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

Thirty-seven Thai fruits, including dried longan, durian, mango and fresh pomelo, will represent Thailand in the Beijing Olympics next year. Most of the items — 70 were proposed to Games organisers originally — are dried and preserved fruit. Songsak Wongbhumiwat, director-general of the Agricultural Extension Department, said that only fresh pomelo was allowed. It is very popular with the Chinese.

The volume might not be substantial but it is hoped that this Olympic exposure will help future Thai fruit sales in China. The products were selected from farms certified for Good Agricultural Practices by the Agriculture Ministry.

Hatairat Udomsin is company vice-president of Fruit Tech, a producer of vacuum-dried fruit which will supply dried longan. She has high hopes of success and said, ‘The China market is huge and joining the Beijing event could help Fruit Tech build a stronger business there.’

Fruit Tech has just signed a deal with Wal-Mart to supply a variety of vacuum-dried fruit to 200 Chinese outlets.

Hatairat Udomsin, seen in our illustration with some of the products, said, ‘All fruit — bananas, pineapple, durian and mango — are grown in a special system, organic with no chemical substances used in processing, on our 2,500 rai in Prachin Buri.’

What is a rai? Glad you asked that. It used to be a sort of informal measurement but now it is fixed at 1,600 square meters which is, of course, 0.0016 of a square kilometer.
Source: Bangkok Post

Healthy food and sound air quality during the Games are vitally important. Now the Games are on a one year countdown it has become deadly serious.

Wang Wei, an executive vice president of the Beijing organizing committee and seen in our illustration, told a press conference, ‘Our country and the Beijing municipal government are taking the food safety issue very seriously, especially for the Olympics. Actually, Beijing has hosted a lot of big events and there have been no problems regarding food safety in these events.’

According to organizing committee action guidelines state-of-the-art technologies such as global positioning satellite systems will be used to help track food during the production and distribution process.

All food entering the Olympic Village will carry a logistics code so to enable tracking.

The General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine yesterday announced similar measures. Also at the press conference, the organizing committee spelled out contingency plans for improving air quality during the Games.

Wang Wei said, ‘Air quality is not only a matter for Beijing’s image, but also a matter concerning the health of athletes and the general public. In order to secure clean air during the Games, we will unveil some contingency plans and some of them will be rehearsed during the upcoming test events.’

In order to test the venues and organizing systems, Beijing will trial more than 40 test events before the opening of the Games.

Last November, Beijing imposed a six-day ban on at least 490,000 government vehicles and advised private drivers to take buses to make way for a summit meeting of Chinese and African leaders. Traffic was surprisingly smooth even in the busiest areas during the week and the air quality evaluated was much better.

Wang Wei said, ‘If we want to get cars off the roads, we want people to do it willingly. It is not only for the traffic conditions, but also for improving the air quality. We want to know the effects of those measures. During the test events, we will also establish some monitoring stations around the venues to supervise air quality.’

Acknowledging some public concern about the Games, BOCOG said it welcomed media reports that were objective, fair and comprehensive, but opposed the ‘politicization of the Olympics’.

The officials also played down the public and media’s high expectations of China’s athletes at the Games.

Wang Wei said, ‘As stated by our sports officials, China’s sports strength is still in the second tier of the medal tally. The unexpected is what makes the Olympics so appealing and exciting. We want to offer a fair stage for athletes from all over to perform well.’
Source: China Daily

China is launching a food safety monitoring system next month at test events for the 2008 Beijing Olympics. The system will monitor 10 categories including production, processing, sale and cooking, and daily reports will be issued. It will be implemented at sports events to test facilities and logistics at venues being used for next year’s Games.

The Beijing Municipal Food Safety Office will share the system with all of the other Olympic host cities, including Tianjin and Shanghai.

The move comes amid a lot of publicity in overseas newspapers about the quality of goods that China exports. Health scares have ranged from toxic toothpaste ingredients to pet food and toxic seafood. A lot of reassurance is needed for anyone taking part as a contestant or viewer at the Olympics. The back of a lavatory door does not make a good viewing vista for a major athletic event.

Earlier this month officials announced that athletes and visitors heading to Beijing for the Olympics should not be concerned by recent Chinese food scandals, as many safety measures were being put in place for the Games.

Our illustration shows a Chinese laboratory worker at work in front of foods samples at the Biosafety lab in Beijing.
Source: AFP News Brief