Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ

It's all very strange.

I'd been advised by locals to head for Kunming's downtown squares for the opening ceremony. The large outdoor screens there were bound to show live coverage, they said, and lots of people would gather to watch and celebrate.

But the streets were deserted. When I arrived at the squares they'd mentioned, the big screens were just showing adverts. No people and certainly no party atmosphere.

In the end I watched the opening ceremony by finding a corner shop and peering inside. A family of three generations was sitting there and let me watch too on their small television.

is a far-flung corner of China, its south west tip. It's thousands of kms from Beijing and it feels it, with its lush tropical climate and large proportion of ethnic minorities.

But everyone I've talked to here in the provincial capital, Kunming, is excited about the Olympic Games.

Everyone is watching the opening ceremony, either gathered round TV sets at home with friends or at public TV screenings in hotels, bars or outdoor squares.

Why do they care?

I'm a Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ foreign correspondent, specialising in Asia, who's reported from all over the world.

My previous posts include Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ Hong Kong correspondent, South Asia correspondent and State Department correspondent.

I'm now based in London. But during the Olympics, I'm reporting for the Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ on attitudes toward the Games in Yunnan Province in China's extreme south west.

I've written about changing China for the last 20 years.