http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/21/travel/21CHINA.html?_r=1&ref=travel&oref=slogi...

New York Times

By HILARY HOWARD
Published: September 21, 2008

THE Beijing Olympics, as the most-viewed event in American television
history, turned out to be pretty good publicity for Chinese tourism.

“Our customer base now wants to experience what they saw the Olympic
athletes experience on television,” said Jerry Pi, president of
Pacific Delight Tours. “I’ve seen a jump of about 20 percent for 2008,
in terms of deposits for 2009 tours, compared to 2007.”

Architecture buffs are also making a beeline to Beijing to see
groundbreaking projects like the Bird’s Nest — the Olympic stadium —
and Norman Foster’s Terminal 3 at the Beijing airport. According to
Detlev Bruckhoff, general manager of the FAR Agency (a German member
of the Guiding Architects Network), the company’s first architecture
tour to Shanghai and Beijing in October sold out in three weeks.
Another tour is planned for next April (www.far-galerie.de).