A sigh of relief

If you’re in Beijing, rise early in the morning when the city is quieter … be careful not to make any noise … and you can hear the faint sigh of relief which is wafted in the temporarily unsmogged breeze now the Olympics are over.

Here are two Chinese jokes which illustrate it well:

1. The chinese word for ‘to avoid becoming pregnant’ (biyun) is a homophone for the phrase meaning ‘to escape from the Olympics’ – a pun ready for the picking.

2. “At the closing ceremony, IOC president Jacques Rogge announces that the Olympics were so successful that they will be held in Beijing again in 2012, instead of London. The news sends millions of Chinese into a faint. Even the doctors swoon. Only the police are strong enough to withstand the news, and shout in unison: ‘Go to hell, Rogge!’ ”
(Hat tip: China Rises)

Now it’s all over, China lives (to quote an allegedly Western fabrication of an ancient Chinese curse) in interesting times.