Perhaps this "going to Beijing for a year to work on my Mandarin" idea has some problems.

[randomness]

Leaving aside the fact that the Chinese internet authorities appear to have banned access to LJ, there's this, from http://jamesfallows.theatlantic.com/archives/2007/07/beijing_olympics_countdown_air.php:


"View to the south, July 26, 8:30am, from apartment building in the Chaoyang Park neighborhood of Beijing. The obscured buildings in the "distance" are perhaps 100 yards away."

Yecch.

Thanks to quezz, who made me think of this problem in a post of her own.

Comments

[bedfull-o-books.livejournal.com]

I think that the US should boycott the Beijing Olympics as being too dangerous for the athletes.

It won't happen though. Ghod forbid we hurt their feelings and damage trade relations.

[st-rev.livejournal.com]

The Chinese government has a weird way of reacting to anything and everything they don't like as if it were a personal and intolerable insult.

It seems like a brilliantly effective tactic, but it really does my head in.