Saw Olympic Welcome Banquet last night live on Chinese satellite TV

[Little-Acorn]

Our cable system (Time Warner Cable, San Diego) normally gets one channel of Chinese Cable TV (CCTV-9) on its Channel 255. But that was blacked out last night, so we assumed it was covering the Olympic ceremonies live. So we turned on our receiver that gets its CCTV-9 (and CCTV-4) signals directly off a satellite, and saw the whole thing in glorious color, live. (My wife and her mother are Chinese, mother lives with us and can speak only Mandarin Chinese, so we got this special receiver and 20" dish antenna and I wired the house and MIL's room).

Hu greeted the various world leaders as they came in, shaking hands and posing for pictures with each. Then they all went to a big banquet lunch (Noon Aug. 8 Beijing time, 9:00 PM Aug. 7 California time). Hu sat at the central round table, with the Olympic Committee Chairman on his right and then George and Laura Bush; and Hu's wife on his left and then Vladimir Putin.

As they walked from the reception area to the banquet tables, George Bush and Hu Jintao were holding hands, a startling sight to me. They broke that up after maybe 20 seconds. Putin came up from behind and said something to Bush. Bush glanced sideways at him and seemed to brush him off, don't know what was said. How much of that little scene do you suppose will be broadcast tonight by NBC, with Hu apparently giving much better publicity treatment to Bush than to Putin?

Just before they sat down, Hu walked around the table, shaking hands with each leader: The Olympic committee guy first, then Bush, then the rest. Putin was last.

I don't know if our Chinese satellite receiver's channels will be broadcasting the Olympics live (unlike NBC which will broadcast selected excerpts half a day after they take place). If they do, they will probably start in late afternoon or evening California time. At 5:00 PM California time, the sun is just coming up in Bejing (I finally figured out), and I'd imagine things get started shortly after that.

[gabosaurus]

Funny you should mention this. In reading a few of the Chinese dailies (through a translator), they greatly play up Bush's visit, but hardly mention Putin.
There was also virtually no mention of Bush's admonishment of China's poor record on civil rights.

[Little-Acorn]

BTW, the entire country of China has only one time zone. When it's noon in Beijing, the sun is directly overhead; but the clocks in Shanghai on the east coast also say 12:00 noon with the sun moving toward the sunset; and the clocks in the westernmost cities in the country also say 12:00 noon even though the sun has just risen above the horizon there.

[gabosaurus]

Very interesting! I didn't know that.

By the way, anyone who complains about our "controlled" media should read the Chinese press. Everything is sweetness and light. Even when reporting events such as the recent earthquake.
A Chinese man was sentenced to six months in a labor camp for giving a picture of his daughter's destroyed school to a member of the western media. They also threatened to expel the media member if the photo was published, but did not follow through on the threat.