Beijing Letter/Clifford Coonan:Given the impact on the hearts and minds of the people, and on the physical structure of the capital Beijing, it was inevitable that China's government would kick off the New Year with a stirring testimony to the positive changes being wrought by the Beijing Olympics, which will open on August 8th this year.
The People's Daily, the official organ of the Chinese Communist Party, pulled no punches in an editorial published on New Year's Day. "We are standing at a new starting point in history," the editorial ran.
"We will show the world 5,000 years of splendid Chinese history, the significant achievements of modern China and the zeitgeist of the Chinese people . . . This is the year that 1.3 billion sons and daughters of China have been ardently expecting, the year when more of the world's gaze will be fixed on China, the year that will be etched into the history of the People's Republic," it continued in fervent vein.
It is certainly true that the Olympics have transformed the city - all but one Olympic project, the 91,000-seat National Stadium scheduled to be finished by March, has been completed - and there is a genuine buzz around the place about the games.
President Hu Jintao continued in positive mode when he said in a live television address he hoped the Olympics would be a platform for "promoting understanding and friendly co-operation between the people of China and the world".
While patriotic fervour rises, human rights activists and press freedom groups continue to complain about the country's human rights record. Late last week, the prominent Aids campaigner Hu Jia was arrested and charged with subversion, which could earn him a lengthy prison sentence.
Free Tibet campaigners and other rights groups are hoping to use the Olympics to highlight their grievances.
The Foreign Correspondents' Club of China (FCCC) said journalists were still being subjected to harassment, interference and even violence, despite year-old government promises to grant total press freedom, and urged Beijing to live up to its promises.
"The FCCC hopes that as a lasting legacy of the games, the regulations will be made permanent, and will be fully implemented nationwide, including in Tibet and Xinjiang," it said in a statement.
For most of the citizens of China, press freedom is not that high on the agenda - many more spent the New Year period wondering about the fate of Zhang Bin, China's top sports broadcaster, its very own Bill O'Herlihy.
A clip of Zhang being accused by his wife Hu Ziwei - who is also a popular TV anchor - of having an affair as he presented an Olympic press conference, was doing the rounds online and had been watched by hundreds of thousands of "webizens".
Indeed, it's quite a show. Looking elegant in a brown duffle coat, and speaking in a controlled voice, Hu, herself a well-known broadcaster, got on to the stage in Beijing and accused her husband of cheating on her.
Zhang (38) just happened to be presiding over the launch of CCTV Sports' Olympic coverage - possibly one of the most important moments in his career - at the time.
"Today is a special day for the Olympic Channel, and it's a special day for Zhang Bin, and for me it's a special day, too. Because just two hours ago I found out that, besides me, Zhang Bin has been having an improper relationship with another woman," she said.
She told colleagues who tried to pull her off the stage that her husband's infidelities would bring shame on the mainland and the games.
CCTV is currently trying to limit the fall-out after a three-minute clip of the incident, which happened late last week, became the most watched
video clip on the internet, even though it was cut from the broadcast show.
Hu's comments about a lack of morality in China are sure to earn her official censure, but her husband's position is equally parlous.
Zhang, who married Hu in 2002 after divorcing his first wife, is one of the most famous TV anchors in China and, unsurprisingly, there has been little if any coverage of what could mean his downfall on the mainstream media. Indeed, online rumours he may have already resigned are rife after he failed to show up for a scheduled weekend broadcast.
On the last day of 2007, thousands of spectators gathered on a chilly night in Beijing to wave and cheer as local pop stars sang songs related to Olympic dreams and spirit.
The majority of the audience at the downtown Millennium Monument were students wearing hats and gloves in the colours of the Olympic Rings and sporting embroidered images of the five Olympic mascots - the cartoon-like Fuwa (literally good-luck dolls), two of which represent endangered species, that are already proving a huge merchandising success.
And there has been much celebration of the fact that the capital squeaked past its target of 245 blue-sky days in a year - by just one day.
Last year Beijing had 241 clear-sky days and local media says this year's figure of 246 marked a steady improvement for nine consecutive years, even if international scientists dispute the data.
"We anticipated the last 'blue-sky' day more than 10 days ago, but lingering fog and sandstorms frustrated us in the past week," Du Shaozhong, deputy director of the Municipal Bureau of Environmental Protection, told Xinhua.
Crucially, the government data recorded only three heavily-polluted days this year, in sharp contrast with last year's 13 appallingly smoggy days. It certainly felt like there were fewer bad days this year.
Olympic chief Jacques Rogge caused consternation in Beijing when he said some events may have to be rescheduled if the air quality was not good enough and the host city has already spent 120 billion yuan (€2 billion) on environmental programmes to combat pollution.
It still remains to be seen if Zhang Bin's face will be one of the familiar features of coverage of the two-week long games.
