Well, not quite the Bird’s Nest, but from the Reuters office at the Main Press Centre, just down the road.

Thanks for coming by and making this blog such a lively place during the Olympics. It might not quite be the end — the blog will still be here, the comments will remain open and we may well have a few more posts on Games-related issues — but I’m on my way out of Beijing (the office is being dismantled around me, as you can see).

Thanks too to China for hosting such a great Games, and to all my colleagues from Reuters text and pictures who posted here.

If you’re just stumbling across this blog, have a scroll down, check back through previous pages and look at some of the many brilliant pieces from long before the Games started and all the way through to the end. You could while away a good few hours here if you want to relive the Olympics. 

If you’re a fan of soccer/football you may want to drop by the Reuters Soccer Blog here. Otherwise, roll on London 2012….

Kevin Fylan 

As if any more glitz was needed at the Beijing Olympics, David Beckham flew into China at the weekend to promote the 2012 Games in London.

The former England captain has millions of fans in China. He will appear in the Bird’s Nest at the Olympics closing ceremony tonight, kicking a ball into the crowd from a red double-decker bus to symbolise the handover to London.

After a quick change into immaculate tie-and-jacket, Beckham popped on to a hotel balcony overlooking Tiananmen Square to see the sunset and have a chat with Reuters.

As something of a showboater himself, Beckham believes Jamaican sprinter Usain Bolt has a right to celebrate his feats on the track despite criticism from the Olympics boss that his jubilant style shows disrespect for fellow athletes.

As a born-and-bred Londoner, Beckham is delighted the Olympics are coming home and thinks they can be even better than in China.

Is he right?

PHOTO: David Beckham plays a soccer match against West Ham United in Toronto July 24, 2008. REUTERS/Chris Young

Join us on the penultimate podcast from the Games for a look at Argentina’s win in the football, mixed feelings for Jamaica in the 4×100m relays and the prospect of Pearly Kings and Queens taking over the Bird’s Nest stadium.

Paul Radford, Al Himmer, Robert Woodward, Julian Linden and Paul Majendie join me around the laptop. Sorry about the end-of-term feel.