Because I’m supposed to be keeping an eye on the men’s gymnastics team final for lzh who’s at work…. Oh, look, live results.
Oh, and I’m also getting hungry, too. So no translations, just quick summaries of what’s grabbing my interest. And both these articles are from 新京报/The Beijing News.
First up: No kites please. Actually, when I first heard this rumour I thought it was, at best, still more creative reinterpretation of what was really ordered. But this article does state:
以免影响奥运期间航拍直升机的正常飞行。
And no translations because my brain isn’t working. They’re concerned that kites (and balloons and lanterns and other flying things) will interfere with the operations of helicopters filming the Olympics. Safety issue, in other words, and that makes sense. Reminds me of when we lived in Tongzhou at the southern end of the flight path into Beijing airport. Some of those planes came in so low I was waiting for the bang, and some of those kites were flying so high I wondered just how many met an untimely end in a jet engine.
But there are a couple of bits that have me wondering:
航空俱乐部、协会等，必须坚决停止一些飞行活动；小型航空器生产销售单位要严格落实登记制度，对购买人的基本情况、购买数量及时登记备案。
and:
一旦发现空中有可疑飞行物或发现有人操纵小型航空器准备起飞，市民要及时拨打110报警。
Flying clubs and organistations have to resolutely stop their flying activities, makers and sellers of “small flying equipment” (microlights?) must strictly implement a registration system and promptly record the basic situation of buyers and the amount they buy.
and:
Citizens should promptly dial 110 [the emergency Police number] as soon as they discover suspicious flying objects or people operating small flying equipment about to take off.
Aha. Different kind of safety issue here, methinks.
Anyway, the other thing, just before I run off for lunch: Line 10 and the Olympic Branch Line now have China Mobile and Unicom cellphone signals to match their Xiaolingtong. Apparently 3G is in the works, too- and last time I was in the subway there were endless posters for China Mobile’s TD-SCDMA. The odd thing is nobody in the subway company or the cellphone operators will reveal whether a deal over the access fees was done. When suspicious-minded cellphone users suggested this may be just a show for the Olympics, however, spokesman for the subway company Gu Peng insisted that once the cellphone signal was turned on, it would not lightly be cut off again. We shall see.
Right, I’m hungry.
