BEIJING - Wedged between a rice paddy and the city's eight-lane beltway stands a giant billboard with an artist's rendering of Beijing's Olympic Park. In the center is an 80,000-seat soccer stadium flanked by a sleek, gunmetal-gray gymnasium and a swimming center bathed in glass.
In the sign's bottom right corner, almost as an afterthought, is a small reminder that the complex may never be built. "Beijing 2008," it reads. "Candidate City."
Today, in Moscow, Beijing finally meets its fate. After months of speculation and debate, the International Olympic Committee will choose the site for the 2008 Summer Games. Among the five competitors, which include Paris, Toronto, Osaka, Japan, and Istanbul, Turkey, Beijing is widely thought to be the favorite.
If Beijing wins, it will mark a major victory for the world's most populous nation in its long struggle for respect. If the city loses, some Chinese are certain to see it as an insult and blame the United States - China's main rival and toughest critic on the international political stage.
"Winning the bid will help improve China's status in the world," says Wu Chaoren, 64, a retired mechanic who lives in an old Chinese courtyard home a short walk from Tiananmen Square. "If China doesn't win, the United States must have obstructed."
Many, though, are betting on China because it is home to one-fifth of the world's population, has never played host to the Olympics and lost out on the 2000 Games to Sydney by just two votes.
Among Beijing's two closest competitors, France held the games in 1900 and 1924, while Canada played host in 1976 and 1988.
A victory for China today would ensure that Beijing's preparations over the next seven years will be among the most scrutinized in modern Olympic history. Not since Moscow was host to the widely boycotted 1980 Summer Games would such a controversial, high-profile government oversee the world's premier sporting event.
Two major questions loom over a Beijing Olympics. Can this crowded city of 13 million with notorious air pollution and free-for-all traffic successfully play host to the international community over 16 days?
And would the Olympics help legitimize an often thuggish regime or pressure China's authoritarian leaders to improve their poor human rights record?
