The Portrait of an Olympic Host -- A year before the games: Beijing
builds and problems loom/Taipei Times

Published on Taipei Times

http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/feat/archives/2007/08/04/2003372758

A year before the games: Beijing builds and problems loom

In a country awash in political propaganda, one slogan posted around
this city looks unusually convincing: "New Beijing, Great Olympics."

By Craig Simons
NY TIMES NEWS SERVICE, BEIJING
Saturday, Aug 04, 2007, Page 16

http://www.taipeitimes.com/images/2007/08/04/p16-070804-aa.jpg
Chinese workers build a grand stage for the up coming one-year milestone
countdown party to the Beijing 2008 Olympic games at Tiananmen Square.
PHOTO: AFP

In a country awash in political propaganda, one slogan posted around
this city looks unusually convincing: "New Beijing, Great Olympics."

On Wednesday, when the countdown clock marks one year until the opening
ceremony of the 2008 Summer Olympics, China will be on target to host
arguably the most spectacular, competitive and expensive Games in history.

Beijing is spending a record US$34 billion to build and renovate 37
competition venues and construct hundreds of miles of new highways and
subway lines.

Officials also have launched a drive to "civilize" the city by
standardizing English and stamping out potentially off-putting habits
including spitting and line cutting.

But growing pollution problems in China and Beijing's increasingly
crowded streets have raised concerns. While the country's Communist
Party governance may be adept at meeting schedules, officials may be
unable to clear Beijing's air and prevent gridlock during the
16-day-long Games.

Beijing is often blanketed in smog from coal-burning power plants and
millions of cars and trucks, many of which have poor environmental controls.

Pollutants, including ozone - which can harm athletic performance by
lowering oxygen absorption, have become more concentrated in recent years.

A study of 15 large Asian cities released in January by the Asian
Development Bank found Beijing suffered the dirtiest air, with 142
micrograms of pollution particles per cubic meter. That was five times
New York City's average and more than seven times above the World Health
Organization's target for large cities.

The US Olympic Committee is monitoring Beijing's air quality "because it
has the potential to have a direct impact on (athletic) performance,"
said spokesman Darryl Siebel. The national sports organization has not
issued any recommendations to US athletes and coaches.

To improve air quality during the Games, Beijing will force vehicles
with substandard emissions off the roads, restrict production at
factories in Beijing and surrounding areas and increase parkland, said
Sun Weide, deputy director for the Beijing Organizing Committee for the
Olympic Games. He added that 28 million trees were planted in and around
Beijing last year.

"Preparations for the Beijing Olympic Games are going very well and are
on schedule," Sun said.

Chinese government reports estimate that the price tag for hosting the
Games will reach US$34 billion, more than twice the cost of the 2004
Summer Olympics in Athens.

Unlike Athens, where delays and cost overruns raised concerns that
venues might not be ready on time, Beijing's authoritarian government
has kept construction on schedule. The 91,000-seat National Stadium and
all other venues will be completed by March, Sun said.

To smooth the way for as many as 1.5 million tourists expected to visit
Beijing during the Olympics, Beijing is building a US$3.6 billion
airport addition that will more than double its size.

Siebel said US Olympic officials are "very comfortable with where things
stand in venue construction and other infrastructure and logistics."

Partly because China and Russia have improved their national sports
programs since the Athens Games, the Beijing Olympics "will likely be
the most competitive environment ever for an Olympic Games," he said.

"We think it will be a terrific opportunity and challenge."

To make China more accessible to foreigners, Beijing will offer free
multi-lingual help lines and is working to correct English mistakes on
road signs and menus, where misspellings and direct translations often
mystify diners.

"For a foreigner, eating in a Chinese restaurant can be daunting,
especially when you have a choice of dishes on the English menu ranging
from 'Swallowing the Clouds' to 'Hot Crap,'" a misspelling of carp, the
China Daily reported when it announced the English clean-up campaign
earlier this year.

Last year, Beijing hired thousands of people to force residents to form
orderly lines when waiting for public transportation and to spit in bags
rather than on the ground.

"The Olympic Games will provide lots of opportunity for education," Sun
said. "We're trying to encourage the public to use elegant language,
provide good service and of course to refrain from all kinds of spitting
or cutting in line."

But in a city where businesses routinely bend and ignore laws to cut
costs, some experts have voiced concerns about public health during the
Olympics.

In May, Chinese national broadcaster CCTV investigated indoor air
quality and found that managers routinely ignore regulations requiring
maintenance of air-conditioning systems.

In one case, dozens of Chinese athletes and coaches caught influenza
from a rarely cleaned air-conditioning system in China's chief sports
ministry and at least one was forced to drop out of an international
competition.

A slew of food safety problems have raised further concerns.

Tainted Chinese exports made headlines in the US this year, with scares
involving pet food, seafood and other products.

In 2003 and 2004 at least a dozen Chinese infants died after eating fake
baby formula with little or no nutritional value. Last November,
officials in China's northern Hebei province seized carcinogenic duck
eggs after farmers fed dye to the animals, one in a string of similar cases.

To improve food safety for athletes, Beijing will contract with
exclusive vendors and will test food samples on mice, the China Daily
reported last month.

Traffic will be another problem. To reduce congestion on Beijing's
overly crowded streets - which carry 1,100 new cars daily - the
government will limit traffic on some roads to buses carrying athletes
and Olympic ticket holders and will ground many state-owned vehicles,
Sun said.

The sudden world attention during the Olympics will be a "catalyst" for
positive change, International Olympic Committee President Jacques Rogge
said on yesterday.

"I am convinced that as much as the Games will enable the people of
China to develop a new vision of their own society, they will help
athletes and visitors gain a fairer perspective on China," Rogge said.

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