Good article Littletia.I live and work in the mining industry...

Good article Littletia.

I live and work in the mining industry here in China.

Quite difficult to explain and understand the efforts the Chinese have gone to in presenting the Beijing Olympics. I was at the Birdsnest last Monday night and toured Beijing around Beijing the next day. It was a different city to the one I had known only 2 months before. I could actually see the blue sky!!

The Chinese have not only put the kybosh on excessive coal-fired/powered stations during and prior to the Olympics (many wholely owned Chinese mines...all coal mines to my knowledge), but have also just shut down numerous cement factories and god knows how many other industries small and large. Many major haul roads and highways have been pruely banned for trucks and heavy transport and regional city after city has had internet cafes shut down for over a month now just to provide sufficient bandwitdh (I belive) for the Olympics broadcasting etc.

On a development and regional note, in the Hebei Province where I live and work, all the rural cities are a picture of modernisation. Cranes and construction are continuous as the local governments have just mandated that 'old buildings and single story buildings have to go'. So forget about the 1000's of new sattellite cities, there is plenty going on in the 1000's and 1000's of existing rural cities as well.

I am a firm believer that we will not see what the Beijing Olympics has truly done for China and the world until after it closing ceremony and the athletes have gone home and all can return to normal in Beijing and China.....because the China of the recent weeks and months has been strictly 'governed' and held back.

Soon time for China to start consuming unashamedly again.

Cheers.

K-Man