BEIJING DIARY: A segmented city, ideal for pandemic Olympics

By TED ANTHONY
AP National Writer

BEIJING (AP) — Some Olympics signs in Beijing talk of staying “together for a shared future.” Others warn: “Don’t cross the line.” This might seem ironic, but it isn’t. For the Chinese capital, it’s natural. Visitors may find this ironic — hypocritical, even. It’s not. For Beijing, it’s the most natural thing of all. The Olympics are the latest, most modern incarnation of something that has been true about the Chinese capital for decades, even centuries. Beijing is a compartmentalized city full of tiny gated, fenced and subdivided ecosystems that have made it strangely appropriate for a locked-down, tightly regulated COVID Olympics.