s our …

You really have to feel for poor Liu Xiang, the world champion Chinese hurdler who more than anyone—more than Yao Ming or diver Guo Jingjing—was the face of these games for the host country. To those of you who haven’t been living here for the past couple of years, it’s hard to describe how omnipresent this guy was in the …

From Lin Yang, a look at how Beijing police are cracking down on Olympic ticket scalpers, and their instructions to her as a journalist on the scene:

Beijing police have launched an “iron fist crackdown” on Olympic ticket scalpers, the state-run Xinhua News Service reported. On the 15th alone, police arrested 110 “scalpers and

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A visibly pained Liu Xiang pulled out of his first heat in the 110m hurdles today due to an injury. The star runner, who won the event in Athens four years ago to become China’s first men’s track gold medalist, had been under great pressure to defend his title in Beijing. Liu, whose face is ubiquitous on billboards in China, had been …

From my colleague Lin Yang on Friday’s baseball game between China and Taiwan, which is playing under the name Chinese Taipei:

Friday was a day of wonder. It had been a while since i last saw a sky so blue, and the Chinese men’s baseball team, in its Olympic debut, beat Chinese Taipei in 12 innings.

Unlike Taiwan, Japan and Korea,

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Without a doubt this is a new must-see on a tour of the capital. It’s a rooftop bar at the boutique Emperor Hotel that opened a few months ago just outside the east gate of the Forbidden City, a stone’s throw from the moat. On a good evening (and even on a not so good one) the view at sunset is absolutely spectacular, the sun …

For all the Gold Chinese athletes have won so far in these games, yesterday had to hurt. First, in women’s gymnastics (or should that be, in China’s case, children’s gymnastics…?) the United States won Gold (Nastia Liukin) and Silver (Shawn Johnson) in the all around, making up for their humiliating loss in the team competition …

It turns out the Spanish Olympic basketball team isn’t the only athletic team from Spain to be photographed making a racially charged slant-eyed gesture. Today the Telegraph reports on this picture of Spain’s Tennis Federation Cup women’s team members and …

It rained. The wind blew. Skies cleared. Glorious summer day in Beijing. Now if only …….