It is 6:00pm in China; we are just outside Tiananmen Square.  Throngs of people crowd the street as everyone excitedly awaits the much-anticipated Opening Ceremonies that will start in less than two hours.  Fireworks line the street that lead to the Bird’s Nest Stadium.

Decked out in HBC Team Canada shirts, we anxiously wait for the family members of Canada’s athletes, who will join us at the BC Canada Pavilion to watch the Opening Ceremonies.

There is excitement in the air!

It is the middle of a very busy week as Patrick and I sit across the street from Tiananmen Square, in the BC Canada Pavilion, on the eve of the Beijing 2008 Olympic Opening Ceremonies. Just four days ago, we experienced the culture of another sporting event as we produced the Opening Ceremonies of the North American Indigenous Games in the Cowichan Valley on Vancouver Island. In between, the load in and rehearsals of the Pacific National Exhibition continue. Patrick, Anna and Heather arrived on Wednesday and had a whirlwind day today with meetings at the Pavilion and Russia House while coordinating talent from Canada for our upcoming events in Beijing. Rob Sondergaard, our colleague from Electric Aura, and I arrived today after leaving the PNE and are now in the midst of a technical load in.

This is our fifth trip to Beijing in the last two years and we have seen massive change over that time. The ultra modern buildings continue to pop up, the new airport works well but unfortunately the air quality is still quite noticeable. The city is alive and buzzing today but the traffic is not moving. It took us two hours to travel from our hotel to the BC Canada Pavilion, which is only about 4 kilometers away. We attempted to get a taxi then got stuck in the subway, then took another taxi but ended up walking amongst thousands, as things were not moving.