Changing China

If these are the “Green Olympics”, why am I the only passenger in a huge 33-seat bus driving an hour to the Laoshan Velodrome?

Beijing Olympics organisers have been working hard to please the media, and in this case it seems that won out over their pledge to keep the Games environmentally friendly.

Scheduled shuttle buses for the media do not start running to the Laoshan Velodrome for another few days. But when I asked what alternatives I had to get out to the track on Wednesday, workers staffing the transport desk inside the main press centre said they would work it out.

I hardly expected to have a whole bus to myself.

With the language barrier, it was difficult to fully understand why the huge bus was being used for one person. A volunteer who accompanied the driver on the hour-long bus trip out to the track said just, “We have to.”