It is minus 5C (23F), the sun is shining and the traffic is moving freely. This is not the Beijing we were expecting. We are here to film an Olympic Special for Inside Sport, China is getting ready to greet the world and it is only when the last firework has been lit on August 24 that the baton of responsibility will be handed to London.

By then the People's Republic will have done everything in its power to have delivered the greatest show on earth and, depending on your disposition and proximity to the organising committee in London, you can start worrying about “our turn” - or looking forward to it - properly.

It is an extraordinary time to visit the city, which is experiencing such massive cultural and infrastructural change. It is less than 20 years since the massacre in Tiananmen Square and now there is a Starbucks within walking distance from where the tanks rolled in. The explanation for the lack of traffic jams is that it is Chinese New Year - everyone has left town or they are staying at home. It is like driving around London in August, except that those left here seem intent on driving like Lewis Hamilton.

Foreigners are not allowed to hire cars, so if you are coming to Beijing in August, you had better pray that the jams are back or shut your eyes in the back of your cab.

Ten years ago the people on these roads did not have cars, they rode bikes, and now that they have them - there are 1,000 new cars on the roads every week in Beijing alone - let us just say that they are driving them to their full potential. Who are you or I to tell them that they should get back on their bikes for the good of the planet? It was not so long ago that they were worried about a shortage of food; now they want what you and I have had for a long time.

The lack of traffic and people could account for the clear skies, otherwise where has all the smog gone? This is not the weather to worry an asthmatic marathon runner. The easing is temporary, I am assured by our “fixer”, whose job it is to gain access where none is allowed, to shout at security guards and to arrange meetings with the woman who finished third in Chinese X Factor.

The fixer says that China is experiencing abnormal weather. It is upside down: snow in the south and sun in the north. On our last day, the fifth in succession of blue skies and sunshine, she says that in eight years she cannot remember a week like it. I watch a news report on BBC World, talking about fears of pollution during the build-up to the Olympics, and the shots are of a smoggy day in Beijing. I look out of my window. It is the kind of winter sun you get on a good day skiing in the Alps.

Our fixer has two young sons. She says that they have permanent colds and chesty coughs. There is no doubt that the weather is abnormal this week, but there is also no doubt that China will be doing everything in its power to recreate these skies in August. Factories will shut down, half the cars will be taken off the road and houses will not be burning coal - it will be 40C and more when the Games are on. In fact, if I was a marathon runner - not that I spent the entire week worrying about Paula Radcliffe, my hero - I would be more concerned with heat and humidity than smog.

For our show it was Sir Matthew Pinsent's job to get inside the venues and check their progress. All I will say is that from the outside they are looking awesome. The Chinese are clearly not worried that the buildings will not work or be ready - they are more intent on being the right kind of hosts.

This involves a detailed, introspective look at etiquette and behaviour generally. Spitting, which is as normal to the Chinese as coughing is to us, is being stamped out, albeit slowly. Queueing is being encouraged - the locals are not big fans of a queue, as I discovered when I visited a toilet within an hour of arriving at the airport. There was nearly an international incident. Everyone is desperate to speak English in time for the Olympics, although outside of the Western hotels and swankier areas, it is not widespread.

At first, on meeting a news anchor for CCTV, the state television channel, I began to think that everyone was bound to say the same thing - “the pollution won't be a problem ... the buildings will be finished ... the Olympics will be fantastic” - and that there were no dissenters, no cynics. And, of course, it would be naive to think that there is freedom of speech here. Why ban the BBC and other Western news agency websites, why check our cameraman for ID seven times in the same location, why did our fixer not feel safe enough to get out of the car when we were filming in Tiananmen Square?

Having said that, it would seem the “on message” stuff is genuinely delivered; the people are truly excited about the Games. It does not resemble an Olympic city yet - the banners are not up, the branding is not adorning every high-rise building - and I feel privileged to have seen it in this state.

However, I am not so sure that I believe them when they say that topping the medal table does not matter, that it is the taking part that counts. That may just be a bit of propaganda too far.

Inside Sport's Olympic Special will be aired on BBC One on February 20 at 10.50pm

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