Our illustration shows students balancing a book on their heads during etiquette training at a vocational school in Beijing. Around 1,400 aviation service students are currently going through professional training in order to serve as the stewards during the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

Around 1,400 aviation service students, mostly between the ages of 16 and 17, are currently going through physical conditioning as well as professional training for dressing and etiquette in order to serve as the stewards during the 2008 Beijing Olympics.
Source: China.com

Reading the newspapers around the world one finds that athletes are worried about the weather at the Olympics — mainly in the hands of the gods — and the pollution, particularly from cigarette smoke. Now Beijing has banned smoking in taxis.

Smoking is now banned in all of the city’s 66,000 taxis for both drivers and passengers. Drivers will be fined $13-26 if caught smoking at the wheel.

Ma Yanjie, deputy head of the city’s taxi bureau said passengers caught smoking will have their names ‘exposed through media.’ The agency said green-colored ‘No Smoking’ signs have been posted in most taxis and the ban is now in force.

Other measures to allow Beijing to breathe — at least during the Olympic games — are limits to the number of cars in the city and the closure of factories. There will also be etiquette campaigns to stamp out bad manners like jumping ahead in line, spitting, littering and reckless driving.
Source: Canadian Business

A total of 80,000 security guards, including police officers, professional security people, and government-approved volunteers, will join the security service forces for the 29th Olympic Games.

Ma Zhenchuan, police chief of Beijing, said they would offer ‘cordial, civilized, professional and high-quality security services.

So far, 25,000 security guards have been given orientation on the Olympic Games, international etiquette, different customs of religions and nations, first-aid and emergency responses.

The Beijing police department has even compiled 17 textbooks for the training of all the security people, as well as local residents.

The Chinese government has worked out 52 security plans and more than 500 smaller contingency plans concerning the operations of Olympic venues, anti-terror work, information collection and major events.

Liu Jing, Vice-Minister of Public Security said, ‘The Chinese government is fully confident, well-equipped and capable of ensuring the smooth operation of the Beijing Olympics.’

Beijing and other host cities, including Qingdao, Tianjin, Shanghai, Qinghuangdao and Hong Kong, have set up their own security headquarters for the Olympics, and the Ministry of Public Security will oversee their operations.

Our illustration is of a security exercise. Professional, yes. Cordial, probably not. That is not what that sort of security is about.
Source: Beijing Review

All over the world the reporting on preparation for the Beijing 2008 Olympics is a hot topic for every newspaper. Reading the reports one senses a slow change from downright hostility to something approaching reason. Perhaps before too long the press will become Beijing Games 2008 boosters. Or perhaps that is too much to ask.

This report from Nova Scotia states China will be on target to host arguably the most spectacular, competitive and expensive Games in history.

Beijing is spending a record $34 billion to build and renovate 37 competition venues and construct hundreds of miles of new highways and subway lines.

(It is difficult to separate the figures out. What is normal improvement to the country’s superstructure and what is special efforts from the Games? Frequently the publicity fuzzies the picture but the figure quoted seems, on the face of it, to be an over-estimate.)

This report takes a slightly negative stance: ‘While the country’s Communist Party governance may be adept at meeting schedules, officials may be unable to clear Beijing’s air and prevent gridlock during the 16-day-long Games.’

In fact, Beijing has already demonstrated it can prevent gridlock by just banning a lot of cars from the roads and, now, making a lot of bicyles available.

Pollution is another matter but the government has already started pushing polluting industry away from Beijing while others will be closed down for the duration of the Games.

A study of 15 large Asian cities released in January by the Asian Development Bank found Beijing suffered the dirtiest air, with 142 micrograms of pollution particles per cubic metre. That was five times New York City’s average and more than seven times above the World Health Organization’s target for large cities.

Sun Weide, deputy director for the Beijing Organizing Committee for the Olympic Games said that to improve air quality during the Games, Beijing will force vehicles with substandard emissions off the roads, restrict production at factories in Beijing and surrounding areas and increase parkland. He said 28 million trees were planted in and around Beijing last year.

Beijing has kept construction on schedule. The 91,000-seat National Stadium and all other venues will be completed by March.

To smooth the way for as many as 1.5 million tourists expected to visit Beijing during the Olympics, Beijing is building a $3.6 billion airport addition that will more than double its size.

And the attitude towards visitors will be improved. Sun Weide said, ‘The Olympic Games will provide lots of opportunity for education. We’re trying to encourage the public to use elegant language, provide good service and of course to refrain from all kinds of spitting or cutting in line.’

The sudden world attention during the Olympics will be a ‘catalyst’ for positive change, according to International Olympic Committee President Jacques Rogge.

He said, ‘I am convinced that as much as the Games will enable the people of China to develop a new vision of their own society, they will help athletes and visitors gain a fairer perspective on China.’
Source: ChronicleHerald

The illustration is in Beijing’s Environmental Sanitation Bureau. There 100 public toilet cleaners — mostly migrant workers — are given a briefing.

Zhuang Zeping urged the toilet cleaners to match their shoes and socks, keep their tools clean and speak softly and politely to strangers. He said. ‘As long as you have come to Beijing, you are a Beijinger. You represent the image of China to the rest of the world.’

(The temptation to head this article: ‘Ich bin ein Beijinger’ almost copying Kennedy’s June, 1963 declaration is well-nigh irresistible. It shall be resisted.)

In recent months, officials from the Communist Party have launched campaigns aimed at stamping out practices that, while common in China, might be seen as unseemly by outsiders: spitting, cutting in line, swearing and littering.

The Olympics is the big chance. ‘We want to prove we are making progress,’ said Sha Lianxiang, a professor of social psychology at Renmin University in Beijing. ‘On the one hand, we are developing and making progress now, while on the other, we still have lots of problems. How to step out of these problems? We need to consider how people look at us. It’s a mirror for us. In a globalized world, we want to be as good as others. We care about other people’s reaction.’

In the West, a person’s behavior would not necessarily be seen as a reflection of a whole nation. But for many Chinese, it’s different.

‘The honor and shame of an individual is related with that of the nation,’ Sha said. ‘This goes back to the time of Confucius, when Chinese were taught to protect the honor of the nation. Society is a complicated network, and we play our roles as members of a collective unit, so this is natural for us.’

Zheng Mojie, deputy director general of the Spiritual Civilization office, is very keen on good behaviour. Zheng’s office has handed out more than four million etiquette books. ‘Don’t honk all the time and don’t honk violently.’ ‘On the phone, greet listeners and tell them who you are with a soft tone and a smile. Don’t pick up too slowly, waiting until the phone rings more than three times. Let the caller hang up first.’

Not everyone thinks it will work. ‘It’s mainly for the Westerners, this campaign,’ said Liu Xiaobo, a freelance writer and political commentator. ‘Good manners are cultivated through daily life by the people themselves, not by this kind of large-scale movement. I think government wants to leave a good impression to the world. It’s about the face of the government.’

Even the Spiritual Civilization Office admits these things take time.

‘Developing the habit of standing in line takes years,’ Zheng Mojie said. ‘The Olympics is just an opportunity to teach this, but this is not just for the Olympics. We are trying to get the public to be more civilized in the long run. Actually for the Olympics, you don’t have to worry. Because Beijingers care so much about face, they will not embarrass the authorities — they will behave very well.’
Source: Washington Post