CHINESE RUSH TO MARK AUSPICIOUS 8/8/08

The opening of the Olympic Games on Friday night, on a date considered auspicious in Chinese tradition, 8/8/08, is sending some Chinese scrambling to the marriage bureau, while others are planning trips to the maternity ward. In an unusual surge, about 16,400 couples registered to get married in Beijing on Friday, the Beijing Evening News reported. The paper reminded newlyweds that they will not be permitted to use special highway lanes set up exclusively for Olympic traffic. Meanwhile, the Chengdu Hospital for Obstetrics and Gynecology in Sichuan Province imposed a firm cap of 15 on the number of scheduled cesarean sections it will perform for couples eager to have their child born on the eighth day of the eighth month of the eighth year. Last year, the simple day-month combination helped produce 53 babies at the hospital, 37 of which were delivered via C-section, according to the Chengdu Evening News. “I couldn’t barely stand after work that day,” the hospital’s director of obstetrics, Cheng Hong, told the paper. “A lot of couples called to ask if it’s possible to have cesarean section at 8 a.m. on the Olympic opening day, hoping to have an Olympic baby,” a nurse, Zhai Jia, said. In Mandarin Chinese, the sound for the number eight sounds much like a word meaning riches or prosperity.

Josh Gerstein in Beijing

BUSH’S PRESS CORPS DETAINED BY CHINESE

A charter airplane carrying the White House press corps was detained for nearly three hours Friday at Beijing’s international airport not long after President Bush arrived to attend the Olympic Games. The flight crew of the Northwest Airlines 747 had been expecting to park at a VIP terminal, but after landing was directed by the control tower to a normal international gate. The flight crew was told the Chinese were insisting that all luggage be inspected. Typically, the White House press charter receives the “custom of the port,” meaning reporters, photographers, and camera crews are able to get off the plane right after landing, board buses, and head to their hotels and work areas while U.S. State Department officials process immigration and customs details.

Associated Press

U.S. PASTOR PROTESTS WITH PAINT

An American pastor checked into upscale hotels in the Olympics host city this week, filmed himself painting two of his rooms with slogans such as “Beijing 2008 Our world Our nightmare,” and then disappeared. Without paying. Eddie Romero’s unusual protest, now making the rounds on YouTube, shows foreigners can still sneak through the tight security measures China imposed to keep potential troublemakers away from the games. The net tightened even more yesterday: A Hong Kong lawmaker said immigration officials deported three America-based Chinese democracy activists after denying them entry to the territory, which is the site of Olympic equestrian events. A second protest by three Americans in Tiananmen Square was stopped by security agents who led them away. Rev. Romero’s friends, meanwhile, said the preacher was in hiding, but planned to surrender to Chinese authorities as soon as the Olympics end.

Associated Press

SARKOZY SENDS CHINA NAMES OF PRISONERS

President Sarkozy of France sent to Chinese authorities yesterday a list of names of human rights activists and prisoners he shows concern for, ahead of his visit for the Olympic Games opening, the Foreign Ministry in Paris said. Mr. Sarkozy sent the letter in the name of the 27-nation European Union, which he currently leads under the bloc’s rotating presidency. At Friday’s Olympics ceremony in Beijing, Mr. Sarkozy will represent the European Union and be accompanied by some of the other 27 member countries’ leaders. He will exchange views with President Hu and Prime Minister Wen in bilateral meetings before the ceremony.

Bloomberg News

DRUGS AGENCY HEAD FEARS 100-METER SCANDAL

The head of world anti-doping has warned that the public could desert athletics in droves if the men’s 100 meters in Beijing is overshadowed by yet another drugs scandal. John Fahey, the president of the World Anti-Doping Agency, said yesterday that the public was right to suspect the integrity of the blue ribbon event of the Olympic Games, which has been mired in controversy since Ben Johnson’s positive test for the anabolic steroid stanazolol in Seoul in 1988. “There is a suspicion out there in the public,” Mr. Fahey said. “They do not have the same confidence that they once had.”