The Olympics is fast approaching and the world is waiting to see if China is ready. While we toil away here in the swampy heat of New York City, the nation of China scurries to prepare for the world’s eyes to fall upon it. The fantastic photoblog over at Boston.com has released a series of images of the final push with just 3 weeks to go. The futuristic nature of the architecture balanced with the traditional imagery and eerily quiet street scenes is spectacular. But I have to wonder, if this is supposed to be one of the most populated cities in the world…where is everyone (minus forced pageant gatherings)?

Apparently the smog sitting on top of Beijing has become one of the main concerns for the government and as they indicate in this post “Beijing has ordered polluting plants in the capital city and surrounding provinces to either shut or meet emissions standards, to reduce air pollution during the Olympic Games”.  This is certainly a nice by-product of the Games, but a sad statement on Chines industry if it takes outside attention to force them to clean their own air.