In Shanghai, I do not have to put up with massive traffic jams or inflated prices at food and entertainment venues. I think I have enough of crowds during Shanghai's infamous peak-hour metro crush.

For the Chinese, the significance of the Olympics does not lie merely in the hosting of the world's biggest sporting event.

More than ever, the Olympics are China's big step towards rejoining the superpowers in the global arena, demonstrating economic clout and a fierce dose of Chinese nationalist pride.

Upgrades of its airport and metro system aside, Beijing has been enforcing an odd-even car ban that aims to tackle traffic congestions where only half of the cars will be allowed on the roads each day, depending on whether their number plates end in odd or even numbers.

The measure that definitely takes the cake is that dog meat will be taken off Beijing menus during the Olympics.

Not quite what I had expected, the mega-event has also brought along more inconveniences than I can imagine.

I do not think anyone has anticipated the visa restrictions on foreigners, which not only reduced the number of foreigners entering China but also sent more than a few long-term foreign residents home.

Over the last few months, many friends encountered difficulties renewing their visas, with some even having to cut short their stay in Shanghai.

The ongoing visa restrictions have also dampened the usual Olympics host city tourism boom. As late as June this year, the number of visitors to the capital fell by 19.9 per cent from a year earlier, according to the Beijing Tourism Authority.

Hotel restrictions on foreigners are not new but now they are enforced more strictly as the Beijing Olympics approach.

I was in Yarkand, Xinjiang, last month, far in the western reaches of China, thousands of kilometres away from any of the Olympic venues.

Yet no hotels, motels or guesthouses apart from three would take me, all citing government restrictions 'for the safety and comfort of foreign guests'.

In less than two weeks, the big day that Beijing is waiting for will finally arrive as it opens the first Olympic Games ever held in the Middle Kingdom.

I'm sure the Olympics will proceed without a hitch, in spite of the Kunming bus bombing and last Thursday's terrorist arrests in Shanghai.

While we cannot be sure if China will top the medal tally, the one thing we can be sure of is heightened security.

It will be a safe, dazzling display of Chinese grandeur and hospitality showcasing the best China has to offer.

Yes, the world will be looking at China, come Aug 8.

I too, shall await with bated breath, not so much for China, but more for the Singaporean athletes representing my tiny island nation.

I see it as a time for me to swell with national pride.

The writer, 26, graduated from Singapore Management University and is working in Shanghai.

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