Beijing Olympic Games 2008

With more than five months to go until the Olympics, Beijing residents are making progress with their etiquette, as indicated by a “city index.”
A survey released by Renmin University found that in 2007, 2.54percent of people still spat in public, down by 2.36 percentage points from 2006.
Over the past three years, the poll surveyed more than 10,000 local residents and 1,000 foreigners who had lived in Beijing for more than two years. It also gathered 3,000-hour observations from300,000 people at 320 public venues and 200,000 automobiles.
The survey found that the occurrence of littering in public had dropped from 5.3 percent in 2006 to 2.86 percent in 2007 and queue-jumping dropped from 6 percent to 1.5 percent.
The “civic index” of Beijingers, calculated using several parameters, was 73.38 in 2007, up from 65.21 and 69.06 in 2005 and2006, respectively. The index reflects compliance with rules involving public health and public order, attitudes towards strangers, etiquette at sports events and a willingness to contribute to the Olympic Games.
However, the “civic index” still fell short of the standard required for the 2008 Olympics, according to Sha Lianxiang, a sociology professor at Renmin University. The standard is said to be 80 points.
Beijing expects to receive 550,000 foreign tourists during the Olympics and an estimated 2 million domestic tourists will also visit.

from: xinhuanet.com 

Beijing, host city of the upcoming summer Olympics, will have special teams to conduct daily safety checks of its huge water network.
“The team will consist of more than 300 patrol staff and 400 maintenance workers doing round-the-clock checks and maintenance of the water pipelines and ground water systems,” said Yu Yaping, an official with the Beijing Municipal Bureau of Water Affairs.
Yu said that regular inspections would officially start in May.
“The Games will be held in August, which is the annual flood season in Beijing. The routine checks will cover sound drainage of rain water, especially in the sports venues,” said Yu.
There are also many large “waterscapes” built to beautify the city for the big event, and the bureau will also be responsible for detecting groundwater pollution.
Water safety is a key factor in guaranteeing success in hosting the world event.
The capital, which has ongoing water supply problems, has prepared to guarantee sufficient water for the Olympics. Water diverted through the country’s south-north diversion project will reach Beijing by March.
Beijing’s neighboring province, Hebei, will contribute its reservoir water to back up the national capital’s supply.

from: xinhuanet.com 

BEIJING - The “Water Cube“, one of the two iconic venues for the 2008 Beijing Olympics, was unveiled on Monday.
Known officially as the National Aquatics Center, the Water Cube has been dubbed the “cool” building of the Games. The building’s design and its translucent, blue-toned outside skin make it look like a cube of bubbles - like “bubble wrap.”
Forty-two gold medals well be handed out at the Water Cube during the Olympics, which start August 8.
It was the publics first look at the building after a little more than three years of construction.
The venue has 6,000 permanent and 11,000 temporary seats. Like the 91,000-seat National Stadium - the “Bird’s Nest,” which will be completed in March - both are seen as works of art and will anchor the Olympic Green area.
The Water Cube has been built to be converted to a shopping area and leisure center with tennis courts, retail outlets, nightclubs and restaurants.
“This building was designed for use after the games,” said John Pauline of PTW Architects, one of the lead architects on the Water Cube. “We were looking at 30 or 40 years from now.”
The outside skin is made of a Teflon-like material, ETFE (ethylene-tetrafluoroethylene). Composed of two layers, it’s separated by an interior passage that allows the building to breathe like a greenhouse.
The Water Cube was built at a cost of more than US$200 million (euro136 million), with donations of US$110 million (euro75 million) from people in Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan Province.
There will be 37 venues for the Olympics. Beijing is the site of 31, 12 new, 11 renovated, and eight temporary structures. Most are located in four clusters in the north of the city. Five more venues for soccer and sailing are located outside Beijing, and equestrian events will be held in Hong Kong.
Organizers will stage a swim meet in the Water Cube on Friday to test the facilities.

from: chinadaily.com.cn

In the run-up to the Olympics, Beijing wants more smoke-free hotel rooms and is planning to raise the proportion in each hotel to at least 70 percent.
Public opinion is sought by the Legislative Affairs Office of Beijing’s municipal government. Citizens in Beijing can put forward their opinions and suggestions on the Internet from January 21 till February 1.
The smoking ban will build on 1996 regulations and could be expanded to more public places including fitness centers and cultural relics sites, offices, meeting rooms, dining halls, toilets, aisles and lifts in buildings belonging to government or private institutions.
In addition, the outdoor smoking area should not be where the public has to pass through, says the new regulation, posted on the official website of the legislative affairs office (www.bjfzb.gov.cn).
However, fines are only planned to be small - up to 50 yuan (US$6.9), says the regulation.
As the host city for the August 8-24 Games, Beijing wants smoking bans in all hotels that provide services for athletes and other Games workers, and all competition venues and restaurants in the Olympic Village by June.
The city has also banned smoking in hospitals, schools, restaurants and other places.
From October 1 last year, Beijing banned smoking in the city’s 66,000 cabs, and imposed a fine of 100 yuan to 200 yuan (US$14 to 28) on drivers if caught smoking in cabs.
China has pledged non-smoking Olympics and Green Olympics, and this year’s event will be the first non-smoking Olympic Games after the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC), of which China is a signatory, went into effect in 2005.
About 350 million people in China smoke, statistics from the Ministry of Health show. That is about 26 percent of the country’s population and a third of the world’s smoking population. About 1 million people die from smoking-related diseases each year.

from: chinadaily.com.cn 

Beijing plans to take more than one and a half million cars off the roads during the Olympic Games 2008, said an official from the Beijing Traffic Management Department on Tuesday.
The official said, by the time the Games begins, there will be about 3.3 million vehicles running in the city, putting more pressure on the roads.
To restrict the use of vehicles, the government would cut the number of vehicles on the roads by exercising a ban on government vehicles, similar to the one used during the Beijing Summit of Sino-African Cooperation Forum in 2006, and last August’s 4-day test of alternating cars with license plate numbers ending in even and odd numbers.
During the Olympics, there is a plan to have more buses, including 173 shuttle bus lines and 34 lanes dedicated to Olympic traffic.

from: chinadaily.com.cn 

Just 200 days away, the Beijing Olympics is poised to be the most memorable Games in history.

China has waited almost 100 years for the Olympic Games and sees the Aug. 8-24 sports spectacle as an opportunity to showcase itself to the world.
“The Olympic Games is not simply a sports event and its meaning is beyond sports itself,” said Wei Jizhong, a former vice president of the Chinese Olympic Committee and currently a senior consultant with the Beijing Organizing Committee (BOCOG).

Nothing shows the ambitions better than the large scale of infrastructure construction. China has spent billions of dollars on a makeover of the capital city that includes new highways, an extended subway system and a new airport terminal as well as massive construction on sports facilities.

After seven years’ preparations, the hour of reckoning is soon to come.

“Under the full support of our government and people, all types of preparation work for the Games are going smoothly, according to schedule,” said BOCOG executive vice president Liu Jingmin. “The conditions for Beijing holding a successful Olympics are almost mature.”
Work on the 37 competition venues is coming to an end with 36 already inaugurated and the showpiece National Stadium, known as the “Bird’s Nest” for its giant latticework structure of metal girders, is expected to be put into operation next March.
The public are obsessed with a massive hunt for a chance to be part of the greatest show on Earth.
More than 800,000 people have applied for a volunteer’s post, while hundreds of thousands of candidates chased the 19,400 domestic torchbearer berths available, all keen to join in a historical relay that will see the flame travel an unprecedented 137,000 kilometers around the world, including in an awe-inspiring ascent of Mount Qomolangma.

Three construction worker walked past the the National Stadium, nicknamed “Bird’s Nest,” in Beijing, Jan. 17, 2008. (Xinhuanet Photo)

Old habits are also being demolished.

Etiquette campaigns were launched to stamp out bad manners like queue-jumping, spitting, littering and cursing in public. Millions of brochures were sent out to individuals to introduce a new code of conduct, while polishing courses are being offered to all civil servants and the people working in the service sector, such as cabdrivers, shopping assistants, waiters and waitresses, and bus conductors.
English translations popularly known as “Chinglish” is also out. Hotlines have been set up for citizens who spot an English-language-related mistake on a public sign to call and notify the authorities.
China’s financial goals have also been met with revenue from the Games expected to exceed original target. The Beijing Olympics has 60 sponsors and suppliers, almost 50 percent more than Athens in 2004.
However, despite the enormous efforts that Beijing has made, some preparations for the Olympics are proving harder to control.
There are persistent concerns about the level of air pollution in Beijing and International Olympic Committee president Jacques Rogge said twice publicly last year that some endurance events might be rescheduled if the air is too dirty during next August. But local officials believe it will improve significantly by the time the games start.
Du Shaozhong, deputy director of the municipal bureau of environmental protection, said the city will order at least one third of 3.3 million vehicles off the road during the 16-day Olympics and close dust-spewing construction sites and polluting factories.
“I am confident that Beijing’s air quality in August will meet the World Health Organization’s standards,” he said.

Almost a year out, at least one verdict is there.

“For many reasons, political, social, historical, there will be more focus on these Olympic Games in China than there has been on any others for many, many years,” Steve Roush, head of sports performance for the U.S. Olympic Committee, said during his visit last August.

“It will be a spectacle that will grip the world.”

from: xinhuanet.com

With the Beijing Olympic Games only 200 days away, police in the capital city are maintaining high alert and preparing for a safe Olympics.

Emergency response comes to normal status
On January 1, 2008, a team of civil police officers employed eight police dogs to seek inflammable and explosive hazardous articles at a section of the subway in Beijing as part of a new antiterrorist and antiriot move in the Olympic year.
On the scene of a police drive recently, 12 international security experts applauded when they saw the Beijing special police force rescue a hostage in just seven minutes. The policemen also demonstrated their skills in driving, fighting without using arms, cleaning the scene of an explosion, and controlling the turbulence of sports fans …
“Since 2004, we have taken the enhancement of anti terrorist and anti riot capacity as our first priority, by training special personnel and conducting citywide antiterrorist drives to bring the task of anti-terrorism and emergency response to the normal track,” said Ma Zhenchuan, director of the Beijing Municipal Bureau of Public Security and commander of Olympic Security.
“We noticed that the Beijing police have made due plans and preparations, taking efficient measures to guard against any emergencies,” said an official of the U.N. Interregional Crime and Justice Research Institute.
As early as 2005, Beijing set up the main detachment of the special police to take precautions against terrorist attacks and explosions that were rampant in some areas of the world. Beijing’s subway lines have been among the key public places to receive special attention.
The new detachment, equipped with different types of guns, wolf-eye flashlights and a series of special vehicles, has met the demands of rapid-response, swift treatment, and mobile combat and has enhanced the capital city’s antiterrorist and emergency-response capacities and levels. Its members have undergone special training and accumulated experience in dealing with kidnapping, hostage-taking, explosions and other terrorist incidents.
“Although Beijing has not seen any terrorist incident so far, it has an anti-terrorist force of high combat effectiveness which can deal with any emergencies,” said Liu Shaowu, director of BOCOG’s Security Department.
Indeed, the rapid response capability of the Beijing police has increased. The 110 police can emerge on the spot in an average of 4.5 minutes upon receiving an incident report. The rate of arrest in five minutes has reached 58 percent in case of feasible conditions.
An antiterrorist squad comprising 33 members from 16 key departments is monitoring the city’s water, power, and gas stations and is ready to respond to any emergency as fast as possible.
Currently, the Olympic security system has passed test runs. During the Olympic Games, security forces will be assigned to different posts according to the needs. Beijing police have made 52 general plans, which will be updated and supplemented along with the situations in China and elsewhere. To make the plans more thorough and well-knit, over 70 Chinese and foreign experts have been appointed.

from: beijing2008.cn 

Beijing has promised to provide smooth transport during the Olympic Games.
The pledge is based on the experience of previous editions of the Olympic Games and the effect of the measures that the city has already taken in the Good Luck Beijing sport events, as well as arragements made in the Sino-African Forum in 2006. Beijing also plans to take new measures to alleviate traffic problems in the near future.
To deal with the large amount of tourist travel during the Olympic Games in August this year, Beijing will increase the number of bus operations by 2,000 vehicles. This will mean a total of 10,000 to 12,000 buses on the road a day, carrying an estimated total of 13.8 million to 14.8 million passengers daily, 2.8 million more than before the added transportation.
Beijing’s rail mileage will reach 200km ahead of the Olympics, judging from the test operations of subway line No. 10 and the airport line. By shortening the operation intervals and expanding the train capacity, the maximum daily subway output can reach 4.12 million passengers, a growth of 1.1 million over the routine figures. Through more intensive maintenance and higher flow speed and occupancy, the 66,600 taxis in Beijing are able to cater to 2.35 million to 2.45 million passengers a day.
Beijing is also carrying out a long-term scheme aiming at extending its rail mileage to 561km in 2015 to solve 40 percent of road transport, according to Liu Xioaming, vice-director of the Beijing Municipal Commission of Communications.

from: beijing2008.cn 

Beijing’ acting mayor Guo Jinlong said Sunday the municipal government will work to contain housing price hike and provide low-rent housing for poor residents.
He said the government would strengthen the macro control on the property market, adjust land provision and keep a tight housing credit policy, among others, to achieve the goal.
The government would spend 2.9 billion yuan ($40 million) to build and purchase 500,000 square meters of houses and flats and rent them to low-income residents at affordable prices, he told about 770 lawmakers at the annual session of the legislature.
Beijing would also build a total of 7.5 million square meters of houses and flats with reasonable prices and sizes this year, as one of the measures to curb the price hike, Guo added.
The government planed to spend 580 million yuan to renovate the houses for 10,000 families that were in dangerous conditions.
The average property price in China’s 70 and medium-sized cities in December were up 10.5 percent from the same month of the previous year, while in Beijing it was up 17.5 percent, according to the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) earlier this week.
Officials with the Ministry of Construction have criticized that some developers were only interested in building large-sized luxurious apartments for high profit.
Some development companies hoarded land and apartments or spread false information to create public fear for housing shortages so they could drive up prices, Vice Minister of Construction Qi Ji said.
Earlier this month, the State Council, China’s cabinet, made amendments to the Regulation on Administrative Punishment for Price Violations to allow more stringent penalties for illegal price manipulators.

Beijing’s acting mayor Guo Jinlong delivers a government work report during the opening ceremony of 13th Beijing People’s Congress in Beijing January 20, 2008.

The acting mayor also vowed to accomplish the preparations for the upcoming Olympic Games to a “high level”, partly by addressing the concerns on traffic jams and pollution.
He put the preparations on the top of the municipal government’s agenda for the year, saying “(We must) accomplish the preparations for the Olympic Games and provide services in high-level and high-caliber ways.”
Guo made the remarks while delivering a government work report to about 770 deputies to the city’s legislative body that kicked off its annual session on Sunday morning.
“Hosting the 2008 Olympic Games and Paralympics is a great event for the county, the people and the Chinese nation,” Guo said.
He urged the National Stadium, nick-named the “Bird’s Nest” due to the shape, and other venues and facilities to conclude construction according to schedule.
The expansion of the Beijing international airport and the Beijing South Railway would be completed this year, plus the construction of a subway linking the airport to the downtown and several other subways and expressways.
Guo said Beijing would enact the “strictest standards” for pollutant emission this year and curb the pollution by heavy trucks that work at night.
Beijing would also cooperate with neighboring provinces and cities in improving environment conditions.
However, he admitted that “the task to control pollution and traffic congestion is still arduous.”
The government needed to provide better public services and improve the management of the city, he said.

Vice director of BOCOG Olympic Village Deng Yaping told the press that the Olympic and Paralympic Villages will try to showcase Chinese features and leave a “China impression” with the world’s athletes.
On January 15, members of the BOCOG were received at a press conference, with Deng Yaping as the chair. She announced that the Beijing Olympic Village will start operation on July 27, 2008 and close on August 27, 2008. The Paralympic Village will open on August 30, 2008 and close on September 20, 2008.
According to Deng, the Olympic and Paralympic Villages are complete in terms of functions. There are cafeterias, health training centers, entertainment rooms, religious centers, and clinics in the village. A twenty-four-hour shuttle bus service is also provided to transport the athletes among different areas.
The Qingdao Olympic Sub-village is close to the competition venue and the functions and landscape are integrated to the overall plan of the Qingdao Sailing Center. Hong Kong’s Olympic Village is a sixteen-floor hotel chosen by BOCOG. It’s about two kilometers from the Hong Kong Equestrian Stadium.
The Olympic and Paralympic Villages will showcase Chinese characteristics as much possible. While ensuring athletes obtain good rest and recovery, the Village will show them elements of Chinese culture. Chinese restaurants will provide Chinese food and various Chinese traditional performances will also be presented.
Deng said the Beijing Olympic Games will allow athletes to say to themselves, “I live in Beijing now and I’m living in Beijing’s Olympic Village.”

from: beijing2008.cn