The China Bowl was the name of a proposed National Football League (NFL) pre-season exhibition game that had been scheduled to take place in August 2007, but later postponed to 2009 and ultimately canceled, between the New England Patriots and the Seattle Seahawks at the National Stadium in Beijing.
The originally scheduled China Bowl was to be played at Workers' Stadium in Beijing, China, on August 8, 2007. The game was to kick-off the one-year countdown before the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, and would have been the first NFL-sanctioned game to take place in China, as well as the first NFL preseason game played outside the United States since the league abandoned the American Bowl series in 2005 (game 1 of the Bills Toronto Series held that honor).
On April 2, 2007, the NFL announced the rescheduling of the preseason game in Beijing to August 2009, so that more focus can be placed on the start of the International Series, the first regular season game to take place outside of North America, which took place at Wembley Stadium, London that October. Both teams have expressed interest in still playing the game, and the Patriots, having operations in China, would have been an opponent either way.
China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a sovereign state in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population of over 1.35 billion. The PRC is a one-party state governed by the Communist Party, with its seat of government in the capital city of Beijing. It exercises jurisdiction over 22 provinces; five autonomous regions; four direct-controlled municipalities (Beijing, Tianjin, Shanghai and Chongqing); two mostly self-governing special administrative regions (Hong Kong and Macau); and claims sovereignty over Taiwan.
Covering approximately 9.6 million square kilometers, China is the world's second-largest country by land area, and either the third or fourth-largest by total area, depending on the method of measurement. China's landscape is vast and diverse, ranging from forest steppes and the Gobi and Taklamakan deserts in the arid north to subtropical forests in the wetter south. The Himalaya, Karakoram, Pamir and Tian Shan mountain ranges separate China from South and Central Asia. The Yangtze and Yellow Rivers, the third- and sixth-longest in the world, run from the Tibetan Plateau to the densely populated eastern seaboard. China's coastline along the Pacific Ocean is 14,500 kilometres (9,000 mi) long, and is bounded by the Bohai, Yellow, East and South China Seas.
João Pedro dos Santos Gonçalves (born 15 April 1982 in Beja), known as China, is a Portuguese professional footballer who plays for Cypriot club Nea Salamis Famagusta FC as a left back.
Written by: Julia Fordham
China Blue, fragile and missing you
Just heard the latest news, China Blue
China Blue, tell me it isn't true
One heart broken in two, China Blue
Heaven's holding a pale pale moon
Looks like an anaemic balloon
Can't believe what they're doing to you
Oh China, China Blue
China Blue, fragile and missing you
You did all you could do, China Blue
Heaven's holding a pale pale moon
The breeze whispering a sad sad tune
All my love I send to you
Oh China, China Blue