Beijing China

"Empty," says Jack Rodman, an expert in distressed real estate, as he points from the window of his 40th-floor office toward a silver-skinned prism rising out of the Beijing skyline. "Beautiful building, but not a single tenant. "Completely empty. "Empty." So goes the refrain as his finger skips from building to building, each flashier than the next, and few of them more than barely occupied.

It is yet another attempt by man to triumph over nature. Determined not to let anything spoil their party, organizers of the 2008 Summer Olympics said Wednesday that they will take control over the most unpredictable element of all -- the weather. While China's Olympic athletes are getting ready to compete on the fields, its meteorologists are working the skies, attempting the difficult feat of making sure it doesn't rain on the Aug. 8 opening ceremonies. "Our team is trained.

A member of the U.S. Olympic team would face no official rebuke for wearing a T-shirt that said, "Free Tibet," while walking the streets of Beijing during the 2008 Summer Games. Wear that shirt in the Olympic Village or any sports venue, and the athlete might be on the next plane home after violating the international Olympic Charter. U.S.

BEIJING -- It is not as though all 1.3 billion people in China are trying to attend the Olympics. It just seems that way if you're trying to book a seat. Tickets to the 2008 Games are proving to be among the most coveted in sporting history. Money, luck, persistence, computer skills and, in some cases, the right political background are among the prerequisites. Scalpers already are demanding as much as $40,000 a seat for the Aug.

It's a huge building, much bigger than the Pentagon and a whole lot less clunky. It's expected to handle more passengers than any other air terminal in the world. It was built fast. Beijing's new international air terminal, which opened today in time for the Summer Olympics surge, attracts and embodies superlatives. It also embodies the new China, a country racing headlong into the future fueled by an economy on fire.

BEIJING -- A week of embarrassing global protests along the international Olympic torch relay has fanned Chinese nationalism at home and turned a 27-year-old disabled woman into a national hero. Jin Jing is a one-legged Chinese torchbearer who was attacked by protesters on the streets of Paris. Images of her in her wheelchair protecting the flame with her tiny body catapulted her to overnight fame in China as a symbol of the nation's effort to defend its place in the world.

CHICAGO -- When the International Olympic Committee awarded the 2008 Summer Games to Beijing, it placed its wallet above its conscience, ignoring China's history of human-rights violations in the face of a vast untapped market for its sponsors' soft drinks, cars and sneakers. "Possibly today this opens a new era for China," then-IOC president Juan Antonio Samaranch said in July 2001. It did not.

The Beijing Olympics will begin in 100 days, on 8-8-08 -- a date picked because the number 8 is associated with prosperity in Chinese culture. It may not be so auspicious if political leaders boycott the opening ceremony to protest China's human-rights record, as has been discussed by members of the European Union. Some athletes plan to voice their objections to Chinese policy in Tibet and Darfur. As a reminder that speech isn't free everywhere, U.S.

The Chinese have worked overtime to get all their checklists ticked, buildings built and security secured in the lead-up to the 2008 Olympics. But something seems to have happened on the way to the arena: They forgot the fun. Fearful of political protests or terrorist attacks, Beijing feels increasingly battened down as the Aug. 8 opening ceremony approaches, leading some wags to predict a "fun-free" or "killjoy" Games.

Despite removing 1.5 million cars from the roads, shutting down hundreds of factories and construction sites and bringing much of the city's economic life to a standstill, Beijing remains stubbornly shrouded in a persistent, gray haze on the eve of the Summer Olympics. The poor air quality just 11 days before the opening ceremonies has left Chinese government officials scrambling for explanations that include statistical anomalies and the 90-plus-degree heat.