From Newsweek:
No task is too complex, no detail too small, for organizers of Beijing’s gala coming-out party, the 2008 Summer Olympics. At first, some Chinese planners hoped to shift the timing of the Games to September 2008, when temperatures are cooler. Beijing in August is hot, steamy and oppressive”a concern to visiting athletes”and most flowers don’t even bloom in the scorching heat.
But September was out of the question; it conflicted with scheduling commitments by NBC, which won broadcast rights to televise the Games in the United States. The Chinese settled on August, the eighth month of the year. “Besides, China likes the number eight,” which many consider a lucky number, says Tu Mingde, a top-level official on Beijing’s organizing committee for the Games. And so it was decided: at precisely 8 p.m., on the eighth day of the eighth month of 2008, Beijing will let the Games begin.
The regime’s gardeners and horticulturists aren’t leaving much to dumb luck, though. Even as Beijing’s three dozen Olympic venues near completion, parks and green spaces also are popping up all over the city. But how do you get flowers to bloom when they don’t normally want to? [Full Text]
