They are the final plans subject to construction in the end of this year. As for Beijing over Shanghai, it's the Chinese officials' decision to only submit Beijing as a candidate. Beijing doesn't have less money to spend than Shanghai and is more suitable to represent China as the capital of it. Shanghai is only one of the economic centers of China but Beijing is the cultural, political and economic center. Shanghai will have its turn.
oh man, those archetecture designs are amazing!!!!!!!!!! where is the basketball court? hopefully, the building really does look like that after the construction is done, a lot of times, the money used for construction are eaten by corrupted government agent or some nasty individual and only half of the money are actually used for construction. as the result, the structures are poorly constructed. by the way, do you think China will actually benefit from host 2008 Olympic? they will lose money from economy stand of points, those construction requires a lot of $$$$ and mostly are contributed on the cost of other cities in China. but I think people areound the world would know more about China, so from a political points, China is the benefitial. China is still an unknow to most part of the world, and it still a mystical country, when I talked to my friend, who is a chinese but rised in US and never had a chance to go back to China, he told me the reason he doesn't want to go visit China is he thought there is no car, building, and hot water! people still ride cows to work! can you believe that!! Yao Ming is just the door that opened up a lot of chinese culture and history to world!
It's said that the Beijing government is gonna spend about 20 billion dollars furnishing the city with facilities etc. I guess it's hard to earn 20 billion dollars back from the Olympics only. The infrastructures built, however, can be put into long term use. Like the swimming stadium above, it's said to be adapted into a public swimming pool for civil recreation after the events. The attraction of the Olympics will let more people know about China and come to China. More tourists, more money! Generally though I agree with you, it'll be a PR winner rather than a commercial one. I see where you come from with concerns on corruption. Corruption is a problem in China. What you decribed happened before. I don't expect to see poor constructed structures because even there is corruption involved, the structures will be fine themselves. Saving materials and cutting down work to lower cost isn't the best way to make underground money, charging on hefty price tag through bribing key officials is. So even if there is corruption involved, the structures will be fine, only more expensive.
Yeah. In our country, there are much corruption even in 2008 Olympic. We all hate corruption. From 90s to now, there are many corrupt officials have been put to death, furthermore, our policymakers have begun a reform of form of government, which refer to American system.
In fact, In our a few of poor countryside, people actual ride water buffalos. Because we are still a poor country. Our GDP is more a little than America's 1/10. Our population is 1.3 billion. But our products are cheaper than America's, So our livelihood quality's spatial difference with yours is not too terribling. However, I cling to the faith on our motherland must be big and powerful in the future. In the same time, I heartfeltly hope China is a good partner to America for ever. Of course, which need our common work.
