“Olympic Families Tour Beijing” update

I wrote about the “Olympic Families Tour Beijing” campaign back in April (see: Win a tour of the Olympics 2008 host and co-host cities). The campaign was really a competition in which 10 families - 5 from China, and 5 from other countries could win a tour of Beijing, Qingdao, Shanghai and Hong Kong prior to the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

I just noticed when browsing the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games website that the 10 families have now been selected. The 5 winning families from outside of China are from the following countries:

• 1 from Argentina
• 1 from South Africa
• 1 from Germany
• 2 from the USA

Given that the winners were chosen based on partly a public vote and partly on comments from a panel of judges, I suppose you cannot really speculate too much on the regional destribution. But what was glaring back at me, when I checked out the photos of the 5 families, was the fact that every single one of them is white.

I have no way of knowing if this was coincidental, but it does seem a rather odd choice, when these were 3 of the 4 objectives of the campaign:

• “To strengthen the exchanges among the peoples of the world;
• To help the rest of the world gain a better understanding of China and the Chinese people;
• To offer every family in the world an opportunity to become part of the great celebration.” (source: Olympic Families Tour Beijing)

Doesn’t that smell foul? See the winning families at the Olympic Families Tour Beijing website.

Technorati Tags: travel, China, Beijing 2008 Olympic Games

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