What Not to Pack for the Olympics

Leave your opium, pornography, and drugs at home, and don't even think about soiling the Chinese flag if you plan to attend the Olympics this August.    

China has been working hard to clean up the manners within Beijing for the past few years, but Monday the Beijing Olympic Organizing Committee released a nine page, 57 topic document for foreigners to abide by when attending the Games. 

This extensive document, which is only on the Chinese-language Olympic website, bans everything from anti-China records and paraphernalia to guns to prostitution.

Any banner that "disturbs the public order" by its political or religious messages won't be allowed at Olympic event, and people with "mental diseases" are also not welcome  Foreigners who thought they'd squeeze in a trip to Tibet during their big trip to China will also be sorely disappointed.  That's off-limits as well. 

Some of these rules seem a little unusual, like reporting any instance of food poisoning to the Health Department.  While it's nice that they take food safety seriously, I've known many people to get food poisoning from one fluke dinner.  But Chinese authorities want to leave nothing to chance when it comes to ensuring the perfect Olympic Games.

For those flirting with the idea of breaking some of the rules, there are some potentially heavy consequences.  80,000 Olympic security guards will be on the scene to ensure that these rules aren't broken, or that justice is swiftly administered if they are.  Xinhua reports a new team of 160 specially trained dogs will be sent to Beijing to patrol and monitor any questionable behavior. 

Even foreign and domestic mail shipments will be watched more closely.  Shipments of liquid parcels will also be banned between June 1 and October 31.  Passengers on domestic flights can't even have any liquid in their carry-ons, probably in response to a March bomb scare, where a Uighur Muslim woman was arrested for trying to bomb a toilet on a domestic flight.     

While Olympic terrorism threats weigh heavily on the minds of Chinese officials, they've taken every possible precaution to guarantee a safe Olympics.  Even with all of the new regulations, visitors will probably face a far greater likelihood of getting food poisoning than attacked by a terrorist.

At the same time, it's somewhat refreshing to know that not only will the Beijing air be free of smoke from cigarettes and cigars, but that it will also be free of opium.  If only clearing up pollution could be so straightforward.