In The early morning of Sept. 24, 1993, before the International Olympic Committee (IOC) announced the host of the 2000 Olympics, the IOC chairman first expressed gratitude to the bidding cities. Beijing was the first he mentioned. At that moment, Beijing officials and residents mistakenly thought their city had won. Instantly, the water fountains in Tiananmen Square began to run festively. Just a few minutes later, everyone discovered that it was all a big misunderstanding. Immediately, sadness overshadowed Beijing and people began to sob uncontrollably.
After undergoing reforms and liberalization, a market economy is beginning to take shape in China. However, socialism and state-planned and run enterprises remain deeply embedded in the society.
Following success in hosting the 1990 Asian Games, Beijing began to hope more than ever to push themselves into the international spotlight. The defeat of their bid to host the 2000 Olympics have strengthened Beijing's ambition to host the 2008 Olympics. Perhaps as a result of the frustration over the previous defeat, Beijing's bid to host the 2008 Olympics has not only won enormous popular support, but also successfully launched a massive popular mobilization.
According to a government poll, as much as 94.6 percent of the general public hope to host the 2008 Olympics. Although the 2000 Olympics isn't even over yet, both the government and private media have not forgotten to publicize Beijing's 2008 bid in their coverage of the Sydney Olympics. An "Olympic Avenue" is currently under construction and is expected to be completed by June of next year.
The fever over the bid to host the Olympics is spreading rapidly into every corner of Beijing. Everywhere signs counting down to the 2008 Olympics have been erected. Many businesses have also put up posters featuring the government's slogan "New Beijing, Great Olympics."
Besides propaganda and slogans, both the government and private sectors have been mobilized to show foreigners visiting China that Beijing is a friendly international metropolis. Government and universities are co-sponsoring projects to promote English learning. The next targets are taxi drivers, who obviously would come in more direct contact with foreigners. Some newspapers in Beijing even run letters from readers expressing their expectations toward the "New Beijing, Great Olympics."
Many Web sites in China go as far as encouraging their users to e-mail foreign friends and explain why Beijing wishes to host the Olympics and what Beijing has to offer the Games. A joint petition has been endorsed by tens of thousands of signatories supporting the bid.
However, ambition and publicity are not the bases upon which the IOC decides what city will host the games. What it takes into consideration is a city's actual capacity. In view of its previous failure, Beijing has submitted a proposal that is more upbeat and lively.
In the previous bid, the slogan submitted by Beijing was "Give Beijing a chance -- Return a miracle to the world." The backdrop of the slogan was Beijing's newly acquired status as an international metropolis as a result of China's rapid economic growth. However, the bid was nevertheless beaten out by Sydney. It is believed that the concept of "Green Environmental Protection" was the key to Sydney's ultimate victory. Therefore, Beijing has proposed "New Beijing, Great Olympics" and "Green Olympics, Humanistic Olympics, Technological Olympics" this time around in the hope that "green" will become its lucky color.
Currently, Beijing's main competitor is Paris. According to the scores announced on Aug. 28 by the IOC, Paris received 8-9 points, while Beijing received 7-8 points. The scores received by all other cities were comparatively low. According to the IOC, Beijing's proposed Olympic Village and environmental protection theme are great. The disadvantages of Beijing are traffic congestion, and infrastructure problems.
Although Beijing has managed to turn environmental protection into its strong point, the concept remains a hollow one. So far, Beijing has not experienced much improvement in terms of air quality. The expansion of desert areas is another problem Beijing has to face. Although the government declared that it will appropriate 100 billion renminbi to the improvement of the environment, substantive improvement has yet to be seen.
In addition, Beijing is also at an disadvantage when it comes to software and hardware. The PRC government has been strongly promoting "province-to-province travel" in recent years to encourage domestic consumption. The government extended this year's May 1 Labor Day into a week-long vacation to boost consumer spending. As a result, a large crowd of tourists poured into Beijing, creating traffic chaos. Because of the economic success of the Labor Day holiday, the same thing was done for this year's Oct. 1 National Founding Day. It is expected that more than one million tourists will pour into Beijing. Beijing's traffic management will again face a serious test.
Hosting the Olympics also requires modernized service system and marketing concepts. However, China has a very low level of inter-personal trust. People only trust those with whom they are related or hold special relationships. Therefore, discounts are given to people they know, whereas prices are higher for strangers and tourists. This phenomenon is incompatible with a modernized service system. To many tourists, Beijing gives an impression of being aloof. This may have much to do with the fact that the city has historically been the capital of China. The Beijing people traditionally tend to exhibit an unapproachable manner.
Will Beijing suffer another defeat in its bid to host the 2008 Olympics? We don't know. However, "New Beijing, Great Olympics" could at least lead to a movement to improve the quality of life and the environment in the city.
Hsu Tung-ming is a freelance writer currently residing in Beijing.
Translated by Amy Wu.
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