It's showtime as Olympic athletes and tourists stream into Beijing. For those of us who've waited months for the Olympics amid construction dust and growing traffic congestion, the rewards are now here. Tuesday brought my first Olympic perk, and it was fabulous.

But it didn't start out well. A sudden late afternoon text message telling me of an International Olympic Committee (IOC) press conference sent me scurrying to the Olympic Green. It was peak rush hour and after 30 minutes hunting for a taxi in the snarl-up near Newsweek's bureau I was ready to abandon the idea as it seemed impossible to get there in time. Then an empty cab appeared. The driver—more switched on to the possibilities than I was—demanded to see my Olympic press pass.

Soon we were waving it at policemen and hitting Beijing's Second Ring Road at 100 kilometers