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

English and etiquette classes are all part of Beijing’s effort to get its population to speak English to welcome the millions of foreigners expected to flood to the city in this Olympic year.

Worried that its citizens’ notoriously poor command of the language will embarrass the country and lead to unfortunate misunderstandings, the Chinese government has embarked on a massive program to teach the population basic English.

The Olympic drive has spurred an English learning frenzy all over the country. People are learning English to be more ‘internationalized’, as organizers put it.

The residents are more than happy to attend the Public Welfare English Class for Citizens in the Olympic community and role-play as foreigners and volunteers.

Jian Jia, a graduate student at a Beijing university who is part of the Olympic Volunteer Programme, has been teaching the class for more than three years.

Jian said, ‘You cannot see them as students. Their English may not be as good as that, but their enthusiasm is better. Actually some of them can speak very good English and have no problem conducting simple conversations.’

Beijing’s Olympic organizers have amassed 400,000 English speaking recruits in preparation for the influx of foreigners.
Source: Reuters

Sticking my neck right out I will say the Olympics in Beijing, unless there is an incident of atomic bomb proportions, will be a major success. And China will move on from there.

Yes, there will be protests by all sorts of people who will either have genuine or nutty reasons to protest. (Show me the government that does NOT need to be protested about.) But, barring a massive and catastrophic event which we should pray does not happen and probably will not, the Olympics in Beijing will be a great success and the coming out party of China.

The reason is that China has made the most serious efforts to get it right. Seriously right.

If you can get the Beijing police to smile you have worked a miracle. But it has gone further than that. They have been taught the rudiments of some languages and will smile at you — not easy and they probably finds it hurts — and say ‘hello’.

They have a handbook containing useful phrases in seven languages — including English, French, Russian, German, Japanese, Korean and Arabic. Not only are the police equipped with it but so are all the state-approved volunteers who will assist security service forces.

Ma Zhenchuan, the city’s police chief, said the educational campaigns will help the force offer ‘cordial, civilized, professional and high-quality’ security (that the idea of cordial security is an oxymoron should be ignored) throughout the games.

Earlier this year, Beijing police conducted a month-long survey to find out what the public found most unbearable about the force.

The results weren’t encouraging as people complained about cops using phrases such as: ‘Are you deaf?’ to ‘That’s not my business,’ or ‘I’ll put you behind bars if you continue to make a fuss like this.’ The public also voiced discontent over some officers’ arrogance and their misuse of police vehicles and sirens.

So now the Beijing Public Security Bureau has been reformed and will smile — not easy but they can do it — and will not be rude to you. That is a miracle. Making the rest of the Olympics work is, by comparison, a doddle. The Games will be a great success. Of that I am quite, quite certain. And China will bask in the sunshine of the Olympic smile.
Source: Shanghai Daily

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

No one has ever taught an English football fan how to behave at a match. It seems like a very good idea. China is doing just that for the Olympics next year.

More than 200 Beijing Olympics cheer-squad volunteers are being taught at a time how to cheer and respond — in several cases for sports of which they have not close association.

These cheering training courses have been organized by Beijing Federation of Trade Unions. The courses are aimed at helping Beijingers better understand the different sports featured at the 2008 Games, and also instruct them how to be an enthusiastic and well-mannered audience.

Chen Huiping, one of the organizers of the group, says cheer squad training began in early June and aimed to prepare Beijingers for China’s biggest-ever sporting event.

He said, ‘People shouting out bad language when watching sport games is definitely not the public image we want to present to the world in the coming 2008. So, when we found that Japan and South Korea had promoted good manners among their people before the Olympic Games held in their countries, we wanted to do the same in China too.’

Cheering from Beijing Workers’ is a program driven by the federation, whose branches in different districts in Beijing have taken an active part.

Almost every week over the past five months, a training course on knowledge of the Olympic Games and good manners has been held across the city and more than 80,000 workers have taken part so far.
Source: China Daily