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Running a Bar For Dummies (For Dummies (Business & Personal Finance)) (Paperback)

2008-09-13T14:15:00.000-07:00

Running a Bar For Dummies (For Dummies (Business & Personal Finance)) (Paperback)

Product Description

Have you ever thought of owning your own bar? Did you ever stumble into an overpriced watering hole and think how much better it could be if you ran the place? Or maybe you walked into your dream bar and realized that running one was the dream job you’ve always wanted?

With Running a Bar for Dummies, you can live your dream of operating your own establishment. This hands-on guide shows you how to maintain a successful bar, manage the business aspect of it, and stake your place in your town’s nightlife. It provides informative tips on:

Understanding the business and laws of owning a bar
Developing a business plan
Creating a menu, choosing décor, and establishing a theme
Stocking up on equipment
Choosing and dealing with employees
Handling tough customers
Controlling expenses, managing inventory, and controlling cash flow
Getting the word out about your place
Preparing for your grand opening, step-by-step

This guide cues you in on how to keep your bar safe and clean, making sure everyone is having fun. It warns you about the pitfalls and no-nos that every owner should avoid. There are also helpful resources, such as contact information for State Alcohol Control Boards and Web sites with valuable information.

Wine Bar Food: Mediterranean Flavors to Crave with Wines to Match (Hardcover)

2008-09-13T14:07:00.000-07:00

Wine Bar Food: Mediterranean Flavors to Crave with Wines to Match (Hardcover)

From Publishers Weekly
Husband-and-wife team Cathy and Tony Mantuano (chef-partners of the Spiaggia in Chicago, and authors of The Spiaggia Cookbook) share their delightful versions of wine bar recipes from across the Mediterranean. Each chapter focuses on a specific city (Rome, Seville, Nice and Lisbon, to name a few) and includes fun, fresh cocktails as well as simple yet delectable small plates and regional wine suggestions. The authors encourage mixing and matching recipes from different cities, explaining the point is to bring a little bit of the wine bar lifestyle—good food, good wine and simple technique—into your home. The couple includes background information on each dish, giving the reader a distinct sense of each recipe, all written with clear and thorough instructions. From Venice there is Whipped Baccalà with Polenta Crostini, and Black Pasta with Scungilli. Cocktail recipes include Limoncello Martinis from Naples and Mediterranean Lemonade made with ouzo, anise-flavored liqueur from Athens. Unique dessert recipes round out the assortment of options such as Mascarpone-Filled Dates with Chocolate and Lavender Ice Cream Sandwiches. With excellent sections on cured meats, imported cheeses and specialty pantry items, this is a wonderful book for food and wine lovers alik

Plato and a Platypus Walk into a Bar . . .: Understanding Philosophy Through Jokes

2008-09-13T14:05:00.000-07:00

Plato and a Platypus Walk into a Bar . . .: Understanding Philosophy Through Jokes

This New York Times bestseller is the hilarious philosophy course everyone wishes they’d had in school

Outrageously funny, Plato and a Platypus Walk into a Bar . . . has been a breakout bestseller ever since authors—and born vaudevillians—Thomas Cathcart and Daniel Klein did their schtick on NPR’s Weekend Edition. Lively, original, and powerfully informative, Plato and a Platypus Walk Into a Bar . . . is a not-so-reverent crash course through the great philosophical thinkers and traditions, from Existentialism (What do Hegel and Bette Midler have in common?) to Logic (Sherlock Holmes never deduced anything). Philosophy 101 for those who like to take the heavy stuff lightly, this is a joy to read—and finally, it all makes sense! more

Blues by the Bar: Cool Riffs That Sound Great over Each Portion of the Blues Progression (Paperback)

2008-09-13T14:03:00.000-07:00

Blues by the Bar: Cool Riffs That Sound Great over Each Portion of the Blues Progression (Paperback)
Product Description
If you're a guitarist who's learned the pentatonic scale up and down the neck but still asks, "During a solo, how do I know what to play and when to play it?", then this book is for you. Its goal is to give you a variety of great blues licks that you can put together bar by bar to create a complete blues solo. Covers: the 12-bar blues progression, cool riffs, complete solos and more. The CD features "Music Minus Me" tracks that let you play along as the featured soloist.

2008 Olympics: Beijing 2008 Complete Opening Ceremony

2008-09-13T13:57:00.000-07:00

2008 Olympics: Beijing 2008 Complete Opening Ceremony

Vietnamese businessman to donate 14 million dollars for SEA Games

2008-09-10T07:22:00.000-07:00

Hanoi - A Vietnamese real estate and forest products magnate said Wednesday he will pledge 14 million dollars to Laos to help the country host the 2009 SEA Games, the biannual Southeast Asian sports competition. Doan Nguyen Duc, chairman of Hoang Anh Gia Lai Group, said he and a Laotian deputy prime minister will sign the sponsorship agreement in Vientiane Saturday.

Duc said the money would be used to build an athletes' housing complex in Vientiane. After the games are over, the complex will become a dormitory for the National University of Laos.

"I decided to sponsor Laos because Hoang Anh Gia Lai has business operations there, and the Laotian government has supported my company a lot," Duc said.

Duc said his group owns a wood processing factory in Laos which consumes between 10,000 and 20,000 cubic metres of timber annually. It also has 15,000 hectares of rubber tree plantations in the heavily forested country.

Duc said his company planned to begin mining iron and copper ore in Laos in the near future.

Earlier this year, Duc became the first private aircraft owner in Vietnam since the end of the Vietnam War in 1975 when he purchased a used Beechcraft King Air 350 for 7 million dollars.

Duc is the chairman of the Hoang Anh Gia Lai Football Club, one of Vietnam's most successful teams, and has been negotiating to purchase a stake of 20 per cent in the British soccer club Arsenal.

The Hoang Anh Gia Lai conglomerate has branched out from its original base in rubber plantations in Vietnam's central highlands to include interests in real estate, hotels, and other industries. In an interview in May, Duc said he expects profits of more than 150 million dollars this year.

UK hockey girls to wear red contact lenses to beat Beijing smog

2008-09-02T19:03:00.000-07:00

London, July 30 (ANI): Female hockey players from Britain are to wear red contact lenses to beat the smog in Beijing during next month’’s Olympics. The pollution is likely to be so severe at next months Olympic Games that the womens hockey squad dubbed the Lionesses are trialling the bizarre-looking contacts despite the effect they have on the ladies looks.
According to The Sun, the lenses will help their eyes to focus on the fast-moving hockey ball in the haze and smog.
Players are also helped by the fact that the lenses act like sun glasses, cutting out glare and reducing the amount they frown, which can cause them to tire more quickly and to suffer headaches.
Goalkeeper Beth Storry said she and her team-mates have been training in Macau, near Hong Kong, which has a similar climate to Beijing.
Beijing has not seen blue sky for almost a week.
Private cars have already been banned on alternate days depending on their license plate number, odd or even, and many government cars have been ordered off the roads.
Last week environment bosses in Beijing claimed the air was improving and there had been a 20 per cent cut in levels of carbon monoxide, nitrogen dioxide and other matter in the air since the same time last year. (ANI)

2008 Umbrella, Sunny days, and Beijing girls

2008-09-02T18:51:00.000-07:00

When Western girls are risking the danger of skin cancer to tan their skins, Asian girls are doing everything they can to have fair skins.

Beijing was sunny today after more than 3 weeks of smog, and girls quickly opened up their pretty umbrellas to shield themselves from UV rays. As a matter of fact, girls have umbrellas with them most of the time.

"You can use the umbrella when it rains as well as when it shines," says a friend mine. "It's very useful, and you know UV rays in Beijing are very strong."

And, yes, umbrellas in China do tout the ability to protect you from UV rays. It would be hilarious if they're labeled SPF40. ;-).

At skin care counters in department stores, whitening creams are popular. (Clinique, for example, has a series of whitening products in Asia.) At spas, whitening services also are a staple.

So, my fair-skinned friends in the states, cherish your skin color. Chinese girls are jealous of what you think is the pale skin.

The top 10 hottest women of the Beijing Olympic Games

2008-08-22T00:43:00.000-07:00

top 10 hottest women of Beijing.

1. Amanda Beard

Nationality : American

Sport : Swimming

Amanda Ray Beard (born October 29, 1981 in Newport Beach, California) is an American Olympic swimmer and model. She made a lot of noise already in Beijing with her the PETA ad where she appear totaly naked.

2. Bia & Branca Feres

Nationality : Brazilian

Sport : Swimming

Shame on us, they are not qualified for the JO. But, I can’t avoid these two girls.. they are so hot, if they were in Beijing, the watercub would have explode. I do not introduce them again, everything is here.

3. Maria Sharapova

Nationality : Russian

Sport : Tennis

Maria Sharapova is not only the world’s highest-paid female athlete and one of the world’s best tennis players, she is also an immensely tall beauty. (We like to call her a long drink of vodka.)

4. Almudena Cid

Nationality : Spanish

Sport : gymnast

Hot Hot Hot !!! Everythings here.

5. Federica Pellegrini

Nationality : Italian

Sport : Swimming

She is the current European Champion of the 400m, establishing the current women’s 400m freestyle world record with a time of 4:01.53 in the final of the European Championships of Eindhoven held on March 24, 2008. Pellegrini also currently holds the women’s 200m freestyle world record, with a time of 1:55.45, and has reached several podiums during her career, including the silver medal in the women’s 200m freestyle at the 2004 Athens Olympics. Pellegrini is the only Italian swimmer, and one of the few European ones, who have broken a world record in more than one discipline.

6. Fatima Moreira Demelo

Nationality : Netherlands

Sport : field hockey

Fatima Moreira de Melo LL.M. (born 4 July 1978 in Rotterdam, Zuid-Holland) is a Dutch field hockey player. She has played 191 international matches for the Dutch national team, where she has scored 30 times.

Besides playing field hockey she also studied law and has presented tv programs for both local and national tv stations. She also has a career as a singer. She performed the theme song for the International Hockey Federation’s International Year of the Youth at the closing of the 2001 Men’s World Cup Hockey Qualifier in Edinburgh. Her father is a Portuguese diplomat for Holland. Her boyfriend is pro-tennis player Raemon Sluiter. In December 2006 she became Rotterdam Sportswoman of the Year and became the new face of the Rabobank in their Dutch tv-advertisements.

7. Ana Ivanovic

Nationality : Serbian

Sport : Tennis

Began working with Scott Byrnes (strength and conditioning coach) in July 2006 … Started playing tennis at age 5 after watching it on TV (in particular Monica Seles), remembering the phone number to a local tennis school and begging her parents to take her; was given a racquet for her fifth birthday and immediately fell in love with the game…

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8. Amy Acuff

Nationality : American

Sport : High Jump

Amy Lyn Acuff (born July 14, 1975, Port Arthur, Texas) is an athlete from the United States. An aggressive high jump competitor, Acuff competed in the 2004 Summer Olympics as a member of USA Track and Field and is a three-time Olympian.

Acuff is also known for her career as a model, including multiple cover appearances; Esquire, “Women of Summer: Strength & Beauty: A Portfolio of America’s 10 Sexiest Athletes”; Maxim and FHM.

The 2004 Olympics were noted for the large number of female Olympians who posed nude. Of the 2004 examples the most visible was Acuff’s appearance on the cover and within Playboy’s “The Women of the Olympics” issue.

9. Yelena Isinbayeva

Nationality : Russian

Sport : pole vaulter

Yelena Isinbayeva (born June 3, 1982 in Volgograd) is a Russian pole vaulter. She won the 2004 Olympic Gold Medal with a new World Record (then 4.91 m), was elected Female Athlete of the Year by the IAAF twice (2004 and 2005), and Sportswoman of the Year by Laureus.

This Russian hottie is the one to beat at the Beijing Summer Olympics. As you can see from the pictures below, quite easy on the eyes as well…The question is…do you think she’s hotter than another pole vaulting beauty - Allison Stokke ? My vote goes to Allison, it’s a shame she is not qualified, the fight would have been great.

10. Heather Mitts

Nationality : American

Sport : Soccer

Voted Hottest Female Athlete by ESPN viewers in 2004, Heather Mitts is a professional soccer player for the Philadelphia Charge and a former member of the Women’s Olympic Soccer Team. She also believes in giving something back (to her male fans that is), and has modeled for FHM, the SI swimsuit issue and Playboy.com.

Heather Mitts was born in Cincinnati, Ohio. It was early in life that she discovered a love for the game of soccer. By the time high school came, she was a standout at St. Ursula Academy in her native Cincinnati. She went on to play at the University of Florida, and became an All-American.

Update 12/08/08 : not qualified for Beijing 2008 replaced by 8 & 10

Allisson Stokke

Nationality : American

Sport : Pole Vaulting

Alison Stokke, who normally rises over the pole-vaulting bar, rose to Internet Fame when a picture of her when she was 17 at a track meet was posted on the Internet.

Soon, more pictures would surface, millions of new fans would stare at her gazingly, and this future California Bear Field Star, would find unexpected, and unwanted fame as one of the few Internet stars that have kept their clothes on.

She was the National Freshman Record holder in the pole-vault in 2004 going 12-08 and winning the California State Meet. In 2005 she was trying out a new pole during a practice session at Golden West College and unfortunately fell into the concrete box, breaking her tibia.

She was #1 U.S. Outdoors in 2006 at 13-5.75, clearing that height at the Surf City Invitational, which is a National Sophomore class record . . . At the time, it was just inches off of the National high school outdoor record of 13-8.50 set by Kira Costa in 2003.

Haley Cope

Nationality : American

Sport : Swimming

Like Amanda Beard, Haley Cope has also appeared in Playboy magazine.

The top Hot Olympic Girls of the Beijing Olympic Games

2008-08-22T00:35:00.000-07:00

Tuesday, August 12, 2008

Wanna Spice up Olympics a bit...?

Here we go...

The 50 Most Beautiful Women of the 2008 Beijing Olympics:

50-41

50. Dara Torres – United States

49. Yelena Soboleva – Russia

48. Katerina Bad’urova – Czech Republic

47. Venus Williams – United States

46. Cat Osterman – United States

45. Bronte Barratt – Australia

44. Gro Hammerseng – Norway

42. Veronica Campbell-Brown – Jamaica

41. Katy Livingston – Great Britain

Source

Amanda Beard at The top 10 hottest women of the Beijing Olympic Games

2008-08-22T00:27:00.000-07:00

I saw a lot of Top 50 or top 10 of the hottest women of Beijing Olympic Games…. but, I was always disappointed. People, stop making trash top ten with bad pictures and fake athletes. So, I take time around to check all these blogs and website to extract the best of the best. Some of you’ll notice that I cheat a little bit because the Feres sisters who are in my top list aren’t qualified for the Olympic Games. But, they are so hot, I couldn’t delete them.. mouahahah.. So here is the top 10 hottest women of Beijing.
1. Amanda Beard

Nationality : AmericanSport : Swimming
Amanda Ray Beard (born October 29, 1981 in Newport Beach, California) is an American Olympic swimmer and model. She made a lot of noise already in Beijing with her the PETA ad where she appear totaly naked.

young Miss Etiquette beijing

2008-08-22T00:23:00.000-07:00

beijing Olympic Miss Etiquette

2008 Beijing Olympics: something doesn't belong here

2008-08-22T00:13:00.000-07:00

WTF? Blond cheerleader mixed in with the Chinese over at the olympics? Guess they wanted more bouncy bouncy.

Sorry you wanted more boobs or ass?

Beijing Olympicsn Fake More than Lip-Syncing Girls

2008-08-22T00:11:00.000-07:00

Many of the scandals showing fraudulent activities during the Beijing Olympics have already been reported. Gao Xiaolong, head of the ceremony’s visual effects team, revealed to the world that only one out of the 29 footprint shaped fireworks over the National Stadium during the opening ceremony were real fireworks. The other 28 were the product of computer-generated 3D images that took a Chinese firm more than a year to produce.

On top of that, Chen Qigang, musical director for the opening ceremony, disclosed in a TV interview on August 11 that the song “Ode to the Motherland” performed by Lin Miaoke in the opening ceremony was actually a recording of seven-year-old Yang Peiyi’s voice. Better looking Lin replaced plainer Yang, because “we must put our country's interest first," he said. Recently, the lip-synching was reported by The New York Times, CNN and other mainstream media outlets throughout the world, not to mention it raising the hackles of Chinese web-bloggers.

That’s not the end of the forgeries. The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) claimed that the Olympic Games are a sell-out. Funny, considering several events have been more than 50 percent empty.

The similarities of the Olympic theme song to “The Way to Heaven” by the Swiss band Bandari, have led some to suspect plagiarism. Moreover, some people doubt that Zhang Langlang was even playing the piano considering that he somehow forgot to open the cover of the grand piano he was playing.

Although all of the above events are quite sensational, they aren’t in the least the biggest fraud of the 2008 Beijing Olympics. One of the biggest frauds is the so-called “keeping the stability” of China’s stock market as endlessly claimed by CCP-mouthpieces Xinhua news agency, People’s Daily, most major financial papers, and the leaders of the Securities and Futures Commission.

While they were busy boasting about their massive propaganda frenzy, the authorities didn’t actually issue any good news, nor did they implement strict supervision of the market. Instead, they continued to irresponsibly release new IPO’s, thereby doing even more damage to an under-funded market. In reality, under the banner of “keeping the stock market stable,” the market index has plummeted to a record low each day, having dropped as much as 2400 points at one time. The low volume of trading and the slump in the market is an indication that the public has lost confidence.

What’s even more concerning is the falsified news about the livelihood of Chinese citizens. The CCP closed down a tremendous amount of factories, restricted traffic, and siphoned 1.6 billion cubic meters of water out of neighboring provinces to wash out polluted ditches and keep Beijing supplied with as much as 30 percent more water than it normally consumes.

They even put up posters saying “reduce travel to make room on the streets for foreigners” in Taoranting Park.

In order for the regime to bark about the “prosperity” of blue skies, clear and ample water and smooth traffic, the Chinese people are the ones who have had to suffer from a loss of income, inconveniences in travel, and no water for farm lands.

But maybe even worse than the stock-market scandal is the fallacy of the so-called “harmonious society.” Due to the fact that this matter involves issues as significant as fundamental human rights, it demands attention from the outside world.

Everyone that the CCP deemed to be a so-called a “threat to the success of the Olympics” was either arrested or deported back to their home town before the Games began. These cases range from renowned human rights lawyer, Gao Zhisheng, AIDS activist Hu Jia, more than 8,000 Falun Gong practitioners, migrant workers trying to petition for their rights, out of town college students and foreigners who were either working or studying in Beijing.

Ironically, it’s no surprise that although the CCP set up so-called “protest-zones” where people could freely demonstrate and state their case to the government, the Chinese authorities have detained and arrested the appellants all the same.

To cap the mountain of lies and scandals, whatever happened to the regime’s promise of freedom for foreign journalists and freedom of information on the Internet, among other things?

The image of the “harmonious society” that the Chinese regime has projected to the world is in actuality a detestable information blockade coupled with a myriad of restrictions on personal freedom.

Contrary to the lyrics in the opening ceremony’s “Ode to the Motherland” theme song: “The hero of the people has stood up,” it’s more like, “the hero of the people has been locked up.”

The CCP’s Olympic forgeries are all very obvious to anyone who can look at the matter with even the slightest objectivity. As a matter of fact, this is really testing the most basic common sense and analytical abilities of the 80 countries’ leaders who attended the opening ceremony. Can they truly believe that “harmony” somehow exists without freedom of the press, freedom of information, and freedom to demonstrate? And do they really think that under the endless sea of bayonets held by the police and armed forces in Beijing there is “harmony?”

Beijing Girls Sexy Chinese Actress Photos Special

2008-08-22T00:06:00.000-07:00

Beijing Girls Sexy Chinese Actress Photos Special. These are the Photos of some sexy Chinese Girls from Beijing and also many actress fom Chinese States that you will like to see and feel better. I have decided to go with Chinese women as you all know that Beijing Olympics is Taking place In China,and i would like to draw your attention to the fact that China is another Asian Country that Has Hot Actress and sexy models

Beijing bars U.S. gold medalist for Darfur activism

2008-08-21T23:57:00.000-07:00

WASHINGTON - House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., has called on President Bush to persuade the Chinese government to reconsider its order barring from attending the Olympic Games a U.S. gold medalist who is an activist on the issue of genocide in Darfus.
Joey Cheek, who won gold in speedskating in the 2006 Winter Games, said Wednesday the Chinese revoked his visa entitling him to take part in the opening ceremonies.
Cheek is a co-founder of Team Darfur, an organization that calls attention to the plight of a Sudanese minority population in Sudan. He helped raise $1 million to help children in Darfur.
Pelosi said, "In the coming days, President Bush will arrive in Beijing. I call on President Bush to secure the entry of Joey Cheek and other U.S. citizens who have been barred from attending the Olympics because of their beliefs, [and] advocacy for the people of Darfur and human rights in China and Tibet."
"The Olympic Charter," Pelosi said, "states that "Any form of discrimination with regard to a country of a person on the grounds of race, religion, politics, gender, or otherwise is incompatible with belonging to the Olympic Movement.' The International Olympic Committee is tolerating clear violations of both the Olympic ideals and the commitments the Chinese government made in order to host the Olympic Games."
Bush's press secretary, Dana Perino, speaking aboard Air Force One today as Bush flew to Thailand, his final stop before reaching Beijing, said:
"We were disturbed to learn that the Chinese had refused his visa. We are taking the matter very seriously. We have sent in our embassy in Beijing to démarche the Chinese. That is where we go in and we say we are concerned about this, and we want you to reconsider your actions. So we would hope that they would change their mind."
The Cheek episode focuses attention on China's role in what many human rights observers call a holocaust. The New America Foundation said China has been an arms "supplier of last resort" to not only the brutal Sudanese government, but also to the junta in Myanmar, formerly Burma, and to Robert Mugage, the dictator of Zimbabwe. The full report may be found at www.newamericafoundation, under "press room." --Douglas Turner

Beijing bars told to ban black people during Olympics

2008-08-21T23:55:00.000-07:00

In a couple of weeks Beijing will turn into a party town and Sanlitun is predicted to be the epicenter of the Olympic night events. The South China Morning Post has however reported that the bar owners in the area were asked to refuse service to black patrons. The article reports:
Bar owners near the Workers' Stadium in central Beijing say they have been forced by Public Security Bureau officials to sign pledges agreeing not to let black people enter their premises.
"Uniformed Public Security Bureau officers came into the bar recently and told me not to serve black people or Mongolians," said the co-owner of a western-style bar, who asked not to be named.
We checked twice just to make sure: This story comes from the SCMP and not The Onion ... in 2008 ... as the world awaits the ultra-harmonious "One World, One Dream" Olympics. Did you hear that? That was the sound of our jaw dropping.
But something about this report doesn't gel. Could this possibly be true? Could it possibly be enforced? Given the strong national ties that China has built with African nations in the last two years coupled with the fact that many Olympic athletes (and their families) hail from African descent — not to mention that such a policy would be despicable and horrendous PR for a country looking to improve its image — it sounds like, perhaps, some racist in the Beijing government went out on his own on this one.
We hope strong denials from Beijing are in the works.
Will Kobe Bryant (pictured) be barred from enjoying a celebratory drink in Beijing?

Beijing bars told to ban black people during Olympics

Blacks Banned From Beijing Bars

2008-08-21T23:49:00.000-07:00

Reports are filtering out (from a story originally reported by the South China Post) that Beijing officials are secretly planning to ban black people and others it considers social undesirables from entering the city's bars during the Olympic Games.

Bar owners near the Workers' Stadium in central Beijing say they have been forced by Public Security Bureau officials to sign pledges agreeing not to let black people enter their premises.

"Uniformed Public Security Bureau officers came into the bar recently and told me not to serve black people or Mongolians," said the co-owner of a western-style bar, who asked not to be named. The local authorities have been cracking down on blacks and Mongolians in an attempt to stamp out drug dealing and prostitution ahead of the Games, the proprietors said.

Security officials are targeting Sanlitun, which Olympic organizers expect to be a key destination for foreign tourists looking for a party during the Games. The pledges that Sanlitun bar owners had been instructed to sign agreed to stop a variety of activities in their establishments, including dancing and serving customers with black skin, they said.

Bar owners have been allowed to keep copies of all the pledges except those relating to blacks, implying that the authorities are wary of charges of racism.

"I am appalled," said a black British national who works in Beijing. "I understand that the government is trying to stop certain illegal activities, but I don't think blanket discrimination is going about it the right way. "Chinese people are prejudiced, but I would have hoped that the government would set a better example as it debuts on the world stage."

2008 Summer Olympics torch relay

2008-04-22T06:33:00.000-07:00

The 2008 Olympic Torch Relay will run until August 8, 2008, prior to the Games of the XXIX Olympiad. Plans for the relay were announced on April 26, 2007, in Beijing, China.[2] The relay, with the theme Journey of Harmony, is expected[3] to last 130 days and carry the torch 137,000 km. (85,100 mi.) — the longest distance of any Olympic torch relay. By comparison, when this globe-trotting ritual was first introduced to promote the 1936 Games, the Olympic flame only travelled 3,422 km from Athens to Berlin.[4]

In 2008, after being lit in Olympia, Greece, the torch traveled to the Panathinaiko Stadium in Athens, and then to Beijing, arriving on March 31. From Beijing, the torch is following a route passing through six continents. The torch will visit cities on the Silk Road, symbolizing ancient links between China and the rest of the world. The relay will also include an attempt to carry the flame to the top of Mount Everest .[5]

The 2008 torch relay has been controversial, being marked on multiple occasions by protests regarding China's human rights record, and in particular the ongoing unrest in Tibet. The path of the torch has been changed on several occasions, with the torch being extinguished by the organisers several times during the Paris leg.

Beijing flying acrobat girl

2008-04-19T23:00:00.000-07:00

Beautiful Beijing acrobatics high above an amazed audience in the old circus tradition.

Changsha Introduction

2008-04-19T22:46:00.001-07:00

Changsha Introduction

Night club in china

2008-04-19T22:45:00.001-07:00

Night club in china

北京语言大学 anniversary，Beijing Culture and language university

2008-04-19T22:42:00.000-07:00

one night, and 4 girls went crazy
北京语言大学 anniversary，Beijing Culture and language university

Inside China - Beijing - Intro Preview

2008-04-19T22:41:00.000-07:00

Intro of my new INSIDE CHINA Movie. 14.000.000 people and we are part of 'em...
Thats Beijing

Propaganda club Beijing

2008-04-19T22:39:00.000-07:00

Propaganda club Beijing

Babyface nightclub in beijing

2008-04-19T22:38:00.001-07:00

Babyface nightclub in beijing

Impressive Beijing Clubs

2008-04-19T22:37:00.000-07:00

Impressive Beijing Clubs

that's beijing bar and club awards

2008-04-19T22:36:00.000-07:00

Chelsey hosts the that's beijing bar and club awards

Bar in Houhai area of Beijing

2008-04-19T21:57:00.000-07:00

Bar in Houhai area of Beijing

Hou Hai Lake, Beijing

2008-04-19T21:48:00.000-07:00

u Hai Lake during the Chinese New Year

Bar in Houhai area of Beijing

2008-04-19T21:45:00.000-07:00

Houhai is an area in Beijing, China. It's home to several popular restaurants, bars, and cafes