FILE - A member of airport personnel dressed in protective gear leads passengers into the customs area at the Beijing Capital International Airport ahead of the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing, Jan. 24, 2022. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong, File)
For the thousands of athletes, journalists and others descending on Beijing for the Winter Olympics, China's strict pandemic measures are creating a weird and anxious experience.
Everyone coming from abroad will not be able to speak to the general public during the duration of the Games. It means being taken from the Beijing airport in special vehicles to a hotel surrounded by barricades that keep the public out.
Yirmiyan Arthur, an Associated Press photo editor who arrived this week, said that he would see Beijing out of his bus window and hotel window.
AP journalists who have arrived or are about to leave offers a glimpse into life inside the bubble.
Hong said he was warned about the bubble but was still shocked to see it in Beijing. He saw passengers being met by workers wearing protective gear. Everyone is tested at the airport before being taken to their barricaded hotels, which are protected by round-the-clock guards.
The organizers want to keep the infections out of the bubble and the omicron variant out of the bubble. Failure to get tested the previous evening means being stuck in your hotel the next day.
There have been positive tests for 129 people who have arrived for the Games. Two are either athletes or team officials. The media is one of the other participants. If you test positive, you are taken to a hospital if you have symptoms or a hotel if you don't.
Getting to China requires multiple negative COVID-19 tests, which can be entered into an app that displays your health status. Arthur was on edge during her journey from New Delhi to Beijing. A colleague who was already in Beijing helped her download the app. After she got off the plane, she saw the health workers.
In the airport, it's a bit scary, like a hospital that was treating COVID patients in the second wave.
The Summer Olympics in Tokyo had strict rules, but participants were allowed to leave the bubble after two weeks.
China has no formal relations with Taiwan, which Beijing claims as its own territory, and that is causing stress for a video journalist who has yet to leave for the Olympics.
He was unable to complete the form in the Olympics app because he couldn't get a code from a China-approved hospital.
Outside the bubble, Beijing authorities locked down more neighborhoods as they try to stop an outbreak of a variant of the disease.
China has a zero tolerance policy under which it quickly locks down affected areas and conducts mass testing of residents to find infections. Since last weekend, all 2 million residents of Fengtai have undergone a third round of testing.
The Beijing outbreak has spread to other provinces. Travel between Beijing and Langfang was suspended after four cases were reported in the city.
Arthur was able to see people outside the Olympics bubble from the bus.
Five of the 25 players on the Chinese men's ice hockey team have played in North America's National Hockey League, according to a roster on the Games website. The International Ice Hockey Federation expressed concern about the team's quality, saying its participation would depend on player eligibility rules. The team was cleared to compete in the Olympics in Beijing in December.
The emerging-market team talked with one of their biggest clients in early 2021, and wondered if it was possible to take China out of the market.
Ad•Azure
Why this Ad?
Go ad-free*
Work from anywhere with secure access to resources.
Crowds of travellers pack into a train station in the middle of the Chinese New Year travel rush to go home. Many passengers who were prevented from going home due to the Pandemic were willing to go this year despite the strict travel and Covid testing requirements.
China's Communist Party has demonstrated a determination and ability to stay in power that is seemingly impervious to Western criticism and sanctions. Beijing prepares to hold the Winter Olympics opening next week, and the president and party leader of China appears firmly in control. The price has been paid by those who wanted more freedom, from ethnic groups in the far western regions of Tibet and Xinjiang to the largely student-led protesters in Hong Kong in 2019.
Ethiopia and Rwanda are using innovative marketing techniques to increase their exports to China. James Kimonyo, the ambassador to China from Rwanda, rode a bike to deliver coffee to a customer who had ordered it online. Kimonyo wore a red helmet, face mask, and jacket and went to the customer's house to deliver the coffee.
The AirMini AutoSet is the world's smallest CPAP. For a limited time, you can get a free prescription for the AirMini.
The Beijing Winter Olympics kick off in a week, putting sports at the center-stage, following preparations that have been clouded by diplomatic boycotts and the COVID-19 pandemic that has forced the Games into a tightly sealed bubble. Beijing will be the first city to host both the Summer and Winter Games, and some venues from 2008 will be re-used. The Winter Olympics will be staged by a country that has grown wealthier, more powerful, and more authoritarian than the one that hosted the 2008 Summer Games.
Over the past two years, more than half of the world's top 10 filers of patent applications for virtual reality and augmented reality have been from Chinese companies. The world's biggest video gaming business by revenue and China's largest social media platform filed a total of 4,085 patent applications for virtual and augmented reality.
China has protested against a US move to pull out consular staff and their families in order to avoid the spread of the H1N1 flu. The US embassy in Beijing sent a departure request to Washington, as China ramps up Covid-19 containment protocols ahead of the Beijing Winter Olympics. The Chinese foreign ministry highlighted China's efficient control of the epidemic.
6 sources of post-retirement income are recommended by the experts at Fool Wealth. You can download our latest report.
National Park Service sites charge entrance fees ranging from $5 to $35.
The Climate Change Professionals Program was announced by the Department of Homeland Security.
The opening ceremony for the Winter Olympics will be held in Beijing, China, on February 4. The curling competition begins on February 2. You can watch every single moment of the Beijing Winter Games by clicking here. Everything you need to know.
Ad•Raid
Why this Ad?
Go ad-free*
You can download and play. Stunning graphics and deep game-play.
Japan had the lowest number of bankruptcies in a half century last year, thanks to the government's response to the swine flu. Zero-interest loans and subsidies may have helped prop up firms that were already non-performing before the crisis and probably should have been left to go under.
Alice Waters has spent decades defining California cuisine with her seasonal approach to cooking. Waters and a former co-head chef of the New York Times, David Tanis, moved to Los Angeles in November of 2021.
President Biden has promised to nominate the first Black woman to the Supreme Court, and he will now have his chance after reports that Justice Stephen Breyer will retire.
Ad•LendGo
Why this Ad?
Go ad-free*
If you are a homeowner with no missed payments, you need to read this.
Going for the gold! Anna posted a picture of the moment she told her mom that she was going to the Olympics.
China will develop an international sourcing platform for Semiconductor and other electronic components in Shenzhen in a bid to advance the nation's hi-tech self-sufficiency drive. The goal is to engage various companies in the electronics industry around the world.
The Canadian truck drivers decided to go toward the capital on Thursday after receiving praise from Musk. The protesters are upset that the Trudeau government has imposed a vaccine mandate on cross-border truck drivers. The majority of drivers are inoculated, but a minority are not.
Ad•Bonvoyaged
Why this Ad?
Go ad-free*
I only got 7 correct.
Two fans in Philadelphia were ejected for yelling at a player.
The battery industry was booming. More powerful and longer- lasting batteries were enabled by technology, leading to a surge in their adoption in areas from utilities to consumer electronics, medical applications and the automotive industry. One of the biggest obstacles to the technology's commercial viability is dendrite growth on the anode, which can cause degradation and even explosions.
The 19-year-old was unable to repeat her US Open win in Australia.
Ad
Ad
Ad
Ad
