The Beijing Bureau Says Goodbye

Is Jacques Rogge’s IOC Ever Going to Grow A Pair?

China Daily is Your Go-To Source For Soft-Core Olympic Smut

The Olympics are in full-swing and they're in China, so, you know, it should be a rather fascinating world event, if you're into fascinating world events. And we are proud to welcome back our Deadspin Beijing Bureau, our own trio of correspondents living in China and reporting on everything they see, Olympics related and otherwise.

We check a number of Chinese publications and blogs each day from which we steal stories receive inspiration. China Daily is the official English-language publication in China and we usually flip through it each morning over breakfast. It’s a rather conservative rag, as far as they go here, but they’ve let their hair down a bit in their online coverage of the Games. In fact, we’re thinking about applying there after our Deadspin gig is up. We’re not sure who is the online editor of CD right now, but we’re pretty sure we met him at a Theta Ki party at Michigan.

BOCOG Vice President Wang Wei Wants You to Stop Bothering Him

The Olympics are in full-swing and they're in China, so, you know, it should be a rather fascinating world event, if you're into fascinating world events. And we are proud to welcome back our Deadspin Beijing Bureau, our own trio of correspondents living in China and reporting on everything they see, Olympics related and otherwise.

On Saturday and Sunday, the IOC and the Beijing Organizing Committee cancelled their once-daily joint press conference with foreign and local media. This rather flippant decision (relayed to reporters via text message) comes after days of increasingly tense briefings between IOC & BOCOG officials and foreign reporters, who keep on pestering them about protests, human rights, restrictions on journalists, tween gymnasts and China’s general disregard of the promises it made to be awarded the Olympics. During Thursday’s meeting, a series of heated, often sarcastic exchanges left BOCOG Vice President Wang Wei noticeably flustered and defensive.

Of Empty Seats And Merciless Scalpers

The Olympics have begun and they're in China, so, you know, it should be a rather fascinating world event, if you're into fascinating world events. And we are proud to welcome back our Deadspin Beijing Bureau, our own trio of correspondents living in China and reporting on everything they see, Olympics related and otherwise.

In late July, BOCOG proudly announced that all of the 6.8 million tickets for the Beijing Olympics were sold out. Though the Bureau arrived ticketless in Beijing, our scant connections and some random goodwill have gotten us into a few events. At the venues, after we’ve passed by the smiling army of blue and white clad volunteers, metal detectors, and x-ray baggage scanners, we’ve noticed that, once safely in our seats, quite a few others are still available.

A Quick Word On Tomorrow's (Today's, For Us) Opening Ceremony

The Olympics begin tomorrow and they're in China, so, you know, it should be a rather fascinating world event, if you're into fascinating world events. And we are proud to welcome back our Deadspin Beijing Bureau, our own trio of correspondents living in China and reporting on everything they see, Olympics related and otherwise.

The opening ceremony of the 2008 Olympics starts tomorrow morning at 8:08 am (for you guys, that is). It seems undeniable that this moment, rather than any upcoming competition, is the glorious and controversial culmination of more than 7 years of planning and 40 billion dollars worth of infrastructure that has left indelible physical and social changes to the fabric of Beijing.

Infiltrating The USA/Russia Basketball Game For Fun And Profit

The Olympics begin Friday, and they're in China, so, you know, it should be a rather fascinating world event, if you're into fascinating world events. And we are proud to welcome back our Deadspin Beijing Bureau, our own trio of correspondents living in China and reporting on everything they see, Olympics related and otherwise.

The Deadspin Beijing Bureau attended the USA/Russia basketball game on Sunday. They were spectators. They were spies. They were flmmakers. See the fruits of their labor after the jump.

Government Issued Fashion Directives & the Internet Censors Who Love Them

A Word On The Blacks And Mongolians Story...

The Olympics begin in August, and they're in China, so, you know, it should be a rather fascinating world event, if you're into fascinating world events. And we are proud to welcome back our Deadspin Beijing Bureau, our own trio of correspondents living in China and reporting on everything they see, Olympics related and otherwise.

The South China Morning Post caused quite a commotion last week when they published a story citing anonymous bar owners who claimed that they had been instructed by officials to bar Blacks and Mongolians from entering their… bar. In case you missed it, the SCMP came back with a measured response to the public outcry and denials by the Public Security Bureau, this time citing an anonymous police officer. Some of our favorite China blogs (Shanghaiist, Danwei and Beijing Boyce) have been all over this, but we’ll offer you our humble opinion on the matter.

Beyond Beijing: Your 2008 Olympic Co-Hosts

The Olympics begin in August, and they're in China, so, you know, it should be a rather fascinating world event, if you're into fascinating world events. And we are proud to welcome back our Deadspin Beijing Bureau, our own trio of correspondents living in China and reporting on everything they see, Olympics related and otherwise.

Deadspin's Beijing Bureau is manned by three college buddies who "studied" abroad together in Shanghai — one of whom is from Iowa — and now shadily classify themselves as freelance writers. The country has foolishly allowed them to return, and while they work and travel around China during the next year they'll be checking in periodically with dispatches about the Middle Kingdom's utter ridiculousness, hopefully preparing you all for the epic spectacle that will be the Beijing Olympics. When the Games come around they will be there — without tickets and with minimal language skills — ready to document world history for Deadspin. Due to healthy fear of deportation (and an outside chance of imprisonment), the Bureau must remain anonymous. Today, they give us a rundown of Olympic co-host cities...after the jump