Information Times
August 11, 2008

As the Chinese media continues to focus their attention on the Olympic Games, Olympic related news dominated the front pages of today's newspapers nationwide.

The front page of today's Information Times, a Guangzhou based newspaper, announces the release of a new postal stamp featuring Chen Xiexia, the weight-lifter who won China's first gold medal in the Beijing Olympics for women's 48kg weightlifting. This is the first in a series of new stamps to be released featuring each athlete who wins a gold for China.

The lead article in the Information Times is a collection of hints on how to sneak a peek at the Olympic Games while at work. The caption on top of the big image reads "US President Bush congratulated China's government and people for giving the whole world a spectacular opening ceremony."

New Express
August 11, 2008

The headline of the New Express, another Guangzhou-based newspaper, reads "31 points: the distance to the dream." The story refers to the Chinese men's basketball team's loss by 31 points to the Americans in last nights game. The main image shows Yao Ming guarding the ball from a hassling American player. A small image to the side shows China's foreign minister Yang Jieshi standing next to US president Bush. Laura Bush, who was on the other side of her husband, is not pictured in the photo.

Today, the Shenyang Evening News ran an article bearing the headline "A golden silver medal." The article reported on the "groundbreaking" win by Zhang Lin of the silver medal in the men's 400m freestyle, where Zhang finished just behind South Korean Taehwan Park. Zhang is the first Chinese athlete to win a medal in men's 400m freestyle, and the article compares his win to Liu Xiang's groundbrekaing gold medal in the 110m hurdle in the last Olympics four years ago. Both wins, according the paper, indicate that "China has reached heart of the competitive sports world".

On a side note, if you Google "Zhang Lin" you will find that the first result is about a Chinese "cyber-dissident" named Zhang Lin, while the second is about a transsexual in Sichuan also named Zhang Lin.