Soldiers stand guard outside the National Stadium, known as the Bird's Nest, ahead of the opening ceremony for the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing, Friday, Aug. 8, 2008.
(AP Photo/Charlie Riedel)
Australian trainer Liz Jones arrived at the Games earlier this week. "Well, given that I am Australian, I thought the Australian [Olympics] was absolutely fantastic," she told ABC News. "But we probably are a little surprised that there's not a lot happening inside the Green, compared to what it was like in Australia."
"But the facilities are just amazing, and it's so clean," Jones said.
Christine Brennan, Olympics expert and author of several books on Olympic sports, has covered 13 consecutive Games as a journalist. The tone on Beijing's Green is distinctly subdued, she said.
"You don't get the sense that you did in Sydney or Barcelona or Athens or even Atlanta," Brennan told ABC News.
"After Friday night's opening ceremony, which was over the top, literally the greatest ever, you wonder, where are those beautiful video screens where people can watch the replays and dance and cheer. Where are the bands? Where is the party?" she asked.
"They are going by the book, and it's going to be an organizationally perfect Olympics probably, but are they missing out on some of the fun?"
American Kenan Baker from Texas is in Beijing to attend the Games and can't help but compare his experience here to the 2004 Athens Olympics.
As he exited the women's gymnastics team finals Wednesday, Baker said, "We went to the Olympics in Greece and it's a little bit more hostile here because you see the volunteers ... sort of marching down the street. On every corner, you see a soldier holding a big automatic gun."
"When we were in Athens, we were much more at ease, compared to here," Baker continued.
Baker's friend Raleigh Young agreed. "They are kind of like on edge a little bit."
Nearby, Yi Guicun, from northeast China, exited the Olympic Green after attending women's synchronized diving at the Water Cube, saying that buying tickets was "very difficult, extremely difficult."
He is right. Tickets for events in Beijing sold out in four hectic phases of ticket sales.
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