After seven years of preparations and billions of dollars of investment, the Beijing 2008 Olympic games are finally under way. Al Jazeera has a team of reporters, producers and correspondents in Beijing for the duration of the 29th summer Olympics, providing coverage on air and online throughout the games. In this third part of our Beijing diary we will be posting notes from the team on the goings-on on and off the track - so keep coming back to read the latest entry. Click these links to catch up with part one or part two of our diary

Where are the parents?

For most competitors, the games are a family affair [GALLO/GETTY]

A lot of those paragraphs have recently been devoted to Michael Phelps's mother, who always sat poolside. Phelps admits he’s "definitely a momma's boy" – and the games are most definitely a family event.

Parents, siblings, grandparents - you run into them at the venues, with their hand-painted banners; or you run into them with their cameras, sightseeing around Beijing.

So, we watch the contenders and one comes out on top - a herculean athlete, invincible. And then, their parents show up and the Olympians break down in tears.

Usain Bolt's mother bear-hugged strangers in her row as she stumbled her way to meet him after his first gold. Gymnast Nastia Liukin's father has always been by her side - he is, after all, also her coach.

The Olympics is about the athletes, but a lot of it is about the drama around the athletes. People competing here after overcoming huge odds, people who are in Beijing now because of the sacrifices their families have made.

It's the stories as much as the actual competitions we remember, long after the games are over.

Phelps: A self-confessed "momma's boy" [GALLO/GETTY]

Where are the proud smiles, the screams of joy, or the tears and the comforting hugs? If any of them have been around to watch their child, state media have chosen not to show them on television.

From what we see - or rather - what we don't see, Chinese parents aren't around to cheer their child on.

This is yet another product of China's state-operated sports system.

We've seen the reports showing young Chinese children living in dormitories at sports facilities, from a very young age, away from their families, working closely with their coaches for hours every day. There are obvious sacrifices to living a childhood this way.

But, nothing has moved me more than noticing that after all the Chinese athletes have given for their country, the people presumably most important in their life have remained in the shadows, away from the glory of the games.

What Phelps can't do

Fei Er Pu Si with some of those "different" characters [GALLO/GETTY]

The US swimmer, who set what many believe to be a now unbeatable record in Beijing, told Wednesday's edition of the China Daily that his efforts to pick up a few words of Mandarin had been "the hardest thing I've ever tried in my life".

Phelps, who now challenges A-Team star Mr T for the title of American-with-most-gold-around-his-neck, is known here in China as "Mai Ke'r- Fei Er Pu Si".

The Olympian who studied German and French at high school said he had done battle with Chinese lessons, "but all the words, characters and pronunciations in Mandarin are so different".

Well, er, yeah.

Given the 12,000 calories of chow Phelps reportedly stuffs into his face every day, it's some wonder he can manage to get a few words in ANY language out - let alone Chinese.

Apparently racking up a career tally to date of 14 Olympic golds – five more than any other Olympic athlete in history - is nothing compared to mastering Mandarin.

Sport and politics

Taiwan fans cheer on their side with its own Olympic flag [AFP]

There are a lot of people from Taiwan who live in Beijing these days; mostly businessmen. And many of them showed up to support their island. Well, that's what I say as the objective journalist - but those guys would have said they were there to support their country.

If this is at all confusing to you - the short rundown on the history is that when the communists took power in China back in 1949, the anti-communist forces fled to the island of Taiwan and set up a separate government, and declared themselves the Republic of China.  The big China - the one with Beijing as the capital - is known as the People's Republic of China.  Beijing insists that there is only one China and that Taiwan is part of that territory.

What that means is Taiwan has had to compete in the Olympics as Chinese Taipei.  The territory has its own flag and national anthem, but neither can appear at any of the Olympic venues here.  Should a Taiwanese athlete win gold - the flag raised will be the sports association flag, and the music a sports anthem.

So, I'm sitting in the stands, and behind me is a huge group of Taiwanese. All waving patriotically that sports association flag. It's a rather neutral white flag with the five Olympic rings enclosed by a flower. It looks like a corporate logo. I spot one guy wearing a tri-colored red, white, and blue headband - the colors of the Taiwan flag. 

And then it hits me: What on earth will they shout?  Especially considering that even Taiwan is split on the issue - half the island believes in full independence, some living there consider themselves Chinese, and some living there consider themselves a completely different entity.

Well, they certainly can't shout, "Go Taiwan!"

What I did hear them shout, was "Zhong Hua Guo Jia You!" Here is where we're going to fall a bit lost in translation, because they're shouting the official name of Taiwan, the Republic of China. But that same phrase in Chinese also means, "Go Chinese nation" or, "Go greater China!"  Which is far more innocuous than going about, shouting "Taiwan!"

But notice the word "nation" ("guo") is embedded in their cheer. If this is at all confusing to you, rest assured it was equally confusing to the Chinese Taipei baseball fans sitting out there.

To add more issues of allegiance to the mix, the baseball game was against Japan. Historical enmity had people from both Taiwan and China rooting against the Japanese team. With mainland Chinese jumping up intermittently to shout "Go China!", and being met with approval by fans from Taiwan - even though it was the Chinese Taipei team playing, and not the China team.

Complicated? Well, politics always is, isn't it.

China's caring cops 

Keeping watch on the festivities [GALLO/GETTY]

The overt police presence in Beijing is something to behold. They have even taken over our hotel's health club and 1970s themed "big time fun" nightclub. Disappointingly they are just using them to store equipment.

I had been having visions of unorthodox cops who get results roller skating across the dancefloor with a tray of doughnuts, before sweating some answers out of a snitch in the sauna.

While uniformed gentlemen are ubiquitous they are not unfriendly. Far from it. You would think the international media accreditation we always have to wear would single us out for suspicion.

But during the games it has often resulted in smiles. Policeman and security guards are constantly saying yes to us.

We have been welcomed into the Forbidden City, given a leg up onto the Great Wall and allowed to roam through Tiananmen Square. It is almost too easy.

Many locals we have spoken to are concerned as to how long this attitude will last once the Olympics and the majority of the world's press ship out of town.

On just about every street corner you will see women perched on impossibly small stools. The trade they are plying is that of information.

They may look like sweet old ladies, but think neighbourhood busybodies with government connections. It is their job to report any 'suspicious' behaviour to local officials. To my mind that seems a dangerously broad remit.

Beijing right now puts you in mind of an unruly teenager that has had his hair flattened and shirt tucked in for grandma's birthday. We are seeing a version of reality you hope might last but suspect could change at any minute.