A new subway line, which runs through the complex of stadiums, gymnasiums and parks for the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games, is to begin trial operation on June 1.

An official has said the construction of the subway tunnel and stations has been completed.

The 4.4-km-long line starts from Beitucheng, near the northern fourth ring road, and travels underground through the gymnasium of swimming, the venue for the Olympiad opening ceremony, the Olympic Park and the Forest Park. It has four stops.

Beijing currently has 95 km of mass transit railway lines in operation, of which 54.15 kilometers were built underground.

According to Beijing’s city planning authorities the city will increase the number of subway lines to nine with a total length of 200 km by 2008, and bring them to 19 totaling 561.5 km by 2020.
Source: English East Day

Beijing has done its utmost to provide a good image to the citizens of the world who will be attending the Beijing 2008 Summer Olympic Games this August. Yes, there have been articles against China and against Beijing and against the government but these are starting to subside as the reality of the preparation of the games becomes apparent.

Beijing is deploying about 80 sniffer dogs to patrol the subway system to sniff out flammable products such as fireworks. Xinhua quotes police officer Wang Ning as saying, ‘the security patrol ahead of the festival will be good practice for the police dogs ahead of the Beijing Olympic Games later this year’. Eight dogs have already started patrolling five downtown stations.
A special monitoring centre for food safety will be set up for the Games. Zhang Zhikuan, head of the Beijing Municipal Bureau for Industry and Commerce said the Olympic Food Safety Command Center will issue warnings of food risks and deal with food related emergencies. Food to be provided for the Games will be classified into 345 items under 10 categories, with each item checked against specific technical standards.
Beijing has started enforcing a stricter auto fuel standard to help further reduce pollution. Gasoline and diesel sold in Beijing must meet the China IV standards equivalent to the European Union’s Euro IV requirements. Beijing introduced China III fuel standards at the end of 2005 which cut emissions by 2,480 metric tons annually, and the latest benchmark is intended to cut annual emissions by a further 1,840 tons.
Nearly every policeman, from new graduates to those close to retirement, is studying foreign languages and ‘refined’ manners hoping to polish the city’s image. A handbook containing useful phrases in seven languages — English, French, Russian, German, Japanese, Korean and Arabic — has been given to all police and state-approved volunteers who will assist security service forces at the Games.
Beijing police has launched a campaign to eradicate illegal activities in Tiananmen Square and along the Chang’an Avenue ahead of the Games. Beggars, unlicensed peddlers, those distributing flyers, and illegal motorcycle and tricycle taxi riders will be fined, detained, or have their equipment confiscated.

Source: Games Bids

Beijing saw its 246th blue sky in 2007, narrowly fulfilling its annual target of 245 days of blue skies. (For the record that leaves, say, London for dead and is not that far from Sydney.)

Beijing’s air quality has shown steady improvement for nine straight years. Last year, Beijing had 241 ‘blue sky’ days.

As the Olympic Games near, Beijing has intensified its efforts to curb air pollution. The city planned to have 245 days with fairly good air quality in 2007, or two thirds of the total days.

Statistics show that although the number of ‘blue-sky’ days did not increase dramatically, there were also fewer extremely bad air days. Beijing recorded only three heavily-polluted days this year, lasyt year there were 13.

The capital launched a drive called ‘Defending the Blue Sky’ in 1998, when it only had 100 days of fairly good air quality.

The Olympic host city aims to have 70% of the days in 2008 up to the standard. Which means at least 11 more blue sky days.

Beijing has been working to reduce pollution and improve the air quality to ensure a ‘Green Olympics.’

For example, the municipal government cut public transport fares in an attempt to lure local residents out of their private cars. The city has also converted 18,000 outdated coal-fired boilers and installed electrical heaters in 20,000 detached houses, replacing coal-heated devices.

Beijing is also considering traffic controls during the Olympics, in which drivers with even-and odd-numbered license plates, except taxis, buses and emergency vehicles, would only be able to drive on alternate days.

During a test of this proposal conducted from August 17-20, about 1.3 million cars were taken off the city roads each day and the amount of pollutants discharged was cut by 5,815.2 tons, according to a report by the Beijing Municipal Environmental Protection Bureau. It is not known why this plainly beneficial rule has yet been brought into effect.
Source: China View

There is an old joke about a pilot-less plane where the take-off announcement assures passengers that being without a pilot is not a problem as ‘the safety procedures are fully automated, the safety procedures are fully automated, the safety procedures are fully automated . . .’

This old joke gives logic to the news that China has taken an unusual step in preparation for the opening of its first ‘driverless’ automated mass transit rail line – by hiring drivers.

More than 70 trainee drivers – all male, under-25, with good reflexes and conversational English – have begun training to work on the 28km link between Beijing airport and Dong-zhimen station, close to the city centre.

Jia Peng, from Beijing Mass Transit Railway Operation, which will run the link said, ‘Recruitment of drivers for the airport line has already been completed.’

The decision to hire drivers seems a very sensible one. How many passengers would feel secure hurtling along in a train which has no driver?

Suggestions, such as that which appeared in the Financial Times that this decison ’suggests that some in Beijing’s vast bureaucracy may be having difficulty keeping up with the breakneck pace of construction of new infrastructure’ are daft.

For Bombardier, the $44m contract for 40 advanced ART MK II carriages to run on the airport line marks an opportunity to showcase its driverless technology in China, a hugely important market.

The rail’s highest speed will be 110 km per hour, making the journey from Dongzhimen to the airport to about 16 minutes.

Zhang Jianwei, Bombardier’s chief country representative, insisted its trains would be up to the task of travelling between the line’s four stations without human assistance. He said, ‘A driverless train does not need a driver.’ The illustration is of a version of the train in Vancouver. It does not have a driver and Bombardier insist it does not need one.

Very possibly true. But a driverless train might also neither need nor get passengers. This writer would not ride on one for a gold clock. The idea of trusting modern technology to take you at high speed from A to B without human supervision chills the soul.
Source: Financial Times

Beijing Vice Major Liu Jingmin, a delegate to the five-yearly Party congress, said at a news conference that the blue skies Beijing was experiencing was due to the wind coming down from the north that cleaned the air in the host city of the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games. He said, ‘Frankly speaking, we didn’t take any measures. It’s the weather that played the role.’ Such honesty in a politician is rare and is to be applauded.

Taking a longer view, however, the situation is improving.

In 2006, Beijing registered 240 ‘blue sky’ days, or days with fairly good air quality (the scientific definition is not clear), a rise of 64 days from the previous year. In September ‘blue sky’ days totaled 25, setting a record high in seven years.

Liu Jingmin, who is also executive vice president of the Beijing Organizing Committee for the 2008 Olympic Games, said Beijing would materialize its promise of ‘Green Olympics’ by not only improving the city’s ecology and environment, but also adopting a ‘green’, environment-friendly, approach to the management of city affairs.

Partly this is being done by slashing bus and subway fares. Partly by doubling the tax on motorcycles, passenger cars, sedans and trucks.
Renewable energy has been widely used in the of Olympic projects. For instance, the residences of athletes in the Olympic Village will be installed with special heating and refrigerating facilities powered by energy tapped from a neighboring sewage disposal plant.
Photovoltaic technology based on solar energy is widely used in the competition venues.
The city’s first wind power plant has been set up in the north.
The city has moved 167 pollutive factories to the suburbs or remoter areas. At the same time of the removal, they have undergone technical innovations.
The city used to have 16,000 coal-consuming boilers. Now 15,000 of them have been upgraded to use clean energy forms.