BEIJING, China - Not interested in spending $500 a night for a Beijing luxury hotel room during the Olympics? Why not savor the ambiance of living with a local family?

About 600 Chinese families are opening their homes to tourists during the Summer Olympic Games, charging about $50 – $80 a night.

What can Olympic visitors expect if they stay with a host family? CNN spent a night with one family to find out.

Ten flights of stairs gets you to the fifth-story home of the Chen family, who live in a well maintained Soviet-style apartment near Beijing's famous Food Street.

"Welcome to Beijing," says Grandpa Chen, emphasizing each syllable equally. His grandson, David Chen, is the family's official ambassador - he's fluent in English.

Chinese tourism officials carefully screen host families. They inspect apartments to ensure they're clean and safe, and that at least one family member speaks English.

The bedroom for visitors is neatly appointed - clean white walls, an armoire, a desk, and a bed with a playful orange and white bedspread. There's a TV too, with government-run channels that broadcast in Chinese.

Before settling in, foreign visitors check in with the local police - it's a short walk from the Chen's apartment to the local station.

"It's to protect foreigners," David Chen says.

With formalities out of the way, it's time for a home-cooked dinner from David's mother, Chen Ling. "I think other foreigners would love to come here and see how the Chinese
really live," she said.

Grandpa says everyone will be treated like family - and that includes getting first dibs on the shower.

All families hosting tourists must live near Olympic venues or tourists attractions, and the Chens are just a short distance from Beijing's colorful Food Street, where dozens of kiosks and shops stretch for blocks.

Vendors call out, trying to entice passers-by with delicacies like lamb testicles and snake. If those don't tantalize your taste buds, you can always have starfish, silk worm pupae on a stick or scorpions.

For now, though, dog is off the menu. Officials were afraid that Western visitors more used to treating their pets than eating them would be upset.

Despite some social miscues, the cultural exchange is one that suits both hosts and visitors.

Back at the apartment, the Chens anticipate their next guest - a man from the United Kingdom. Chen Ling says he looks like soccer star David Beckham.

If the Beckhams are in Beijing, they're more than likely in one of the capital's luxury hotels, but a host family can dream, can't it?

BEIJING, China - The expatriates who live have another name for the 2008 Summer Olympics: Many call it "Beijing's War on Fun Campaign."

Beijing's bar scene: Suspension of the good times?

It started months ago, when security guards at a local apartment compound tried to stop a 4-year-old's birthday party in a common green - complete with menacing bouncy castle - because, the parents were told, so many children in the one place at the one time was a threat to Olympic security.

In other compounds, gatherings of more than four people require a special permit, extra police patrols now roam the Sanlitun area - a popular hangout for expats, filled with bars, restaurants and night clubs. Elsewhere, bars are being forced to close, visa regulations are enforced to the letter (like never before) and thousands have been kicked out of the country.

But perhaps this past weekend came the official declaration the war is on in earnest: The regular weekend golf round has been cancelled because new restrictions on travel into the city are creating delays of up to three hours for documentation and automobile inspections, read an e-mail from the golf organizers.

Since most of the golf courses are outside Beijing, and until the golfers get a better idea of how to deal with the new rules, they won't be swinging clubs on the weekend.

Let the Games begin - and be over as soon as possible many here seem to be adding under their breath.

BEIJING, China – A month to go and do you want to know how bad the pollution is in Beijing? Check out today's photo from my living room. There's another photo of what it looks like on a clear day (which was Sunday, our one good day after weeks of smog and haze).

View from my living room shows what Beijing looks like on a clear day and then after the smog.

But I have absolute faith the air will be fine by the time athletes arrive. In less than two weeks half the cars will be taken off the road – odd licence numbers one day, even the next – hundreds of factories will be closed, and half a million tourists will arrive and think all the news reports about pollution have been greatly exaggerated. Trust me we're not mad, the air is terrible. I have a four-year-old daughter with a regular cough which seems to clear up whenever we leave. I wonder what the other billion or so Chinese people do who can't get out for oxygen breaks.

There are serious questions being asked about the lasting environmental legacy.

But Beijing will dazzle the world with amazing venues, beautiful gardens, and a population eager to please. It even seems security guards and police may have gone to smile school.

They smile a lot these days when they politely say no. No is a word reporters hear a lot in this country, especially when it comes to Tibet – as in no way on the planet are you going to be allowed to go there, despite press freedom being the one solid promise the Chinese made to the IOC (apart from the bricks and mortar of sporting venues).

One month to go, and after seven years of construction and controversy, billions and billions of U.S. dollars, Beijing is ready and for the most part, they've done all of this on their terms.

As far as a sporting spectacular goes, it's right on the money... It's just hard to breathe easy about anything else.