My Olympics
Christina Lionnet
I came back to see the Games, but also to meet up with old friends in a city I love,' said Lionnet, who moved back to Paris 18 months ago after working in Beijing as a freelance journalist for nearly four years.
'Paris to me is like a fossil - it's nice, but it doesn't change at all. Beijing is so much more dynamic. Here there is a feeling of enthusiasm and things moving,' she said, praising the innovative new buildings that have sprung up throughout the capital during her absence.
'I arrived at the new Terminal 3, which is amazing. Other new buildings, especially the CCTV tower, are really beautiful, but also inventive and technically impressive.
'But the most unexpected change I've found is in people's behaviour. When you take the subway or a bus, people queue up now.
'These new habits are much more of a surprise than the new buildings. The Beijing government has clearly made a big effort to improve behaviour.'
Another unexpected development has been the heightened sense of civic and national pride evident in the thousands of 'I love China' T-shirts being worn on Beijing's streets.
'You can see how the developments in the city have made people proud of their city and their country,' Lionnet said.
'Now you can see that national pride everywhere.'
This pride was dented in April after human rights protesters in Paris attacked the Olympic torch, causing a wave of ill feeling on the mainland towards France, including a short-lived boycott of supermarket chain Carrefour.
'I have always found Beijingers and Chinese people very friendly, especially as a French person, because we have traditionally had a good relationship with each other,' Lionnet said.
'But after all the recent trouble between China and France, I was afraid of [more] trouble.
'But it's not as I feared. The people are still friendly. They don't show ill feeling about France to my face.'
