1. Higher and Higher How preparations for the 2008 Olympic Games are transforming Beijing

2. Nearly 30 years ago, Deng Xiaoping tore down Mao Zedong’s “bamboo curtain” and enacted a series of reforms designed to liberalize China’s economy.

3. Men from China’s countryside demolished this building in just a few days. They worked with their hands, hurling bricks and chunks of wood from its roof - washing, eating and sleeping in a row of makeshift dorms nearby. Beijing Foreign Studies University January 2006

4. Deng adopted an “Open Door” foreign policy and promoted “Socialism with Chinese Characteristics.” The result - three decades of explosive economic growth and stunning social change.

6. Where Deng experimented with free markets, his successor Jiang Zemin actively promoted them. In the 1990s, Jiang targeted China’s crowded eastern seaboard for intensive development. Ultimately, that development led to Beijing’s 2008 Olympic bid.

8. Beijing, unlike Shenzhen, has been at the center of Chinese culture, trade and politics for a long time - 800 years. Genghis Khan’s grandson made Beijing his capital during the Yuan dynasty, as did the Qing and Ming emperors.

10. In preparation for the Games, Beijing construction firms are leveling traditional alley-neighborhoods or “hutongs.” Two-thirds have been destroyed since 1949. According to Switzerland’s Centre on Housing Rights and Evictions, Olympics-related construction may displace 1.5 million people. Local officials disagree.

11. Preserving the past Ancient stone engravings lie broken behind a popular Beijing museum (center). A 15th century Buddhist temple, protected and recently restored, won’t be bulldozed (right). A new building pokes out from behind Beijing’s ancient southern wall (above).

12. Despite new emphases on “green building” and “renewable energy” handed down by Party leaders, few projects seem to meet environmental standards. Meanwhile, property values are climbing and Beijing has announced it won’t suspend construction during the Games.