China relishes Olympics legacy

At a press conference held Friday, Liu Qi, director of the Beijing Olympics organizing committee, praised the role of volunteers in making the Games a resounding success. He said the focus on sustainability in preparing the city would continue to shape its development. "Let the Olympic spirit stay in Beijing forever," he said.

Chinese athletes won 51 gold medals in 2008, beating the United States into second place, though Americans won more medals overall. Chinese officials say more people now exercise regularly as a result of the Games. But grass-roots sports such as soccer continue to struggle, as resources go to prepare more Olympics hopefuls in elite sports like rowing.

Event still evokes national pride

Like many host cities, Beijing faces the challenge of putting Olympics venues to good use. Several are due to be knocked down and rebuilt, while an artificial beach for volleyball has been reopened for public use.

The 91,000-capacity National Stadium has staged a handful of concerts over the past year and hosted an Italian soccer match on Saturday. Most days, it sees a steady flow of tourists who pay $7 to stroll around the track and shop for official souvenirs that include a palm-sized square of grass from the field – yours for $15.

For the family of Zhou Shibo, a fifth-grader, the stadium was the first stop on a city tour. He said holding the Olympics had enabled China to develop faster. "I'm very proud that this stadium was built by Chinese people," he says.

Other tourists offered similar praise, echoing the relentlessly upbeat tone in China's tightly controlled media. Many said the Olympics had allowed the world to see a new China and that foreigners had come away impressed.

Only Zhang Jianhua, an entrepreneur from the port city of Dalian, appeared nonplussed, as he gazed around the vast stadium where two giant screens showed highlights from the Games. "As a Chinese citizen, I feel a little uncomfortable. It was a good Olympics. But we spent too much money," he says.

For press freedom, mixed results

In the run-up to the Games, under pressure from Olympics officials, China eased its rules on the movements of foreign media. It has since extended these freedoms, though foreign reporters continue to face intimidation and are barred from travelling freely to Tibet and, since the recent violence, Xinjiang.

"The Olympics is a case study of enormous lost opportunities, especially in talking to people here in China about the outside world. It was a one-way conversation," says Mr. Moses.

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