Let the Games Beijing

All 37 Olympic venues have been declared fully functioning, including 12 new venues such as the iconic Bird's Nest National Stadium and the Water Cube aquatic centre. The entire city appears to have been scrubbed clean, repainted or rebuilt, but there are some surprise omissions in store for visitors to Beijing during the Games. There is no greater icon of Beijing and modern China than Tiananmen Square so it is surprising that when the authorities were deciding how best to showcase "5000 years of culture" and the "new modern China, new Beijing" for the Olympics, they decided to leave out China's National Museum. The museum, intended to be the "supreme hall of culture and art for the Chinese nation", has effectively been demolished from the inside out, with just its northern, western and southern facades remaining so that it... [read full story]