1.     The Beijing National Stadium also known as the “Birds Nest” was built explicitly for the 2008 Olympics. The Opening and closing ceremonies were held in the stadium, which has the capacity to house an audience 91,000. Herzog & de Meuron; a Swiss architecture firm came up with the design for this $423 million dollar stadium.

2.     The Beijing National Aquatic Center most commonly referred to as the “Water Cube” was used for all of the swimming, diving and other water sports events of the Beijing Olympics. This magnificent structure was conceived by one Australian firm, and two Chinese firms working diligently together and it cost them 940 million Yuan to bring this concept to life.

3.     The Ling Long Pagoda was the center for international broadcasting for the Olympic games. It stands 128 meters tall and has seven floors that France, Great Britain, The United States, and several other nations used to relay major news back to their citizens during the games.

4.     The Olympic Village that is used to house all of the athletes during their time at the games consists of a total of 42 buildings, 20 of these buildings are 9 stories tall and the remaining 22 buildings are 6 stories tall.

5.     Okay here is a fun fact that is only related to the Beijing Olympic Park just enough that I can get away with using it. The number 8 is associated with prosperity in Chinese culture, and the opening ceremony was held on August 8^th, 2008 at 8:00PM. So is this a coincidence or just the Chinese being superstitious; that I do not know.

6.     There were five mascots for the Beijing Olympics Beibei the Fish, Jingjing the Panda, Huanhaun the Olympic Flame, Yingying the Tibetan Antelope, and Nini the Swallow. They were designed to represent different elements of nature as     well as the five Olympic rings.

    7.     The Water Cube underwent a $20 million renovation after the Olympics and was turned into a rather extravagant water park. It looks as if someone took the water park from six flags ran the lazy river from water country through it and added some transparent coloring to it.

8.     The kayaking course, rowing course, and beach volleyball courts have all been left just sitting in the elements unused and slowly deteriorating. Often buildings and stadiums built for the Olympics are repurposed or sold off after the games; however in Beijing many have just been left sitting there, and are not used very frequently. http://www.businessweek.com/videos/2012-07-27/then-and-now-the-ghost-of-beijings-olympic-glory

9.     China won the most gold medals I the 2008 Olympics, winning 51 in total followed by the United States with 36 and Russia with 23 gold medals. In total medals the United States finished first with 110 medals followed by China with 100 and Russia with73 medals.

10. China saw their hosting of the 2008 Summer Olympics as a way of saying hey look at us we are a developed country with a strong economy and it is very clear that they wanted to show off to the world a little bit. They spent nearly half a billion dollars on the Birds Nest a lone not to mention the Water Cube, various other large arenas and course as well as the cost of knocking down the old hutong villages and relocating their residents to essentially renovate the downtown area of Beijing entirely.

Chapter# 8

1. The new apartments that residents of the hutongs were encouraged to move into were not even remotely close to downtown Beijing and were modern high-rises that it seems many people did not really want to move into.

2. The way that the book describes the location of the new apartments reminds me of suburbs in the 50s here in the U.S., however they seem to have the exact opposite appeal. Here people wanted to move out of the city and the hustle and bustle that encompassed it where as the people of Beijing would seemingly much rather stay in the city.

3. Most people moved into suburbs of Beijing because they could no longer afford to pay the rising rent prices in the downtown area of Beijing.

Chapter#9

1.Unlike in the U.S. the Chinese government owns the land so when it came to fighting against the destruction of the hutongs and other buildings there was practically nothing that citizens could do to fight it.

2. The way that the author describes the closing down of business and hutongs makes me think about how I feel like this couldn’t happen in the us and in a way it makes it hard to grasp how little could be done to fight it and how rapidly things were disappearing.

3. I found it interesting that the people referred to the people putting up the symbol for destruction as “the hand” almost as if they were adding an extra element of mystery and power to who was behind the paintings.

Chapter#10

1.I was surprised to here that there were Walmarts in China, let alone that China was so welcoming to Walmart.

2. The fact that the air pollution reached the equivalent of smoking 70 cigarettes a day is kind of a terrifying thought.

3. The promise that dust storms would not happen during the Olympics seemed outrageous to me. I understand that the Chinese government is powerful but I still do not think they can speak for Mother Nature.

Chapter#11

1.Cities like Beijing are constantly growing and being renovated to keep up with the population and economy as they both expand rapidly.

2. The planning of a city often had something to do with its Feng Shui, which I find to be an interesting concept.

3. There was a line about Americans invading and treating the people of China so well that they were begged to stay, I’m not sure if that makes our troops friendly or their government very strict and unforgiving.

Chapter#12

1.There was an expectation that Beijing would grow to its population at a certain rate, but looking back at those predictions now we can see that it has grown far more rapidly than expected.

2. The emphasis on the Olympics in school was tremendous and it almost seems like it was being pushed on students as one of the most important thing that was going to happen in their lifetime.

3. I find it interesting that people who lived in hutongs would raised pigeons while here in the U.S. most people want nothing to do with pigeons.

Chapter#13

1.Feng did an enormous amount of writing to preserve history, and culture, however because he was so frightened of being caught and what would happen he had to hid his writings.

2. It is interesting to me that most city officials came from outside the area that they were put in charge of; possibly in an attempt to keep emotions out of decisions and make it more likely that they would follow any orders they were given.

3. There was a point where he wrote about replacing historical buildings with building s of similar style. He goes on to say that it destroys the history that went along with that specific are and I agree with him, however it is better than replacing the buildings with modern looking ones.

Chapter#14

1.The lack of knowledge about the relocation of people living in hutongs that people who did not live in them have was astounding. They thought that they were being given enough money to go move wherever they wanted to which, as we know was not the case.

2. Natives of Beijing do not necessarily like migrant workers or tourist because they do not quite fit in or speak Chinese in the same dialect or accent; they also see many of the migrant workers as dirty.

3. They also see outsiders as the cause of their problems and blame them for messing up Beijing, I’m not sure if they actually believe this or if it is just a way of blaming their problems on others.

Chapter#15

1.It is interesting just how much the Chinese emphasize their heritage and victories against others in the past, but at the same time it is a very ideological history that children are taught.

2. In redesigning and restructuring the city of Beijing the government is eliminating so much of the heritage that they appear to be so proud of.

3. Students were very excited to host the Olympics and share their culture while experiencing the cultures of other countries.