As a Canadian, I suppose to support our Canadian candidate Toronro for the 2008 bid. China has changed a lot since 1980s, and Beijing has made its tremendous efforts to prepare for the Games. Cheng-Yu I think Athens is much worse than Beijing in terms of air pollution. Due to the severe air polution and poor public sanitary conditions, I don't think Beijing is suitable for any huge sporting competition. Not to mention the Olympic in the next 5 to 10 years.
China is still a very poor country, and starvation is still a big problem.
Lots of child in remote area have no chance to go to school. However, the government will spend several billion USD to build lots of fancy sport facilities for this game in Beijing. It's waste of money. Westerners never understand what's going on in China. China never is an ideal place to host the game.