Outside view

Magical capital

The Olympic Games has had a magical power on Beijing. A metropolis of some 17 million people had given themselves over so completely to a sporting event, reported The Telegraph.

Every inch of space in the Chinese capital has been cleaned, flags hung from every lamp-post along the ring roads, traffic jams have vanished and "none of this appears to be the product of coercion", the paper said. "There is an astonishing willingness to freshen the air."