BEIJING marks the 100-day countdown to the Olympic Games today with songs and even prayers, hoping to put behind it the tumultuous events of the past month which have taken much gloss off its preparations.
Unlike the run-ups to previous Olympics, Beijing's preparations for August have kept to plan, and some stadiums and infrastructure have even been completed ahead of schedule. All is now ready to go.
In all, the city has spent some £17.5 billion o
n improved infrastructure, including a new airport terminal and subway lines, as well as £1.05 billion to cover the cost of running the Games.
But the smooth preparations have been overshadowed by the torch relay's troubled journey, with protesters targeting China's human rights record, in particular its policy on Tibet.
One of the highlights of today's events will be a run around the Olympic Green by 10,000 Beijing residents, part of China's promise to make the Games a "People's Olympics".
There will also be songs celebrating the Games, and in officially atheist China, Catholic churches will hold masses to pray "for a successful Games".
Beijing will be desperate to prevent a repeat of the one-year countdown mark, when Free Tibet activists scaled the Great Wall, smog smothered the capital and torrential rain brought parts of the city to a standstill.
Security in Beijing has been noticeably stepped up in recent weeks following anti-Chinese protests in Tibet and during the torch relay, and China's claim that it has broken up terrorist plots to attack the Games.
Beijing's promise to ensure complete media freedom has also been called into question, especially following Chinese criticism of foreign reporters for perceived bias in their coverage of the protests in Tibet in March. The BBC and CNN were particular targets.
"If allowed to continue, the reporting interference and hate campaigns targeting international media may poison the pre-Games atmosphere for foreign journalists," said Melinda Liu, the president of the Foreign Correspondents Club of China.
China has also lashed out at human rights groups and some European and US politicians who have, in China's words, tried to politicise the Games, and raised the prospect of an Olympic boycott in light of the crackdown on protests in Tibet.
Earlier this week, 100 Chinese athletes and 2,000 Olympic volunteers made a public pledge to keep the event "pure" and uncorrupted by politics.
"We hope that the Olympics puts politics aside and returns to the true characteristics of sport," the gold medal gymnast Li Ning was quoted as saying.
THE TORCHDISRUPTION of the Olympic torch relay, especially in London, Paris and San Francisco, and criticism of China's human rights policy in Tibet and elsewhere have angered many Chinese, who have dug in their heels.
Those in the West, with little knowledge of Tibet or Chinese history, have decided China is plain wrong. But many in China, proud of efforts to bring prosperity to Tibet and end centuries of serfdom, have decided that western media are biased and, in some cases, malicious.
On Tuesday, the overseas edition of the People's Daily, a Communist Party mouthpiece, rounded on western media, saying that only Chinese people could properly understand the situation.
"We are closer to the facts and we say that Chinese media's reporting is more objective than the western media," the newspaper said in a front page commentary.
Comments by the CNN presenter Jack Cafferty referring to Chinese as "goons and thugs" added insult to injury, triggering protests across the world, including the launch of an anti-CNN.com website.
"We want to let our voices be heard," the official Xinhua news agency quoted Wu Peng, who works for a financial firm in Atlanta, as saying at an anti-CNN protest. "We Chinese people are standing up to oppose anyone who wants to slander China with such racial remarks."
INTERNAL DISSENT A FEW weeks ago in Beijing, the International Olympic Committee president, Jacques Rogge, said that outwith venues "there is absolutely no problem for an athlete to express his or her views".
He spoke just days after a dissident called Hu Jia was sent to prison for inciting "to subvert state power". The charges were not linked to the Olympics, but he had been critical of the Games and published an essay called The Real China and the Olympics.
It may well be that foreign athletes can express their views, but it's a different story for the Chinese.
Yesterday, Human Rights Watch released a report detailing the pressure Chinese lawyers come under.
The report said a group of lawyers who offered to defend Tibetans involved in riots that rocked Tibet's capital Lhasa last month were warned that doing so would jeopardise the renewal of their licences.
POLLUTIONWHEN the western media were allowed into China's showcase "Bird's Nest" stadium in Beijing earlier this month, many praised its breathtaking design and sense of scale.
They also observed that the giant structure could scarcely be seen from half a mile away because of the smog.
Bad air quality in Beijing is a risk to the health of competitors in endurance events like the marathon, the International Olympic Committee has said. Jacques Rogge, the IOC chief, has said some endurance races could be postponed due to pollution.
China says it has spent about £10 billion in the past decade cleaning up Beijing's air.
China had pledged that by 2008, measurements of carbon monoxide, nitrogen dioxide and sulphur dioxide would meet World Health Organisation standards. But the IOC said last month that Beijing had so far met only WHO's 2005 guidelines.
TALLEST TASKCHINA has yet to deal with one of its trickiest Olympic stunts – taking the torch up Mount Everest.
Separate from the round-the-world relay, the Everest route would be tough enough without the threat of disruption from protestors.
All that was heard by journalists at Base Camp yesterday was the official mantra – "the torch will go up Mount Qomolangma (Everest) on a day in May when the weather conditions are most suitable".
Off the record, several of the large band of minders and interpreters accompanying the media admitted that there was an official silence because of security concerns.
A Japanese journalist who attempted to walk towards Base Camp proper yesterday afternoon was turned back by an armed security official.
No other expeditions have been allowed on the northern, Tibetan, side until the torch has reached the top of Everest. Climbers on the southern, Nepali, side have had most of their communication equipment removed and will not be able to go for the summit until mid-May, say various climbing websites.
