Beijing (北京), the capital of China and the venue for the 2008 Summer Olympic Games, reminds me of a Chinese song every time. Not an Olympic song about Beijing but is an old song (I heard it during my high school days) called 北京一夜 (One Night in Beijing) by Chen Sheng （陈升）and Liu Jia Hui （刘佳慧）.

Here’s the very original version of “One Night in Beijing”

Of course, such a great song is sung and converted into many versions by many singers such as…

The Heavenly Queens & King, Faye Wong (王菲), Na Ying (那英) and Jeff Chang (张信哲).

The rock version by Taiwanese band, Shin (信乐团).

Last but not least, my personal favourite by Aya Matsuura (松浦 亜弥), a Hello! Project member (former Morning Musume).

Adidas and Jet Li (李连杰) have collaborated to develop a fitness course called “Wu Ji” (无极). This course will be introduced to nationwide gyms next year and the aim is to get city dwellers to move their butts and achieve physical and mental nirvana after the Beijing Olympics. Of course, Adidas will also debut a new “Wu Ji” product line to satisfy fans.

Via Shanghai Daily

Coca-Cola has a Beijing Olympic theme song called 红遍全球 (can be translated to “Become Famous All Over the World”) and is performed by Taiwanese popular female group - S.H.E (Selina, Hebe, Ella), Wilber Pan (潘玮柏, Pan Wei Bo) and Hong Kong singing legend, Jacky Cheung (张学友, Zhang Xue You).

This is rather a catchy tune with the Bird Nest being highlighted a few times and an easy-to-do action and cheering sequence.

The 20th leg of the Beijing Olympic Games torch relay has kicked off in Hong Kong or Hong Kong SAR (Hong Kong Special Administrative Region) at 10.28am local time on 2nd May, Friday.

Lee Lai-shan, Hong Kong’s first ever Olympic gold medalist, was the first runner. She was followed by Olympic table tennis stars Li Ching and Ko Lai-chak and Hong Kong heartthrob Andy Lau.

I’m looking forward to Andy Lau running with the sacred flame.

Via Xinhua

Kai Pan blogs on CNReviews about the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games Promotional Concert Tour at Shanghai Stadium.

The 80,000-seat Shanghai Stadium played host to the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games Promotional Concert Tour last Saturday, replete with (mostly) minor celebrities providing wholesome entertainment to get everyone’s patriotic juices flowing. Hometown Shanghai Olympic athletes, Sun Wen (women’s soccer football) and Le Jingyi (women’s swimming) both made appearances, but commercial darlings Liu Xiang (110 metre hurdles world-record holder) and Yao Ming (really tall Chinese guy on the NBA’s Houston Rockets) were notably absent. Despite the hosts repeatedly emphasizing “80,000 seats” to the cameras, at least 75,000 members of the audience were also absent!

A great liveblog-style review, I especially like the description of Yao as the “really tall Chinese guy on the NBA’s Houston Rockets” but the concert itself sounds a bit disappointing, with all the empty seats! We know why Yao Ming couldn’t make it, he’s probably home icing his foot and hoping he’ll be well enough to play in August. Check out the whole post here.

Via CNReviews

As Beijing and China are making the Beijing 2008 as a platform to introduce China to people from all over the world, social etiquette in China must be observed and enforced during the Olympics period. As an effort to remind the citizens of China to behave in a socially acceptable way, the government has came up with public service commercials that show the right way to behave in public. In this Olympic etiquette commercial, Chinese handsome actor, Huang Xiao Ming (黄晓明), aids a very pretty lady to carry her shopping bags, hail a taxi and play with her…(just see the commercial and you’ll find out).

China’s pride, Liu Xiang, and Taiwan’s pop singer, also Lust, Caution actor, Wong Lee Hom (王力宏), teamed up in an Olympic Coca-Cola commercial.

Maggie Cheung got a taste of village’s life when she was with a team of celebrities and sportsmen, including Olympic badminton gold medalist, Gu Jun, that participated in an Olympic-related charity event on 11th October. She became an art teacher for a village’s school on that day and visited a student’s home.

She’s still so beautiful.

Via Sohu

The soccer legend, David Beckham, has to sing in Chinese in a music video (MV) that is meant for the Beijing Olympics. The celebs to star in the video are Jay Chou and Lin Chiling, a Taiwanese top model. Shanghai EE Media Co Ltd, the company behind this glam activity, has spent millions of yuan to gather such star powers. However, nothing is heard about how much Beckham is getting.

Beckham is expected to sing some of the lyrics in Chinese, Lu said. But the length of his Chinese singing depends on how quickly he can pick up the language, the report said.

I wanna Victoria to sing Chinese.

Via