Beijing is getting more civilized. Already there is less spitting, better queuing and cleaner streets.
More of this improvement is needed.

Renmin University created an annual “civic index” three years ago to gauge progress, surveying thousands of residents and sending out teams of observers.

The 2007 results all pointed in the right direction: 2.5% of people spat in public, down from 4.9% in 2006; instances of queue jumping dropped to 1.5% from 6%; and littering fell to 2.9% from 5.3%.

In the drive to reform behavior, Beijing has instituted the 11th of every month as ‘voluntarily wait in line’ day, distributed millions of etiquette pamphlets and threatened to detain boorish fans at sporting events.
But city officials cannot afford to let their guard down yet.

Beijing’s aggregate score in the civic index was 73.4 last year, still below the Olympics target of 80 points.
Source: Reuters