The biggest story of the week regards everyone’s favorite football club, our very own Bejing Guo'an. Not content with appearing in the match that led to Wuhan Guanggu quitting the league entirely, or with inflaming Shangai Shenhua fans so much that they torched a Guoan mascot, last week Beijing’s finest excelled even themselves. How? By getting involved in what has variously been described as a “brawl” and “handbag waving” the majority deciding that the fracas was toward the tote-carrying end of the violence spectrum. That’s right, a wee bit of pushing and shoving with Tianjin Teda was all it took for domestic television’s powers-that-be to decide that there will be no more Chinese Super League broadcasts.

Remember those smiley faces and the controversial footprint fireworks that appeared as part of Cai Guoqiang's impressive pyrotechnic display at the opening of the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games? Well, this Spring Festival Beijing residents will have the chance to let off a few of their own. According to reports in today's Beijing News, not only will pyromaniacs across the city be able to let off Smiley Faces and Footprints to their hearts content, but they'll also be able to set off all the car alarms in the xiaoqu with the Blossoming Flower. Kids on the other hand are encouraged to play with a Kungfu Panda-inspired rocket. The fireworks will be available at 200 outlets around town in the lead-up to Spring Festival. Though those sold as part of the Bird’s Nest series will not as big as the ones used in the opening ceremony - they've been scaled down for use by individuals.

The Water Cube gets it's first post Olympic scrub down.

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The Star Daily： 奥林匹克公园要建成5A级景点

As part of our ongoing series of blogs looking at the future of Beijing's Olympic venues (we took a look at what was going on over at the Water Cube last week) we now turn to the goings on over at the Bird's Nest.

After about a week spent recovering from the onslaught of tourists that packed the venue over the National Day holiday, the Bird’s Nest opened to the ticket-buying public again in mid-Oct. This time things were a little easier as the Olympic Subway line and the surrounding Olympic Park area had now become public space and no tickets or special passes were required to enter the area, security had also been relaxed. Tickets can now be bought at the gate or at the north gate of the Workers’ Stadium for RMB 50. As with tickets to the Water Cube there is a hot trade in scalped tickets and people are paying up to twice the official price of the tickets.

The speed with which the city has transformed some of the better-known stadiums into multi-purpose venues open to the ticket-buying public and often also available for hire, has been impressive. Indeed, their ability to draw on the status of the National Stadium (Bird’s Nest), National Aquatics Center (Water Cube), the National Indoor Stadium (the other one) and the Olympic Green area that connects the three, and mold them into a money-earning tourist site over the recent October holidays should offer lessons to future Olympic cities. This year’s Golden Week holidays saw the number of tourists visiting Beijing jump by more than 30% and the Olympic venues were the star attractions. Over the seven-day holiday, the Olympic center received 2.42 million visitors, which accounted for over .25% of the total number of visits to all of Beijing’s 21 most popular tourist sites Numbers peaked on Oct 2 when 527,000 people visited the Olympic Center. The Forbidden City only received 625,000 visitors over the whole seven-day period. But after this final flurry of Olympic-inspired attention from the public, what does the medium to long-term future of the Olympic venues look like?

Olympic sporting venues located inside the National Olympic Sports Center, just south of the Bird's Nest, are now open to the public - and we're not just talking about tourists poking their noses around. According to a report in Sunday's Beijing News, as part of a plan to put the Olympic venues to good use, the National Olympics Sports Center Stadium, National Olympics Sports Center Gymnasium, the Yingdong Natatorium of National Olympic Sports Center, National Olympic Sports Center Hockey Pitch, National Olympic Sports Center Comprehensive Training Gymnasium, National Olympic Sports Center Handball Training Gymnasium and National Olympic Sports Center Football Training Pitch are now all available for hire. The National Olympics Sports Center is not a new venue, but it under went renovation from 2005 to 2007 in preparation to host the Olympic Handball, Water Polo and Modern Pentathlon events.



After this morning's marathon, the Paralympics will wind up tonight with a grand closing ceremony that will see fireworks exploding above the Bird's Nest once again. Before it's all over and the city begins to emerge from the "Olympic period" - all the cars will be back on the road on Sunday - we though it timely to reprint Luke T. Johnson's article about the athletes competing in this year's games and the impact the Beijing Paralympics will have on the city and its people. The article first appeared in the September issue of Urbane.

Before the accident, Sgt. Steve Daniel was like most people – he knew next to nothing about people with disabilities. He had never heard of the Paralympics.

Goalball is an internationally-recognized Paralympic sport for the visually impaired, invented immediately after WWII to rehabilitate blind veterans, first incorporated into the Paralympics at Toronto 1976, and loads of fun!

Using a ball about the size of a basketball with bells embedded in it, teams of three players attempt to roll the ball into the opponent’s goal. The court is inside, about the size of a volleyball court, with the goal as wide as the court. See a YouTube video of a game here. The game is fast-moving, played in two ten-minute halves, and requires complete silence from all spectators.

As players may have varying levels of visual impairment, all players wear shades to block out light and ensure an even playing field (they look like blacked-out ski goggles with padding).

This article first appeared in the September issue of beijingkids

Boccia world champion Paul Gauthier, who hails from British Columbia, Canada, is gearing up for his fourth Paralympics this September. The event will be a family affair, with his wife Sarah supporting him on the field as his sport assistant and his foster son Derek cheering as Paul competes in the individual and pairs divisions.

Four years ago, Gauthier, who also grew up in foster care, decided to adopt 11-year-old Derek as part of their family. Derek came to Gauthier completely mute as the result of an anxiety disorder. But now, at 15, Derek is able to write and communicate verbally, thanks to hard work and dedication from Gauthier and his wife Sarah.

beijingkids had a chance to talk to Gauthier about how setbacks can lead to determination, perseverance and stronger relationships.

The American Renaud brothers are known for their hard-hitting cinema verite documentary films, which have ranged on topics from college football rivalries to US soldiers in Iraq. It was there that the two witnessed severe injuries firsthand, and learned of the sporting program that turns wounded veterans into Paralympic athletes. Their current project, Warrior Champions: From Baghdad to Beijing, follows former soldiers as they train for the 2008 Paralympic Games.  Brent Renaud spoke to Alex Pasternack from New York, just before leaving for Okinawa to join the US Team in training. The brothers are producing web videos for the US Paralympic team while they are in Beijing, you can view the videos here. Melissa Stockwell failed to qualify for the 100m Freestyle and Butterfly earlier this week, she'll be competing in the 400m Freestyle on Friday morning.

This interview first appeared In the September issue of Urbane.

Alex Pasternack: How did this film come about?

Brent Renaud: There’s a scene in our film Off to War shortly after we get to Baghdad when a mortar hits the base where I’m staying with the soldiers. A number of them were killed, a number of them were injured; one of the soldiers I was with that day ended up losing his arm and having problems with one of this legs. When he returned to the States he started getting involved with these sports programs for injured veterans. They say if you or I get injured or lose a leg, we’d need to train full time for six or seven years and then we might be able to reach that level. But some of these soldiers have done it in less than year. It’s a pretty remarkable story.