Beijing Olympics is coming very soon, yes, the Olympics of every Chinese. And, really truly, I sense the Olympics is coming.

1 year ago: Olympics commercial ads started flooding in all medias. Yao Ming, Liu Xiang, and other Olympic champions show up in different ads everywhere.

6 months ago: we heard a rumor from a student that the government was asking foreigners go back to their country, because of Olympic. Dunno why though.

a few months ago: The rumor became true when we tried to help a student renew his visa to China. It’s very difficult to renew a visa in China, usually they are asked to go back to their country, the closest place they can go might be HK. A Turkey student studying Chinese in Fudan university told us they were asked to leave China. He volunteered to help Chinese government host the Turkish team as a way around to stay in China.

now: I understand why. It seems like our country is threatened by terrorists， just check out what's on shanghaidaily:

- City's airports beef up security, on the double
- Bomb scare shuts Beijing subway station
- Bullets found on Xinjiang passenger
- Police grab passenger with 100 detonators

And to “ensure a safe Olympics”, I have to get used to police dogs in subway station (they really scared me), 4 policemen standing in a row on the street on my way home. I used to believe Shanghai/China was the safest place in the world. We had no terrorists, no bombs, no private owned guns, … however, with the coming Olympics, not any more...