Beijing Olympics 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 

When Beijing won the right to stage the 29th Olympiad, BOCOG promised to launch an Olympic education program among the 400 million primary and secondary school students in China.
That came true at the end of 2006, when 556 schools across the country were listed as model schools for Olympic education. With the “Heart-to-Heart” program, over 200 schools were linked to their partners all over the world.
With an Olympic focus added to their curriculums, teachers and students found their school life more interesting. At Beijing Yangfangdian Central Primary school, a teacher gave out a unique extra-curricular homework assignment: count the gold medals that China grabbed in the Athens Olympic Games and figure out that percentage in the total number of gold medals awarded during those Olympics. That’s not such a difficult question, but the assigning teacher needed to rack her brains before drafting her lesson plan.
To make a cup of muddy water clean is easy for Beijing Dongzhimen Middle School students. They used simple tools to filter the water. The experience gave the pupils food for thought: why not filter the used water at home and reuse it to save running water?
Such practice takes place almost daily in 200 model schools in China’s capital city. A curricular system incorporating the Olympic content has been formed.
As part of their Olympic education requirement, Beijing’s model schools have engaged in partnerships with schools recommended by the IOC affiliated Olympic Committees of 205 countries and regions in the world. So far 130 Chinese schools have found their counterparts, accounting for 62.2 percent of the total.
The program encourages the schools to conduct student-to-student communication and carry out a series of bilateral activities. In August, the host schools will greet their partner NOC athletic delegation at the Team Welcome Ceremony at the Olympic Village and support athletes at the competition sessions. Additionally, the corresponding delegation will also be invited to visit their partner schools in Beijing.
After visiting Beijing High School No. 4 in 2007, Minos Kyriakou, President of the Greek Olympic Committee, promised to invite 50 students to tour his country.
One more example: in praising the “Heart-to-Heart” program, the President of the Bulgarian State Agency for Youth and Sports, Vessela Letcheva, pledged to provide 1,300 sets of hats and sportswear bearing the signs of the Bulgarian athletic delegation to the students of Beijing High School No. 14 and hoped that they will cheer for the Bulgarian athletes during the Beijing Olympics.
In its latest issue, the IOC official publication “Olympic Review” described the “Heart-to-Heart” program as a “unique” activity spreading the Olympic values of excellence, friendship and respect among youth. The project is also an expression of the theme slogan of the Beijing Olympics — One World One Dream.

Photo credit: www.bjd.com.cn

The journal also commented that Beijing’s Olympic program is a massive campaign diffusing Olympic values into the vast areas of China.
BOCOG also impressed the IOC in other deeds: it has compiled Olympic textbooks and wall charts on the Olympics for students of primary and secondary schools, and established Olympic-themed columns or channels in newspapers, websites, and radio and TV stations.
The annual contests held by BOCOG have involved many school children in Olympic-themed photography, drawing, calligraphy, essay writing, artistic performances, foreign language skills and good manner demonstrations, leaving behind a brilliant tangible legacy.

from: beijing2008.cn