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Our man at the Beijing Olympics - 4/8/08

Matthew Davis
4/ 8/2008

ARRIVING into Beijing this morning was a daunting if not unnerving experience.

This was mainly due to the fact that looking out of the aircraft window, all I could see was smog, smog and more smog - how the pilot could see where he was going I will never know.

The smog is here and you can't see much further than a few hundred metres, it's not hazy, it's crazy!

The Olympics have taken over the city, stepping off the plane into the impressive new City Airport you are greeted by smiling faces and what I am coming to understand as "Chinese Efficiency."

Everyone wants to help you, everyone has a job, everyone has a list - no stone is left unturned..

If you want something doing, about five smiley faces will be more than happy to do it - there are so many volunteers working here I am left wondering who out of Beijing's 19 million residents is not working for the Games.

Walking into the arrivals hall I was welcomed by the world's media - there must have been over 200 camera crews, photographers and journalists eager to get a glimpse of any athelete that comes through the doors.

I knew I had arrived at the Olympics and the world was watching.

The Chinese have gone into Olympic overdrive, every road is lined with flags, every flowerbed is pristine, there is no litter, policemen are everywhere and the 'poorer' areas seem to be hidden away behind thick greenery.

It is hot, the heat does hit you and take some getting used to, but as you step from air-conditioned bus to air-conditioned hotel you hardly notice.

This afternoon I headed to the Media Press Centre (MPC) and got my first if not hazy glimpse of the famed Birdsnest Stadium.

The MPC is another world, a labyrnth would perhaps be a better name for it.

There is a McDonalds, a gym, a bank, a post office, shops, souvenirs, restaurants, a swanky hotel, a roof-top terrace bar and even a massage room - oh is that my back playing up as I type? Visit needed I think!

The world's media are being spoilt and I am not complaining.