Bill Gates in Beijing...Bill Gates watched badminton matches at the ongoing Olympic Games here on Monday morning, and joked he was a badminton player.
Gates, founder of Microsoft and once the richest man in the world, said the competitions were "great" and he was impressed. When asked if he had been a badminton player, he replied with smiles "I became one."
He wrote "badminton is great" and signed his name at the Badminton World Federation's signature book.
The matches in the Beijing University of Technology Gymnasium on Monday morning were between the world top men's singles, women's singles and women's doubles players, in which the defending Olympic women's doubles champion Yang Wei and Zhang Jiewen were ousted early in the quarterfinals.
Praise on China
Microsoft co-founder said the "fantastically managed" Beijing Olympics had helped show the important role China will play in the world.
"I've had a wonderful trip this week. I started off by having a chance to go to the Olympic Games' opening ceremony, and see a lot of those games, which were fantastically managed," he told a packed audience in Hong Kong.
He was speaking at an event celebrating the 10th anniversary of Microsoft Research Asia, the software company's research arm in the Asia Pacific region.
"It really is a milestone, which shows the world the opportunities we have if we all work together, and have places like Hong Kong and China which will be such an important part of the future," he said.
"I also will get to spend some time here and see the Olympic events, and then go back up to Beijing and see more there," he said.
Gates also met Hong Kong's chief executive Donald Tsang on Tuesday to discuss his vision for the IT industry and developing Hong Kong into a leading digital city, his spokesman said.-AFP
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