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No stunt is too bizarre to promote bid
SHANGHAI, China (AP) -- The 1-year-olds on roller skates have no idea that they're part of Beijing's bid for the 2008 Olympics. But the women who wove a mile-long pigtail of their own hair eagerly did their part. So did the motorcyclist who rode from Tibet carrying banners signed by thousands of people. It's open season on stunts meant to draw attention to an Olympic bid that the state media have exalted as China's national mission. Officially, China is gaga for the Games, though it's impossible to know how many share the zeal of the people who dreamed up these antics. Slogans on highway signs in the southeastern province of Zhejiang cheer on the bid. In the city of Chengdu in the southwest, thousands gathered for a pop concert where singers promoted the Olympics. Official opinion polls claim more than 90 percent of China's 1.3 billion people back the bid. Bid organizers hope such displays will sway the International Olympic Committee when it votes Friday in Moscow. But in Shanghai, China's business capital and rival to Beijing as its most important city, interest is tepid at best. "What's this Olympic bid going to cost? China can't even afford schools," groused a newspaper vendor surnamed Zhang. Beijing has said that if it gets the Games, it will spend more than $20 billion to widen roads, clean up its smoggy skies and build stadiums and an Olympic village. Many seem to have embraced the bid as a matter of national pride -- especially those who have done something risky or bizarre to promote it. Most say they had no official encouragement or support. He Guangming said he paid his own expenses as he rode by motorcycle to Beijing from his home in the Tibetan capital of Lhasa. After his 3,500-mile (5631-kilometer) -long ride ended in Beijing on June 1, his first stop was the office of the bid committee. With the outlines of goggles visible on his dirt-streaked face, He presented officials with three 150-foot (45-meter) -long white banners, each signed by 10,000 people in Lhasa. The 27-year-old cosmetics factory worker said being picked for the Olympics would recognize China's rising place in the world. "This is about Beijing, but it's also about how the world views China," He said. Guo Jinzhong, a spokesman for the bid committee, said it has received thousands of similar banners in the past year. Its offices are overflowing with painted scrolls, custom-made vases and folded-paper cranes in the shape of Beijing's Olympic logo. "People come in every day with more gifts," Guo said. One of the oddest was from Guangdong province in the south. More than 1,000 women and girls used their own hair to braid a pigtail 2,008 yards (1827 meters) long. In the northern port of Tianjin, 40 babies have been taught to give roller-skating exhibitions, Guo said. Chen Daming walked to Beijing to show his support for the bid -- 1,000 miles (1,609 kilometers) from his home in the rural southern province of Guizhou. The trek took the 51-year-old factory worker three months. "Endurance is needed to win the Games," Chen said. And there's more to come. The bid committee has promised to make the summit of Mount Everest a stop for the Olympic torch if it makes the journey from Greece to Beijing.
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