Advance scouting on Beijing Olympics
The world can only hope for a greater proportion of positives at the Olympic Games here this summer. Competition will take place in sparkling architectural marvels. The jarring juxtaposition of ultramodern hotels, lavish restaurants and indoor malls a short taxi ride from centuries-old homes deep in musty avenues called hutongs will astonish visitors. The Great Wall is less than an hour from downtown Beijing. The Forbidden City – a magnificent complex of ancient palaces and courtyards that was the exclusive domain of emperors for nearly 500 years – is as accessible as Disney World. China has suggested it will ban live television shots from Tiananmen Square, the spot where soldiers killed hundreds of pro-democracy students in 1989. The enormous portrait of Mao hanging above the Tiananmen Gate to the Forbidden City could become a background shot and a sound bite, its presence a symbol of the country’s complicated, contradictory past open for mischaracterization. Understandably, officials want to keep the focus on the Games.