Sad thing is they had many years to build their facilities.
I was in Beijing about 2 month before the Olympics and I could tell the people there were very proud that their country is hosting the event. Even the taxi driver that drove me to the hotel was proud of the event. And if you sense it at the taxi driver level then it must be everywhere.
I read a news article about the event organizers and apparently Beijing just signed the cheque and did not have a lot of input. Initially Beijing (Gov) wanted some stalinist type military parade but that was quickly shot down.
I was in Beijing about 2 month before the Olympics and I could tell the people there were very proud that their country is hosting the event. Even the taxi driver that drove me to the hotel was proud of the event. And if you sense it at the taxi driver level then it must be everywhere.
I read a news article about the event organizers and apparently Beijing just signed the cheque and did not have a lot of input. Initially Beijing (Gov) wanted some stalinist type military parade but that was quickly shot down.