London 2012 blog

For once the sun is shining here in Beijing – or to be more precise 70 miles east of Beijing. I'm sitting on an old mattress in the entrance to an empty factory unit. A welcome zepyr is diluting the searing heat, and in the distance I can squint hard to see the Great Wall of China climbing over a jagged mountain top. There are times on this adventure when one has to stop the clock for a few seconds, take it all in and capture a once in a life-time experience.

Inside the factory unit there are rows of desks with PCs, bays of sound and lighting controls, bolts of fabric, huge spanners, crow bars and some welding gear. In the distance there's a bank of floor-length mirrors and a set of dancers exercise bars. This is our rehearsal base for the team preparing the London 2012 Handover segment. Outside there's a concrete apron and in the distance there are various items of the our modest set which scream of life back in a London street. Our dancers are about to start the next of their endless rehearsal routines. As they stretch and flex every sinew it could just as easily be a exercise class at the Royal Ballet. And yet here we are, some eight thousand miles away in the shadow of the Great Wall.

There's such a buzz to the place. The technical and production team have worked miracles to turn a redundant industrial park just a few days ago into something more like a film set. The dancers are coping with heat, humidity and the kind of bugs and beatles which would even scare Attenborough. They're all driving hard to realise the plans made over so many months in London. Everyone is focused in a way that you dream of in any creative production.

When the cast arrived in Beijing a few days back Seb (Coe) wrote to each and every one of them and likened their time here to arrival at the Athlete’s Village for Team GB. It is, he said, just like an athlete who's given up much of their lives to training and has only a week or so for final preparations to reach a personal best and dream of a medal.

The whole team feels the pressure of having to perform as part of the Beijing Closing Ceremony and create our short segment that offers London's invitation for the world to reunite in 2012. There's every bit as much dedication and focus as you'd find from Team GB here. With every Bronze, Silver and Gold Medal we hear about on this super weekend for British sport, the Handover team are spurred on to meet the many challenges we face over the last week of preparations.

We'll be doing our bit to help the celebrations on the 24th August. Do find a special way to celebrate the amazing achievements of Team GB here in Beijing and join in with the party that welcomes the Games to London!