Beijing welcomes the Olympics

"Ha-pi-tu-mi-te-yu," he intoned.

Wow, I thought, six years out of Beijing and a long-haul flight from Europe have turned my once almost fluent Chinese to mush.

Then, it hit me. This was English. "'Happy to meet you?"' I asked.

He beamed proudly.

Give Beijingers this much: They sure want Olympic visitors to feel right at home.

In the seven years since the Olympic movement anointed Beijing as host of the 2008 Summer Games, China's capital has undergone a transformation so thorough that "makeover" doesn't begin to describe the change.