beyondBeijing2008.com

By Adrienne Mong, NBC News Producer
BEIJING –   By all rights, Beijing should be suffering the post-Olympic hangover anticipated by skeptics and cynics. 
China’s exports-driven economy has taken a big hit from the global recession. Millions of college graduates are still unemployed. Newly built shiny commercial buildings stand unoccupied.  And in recent weeks the Chinese government has stepped [...]

By Mary Murray, NBC News Havana Bureau Chief
HAVANA – As news of the death of the “King of Pop” spread last Thursday night, a group of fans and Jackson impersonators gathered in a tiny Havana living room in disbelief. They huddled around a shortwave radio and tuned to Florida stations, hoping someone would say it [...]

By Yonatan Pomrenze, NBC News Producer
 MOSCOW – When I first heard about the International Medical Leech Center from a colleague, my reaction was probably a typical one for an American: Yuck. Gross.
A breeding center for 150,000 leeches in a small village just outside Moscow did not sound like my ideal location for a story. [...]

By Tom Aspell, NBC News Correspondent
BAGHDAD – No American military vehicles patrolled Baghdad’s streets for the first time in six years on Tuesday morning, as U.S. forces in Iraq finished withdrawing from towns and cities to bases in the countryside.
Iraqi army troops and police manned checkpoints in the Shiite area of Sadr City, searching [...]

With the warmer weather, Guo Li Yi gets more business repairing bicycles on a Beijing street corner.The 63–year-old from Anhui province talks to NBC News about his life and work in the big city.

VIDEO: Swift business for Beijing bike repairman…(read more)