We had no idea that Beijing is bending over backwards to make their city appealing to foreigners for the Olympic summer games starting August 8. The 43 billion dollar event called for a new stadium, architectural airport terminal, and new transportation lines.
Beijing is notoriously polluted and the Chinese don’t want contestants choking, so they are cutting the city traffic in half. Work hours are being staggered, and if the last number on a car’s license plate is even, they can drive one day, and the odd numbers can drive the next. Forty million pots of flowers were ordered and a forest TWICE the size of Central Park was created near the Olympic stadium to improve air quality.
Restaurants are setting aside smoking areas and taking DOG off the menu. 90,000 taxi drivers got special training and etiquette lessons are flourishing. 17 million people took an online manners course that bans spitting in public and encourages people to stand in line politely for the bus.
The government is chasing “undesirables” out of town – beggars, migrants, masseuses, fortunetellers, street vendors etc – for the duration of the event. 1.5 million people have been moved to make space for Olympic projects (and they don’t dare complain.) DVD stores have been told to keep their pirated Hollywood movies out of sight. It IS endearing, in some twisted way, that they want to make such a good impression. (Photos above are the airport and stadium)
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Are you freaking nuts? Endearing?
That government is so corrupt – they are doing this stuff at the 11th hour so the world won’t know what they are really like.
Have you lost your mind? Oh – I get it. You’re a Barry Obama supporter.
Shame on you! I might take you off my list of favorites. You rarely have anything of interest and most of it is re-cycled from other sources.
Not only are they endearing in the ways you’ve listed Janet, they’re just so gosh darned cute when it comes to animal control.
The way they’ve insisted on putting stray and owned cats to death, telling their people that cats are potential sources of SARS, plucking them up off the streets and shoving them into tiny crates to be killed with no notification to their owner is just adorable. Especially when in reality they’re just trying to clean things up for the world’s view during the Olympics.
The neatest part is the way they don’t differentiate between owned pets and feral cats – they just grab anything with pointy ears and a long tail, regardless of a collar and license. I’m sure the loving owners of these pets find their government just as endearing as you do.
I don’t think anything they’ve done to prepare for the Olympics is endearing, but I will agree with you that it is indeed twisted. Most of the items listed in your story should have been taken care of long ago, including the pollution and care of the poor so they don’t need to behave as “undesireables.”
I was in Hong Kong. In the street markets, they sold dog meat, horse shoulder, and live snakes for consumption. This is a horrible communist country and I can’t imagine going there to support the Olympics.
They tore down the pitiful shacks of the very poor to spruce it up with flowers for the many tourists coming in.
Stay away, they also have major earthquakes, and the government will not help the displaced.
I would boycott the olympics but the truth is I wouldn’t have watched it anyway. Who cares anymore?
I predict the Olympics which is scheduled to start 8-08-08 will be a HUGE failure. After all, they just had a major earthquake and it has been on TV how they treat the poor by tearing their houses down to plant flower beds. This is so the tourists will think it is a lovely country.
Every Olympic, summer and winter, whereever it is held, is always so looongg and boring.
Their human rights violations and mass corruption is so endearing. Uh yea.
The Chinese Government is behind untold human rights abuses. The Olympics are a huge corporate gang bang. Everybody should boycott them and anything related to Disney.
Yes! They have also instructed their bars not to serve blacks and mongolians as we are classed as pimps and drug dealers.
I have a great deal of interest as I have won 2 tickets to said Beijing Olympics from August 6th – 12th. I live in London
Yup, China just isn’t the west — yet. The best part of being in Beijing was the restaurants where little cuddly critters were caged outside the entrance advertising the really fresh, fresh menu, and the black market DVD’s were cheap. Everyone smoked Marlboro’s non-stop and had cell phones which they used constantly since private phones were fairly expensive for the average Chinese worker to afford. The pollution was enormous because of the car emissions, but also, the slash and burn agricultural practices in the surrounding countryside. Water has to be boiled, everyone runs on the strongest tea all day long, and taxi drivers were never truly rude like the NYC ones. Every worker wore some form of outlandish uniform, western-style plumbing was still on the upswing, and the Olympics were not a government project. Even McDonalds and KFC was not the status quo.
Am in utter dismay over all the “anonymous” bricks being thrown at China. What is the expression? “Get your own house in order,” etc.
Like every country that has hosted the modern Olympic Games, China is working hard to burnish its image before it takes center stage. All that has been pointed out about its human and animal rights abuses is undoubtedly true, but in case those doing the pointing haven’t been paying attention, the good ol’ USA is no longer in a position of moral authority to judge ANYONE.
It is estimated that ONE MILLION Iraqis have died as a result of the US effort to “liberate” them.
How many American servicemen and women have died in this war for oil? Officially about 45-hundred, but the true figure is unquestionably higher.
Criticizing the Chinese in no way mitigates our own collective shame.
The Chinese are subhuman. Sorry, hate to be harsh but it’s true. Their dietary habits and treatment of people is vile and so are they. Never liked them, never will.
The National Debt is in the untold Trillion$. It is owed mostly to China. USA can’t even pay the interest; we are in debt up to our neck mostly to China; most average person here does not know that. China already owns major buildings in NY, Hawaii, and Calif. They are just biding their time. If we really knew what went on, we wouldn’t believe it. Their little yellow brains are plotting against us. Just wait.
Hey 3:38 – Dummy. 99 percent of our worlds oil is from that region and we absolutely need to be over there because they could shut down the WORLD’s ecomony if they decided to. A Democratic presence is a MUST in that part of the world for this reason. You sound like a dumbass Obama supporter. GO MC CAIN!!! also China will be our next war because they’ll want Tiawann back. and China treats animals horribly. I am boycotting the Olympics based on that alone!
Hey 3:38 – Dummy. 99 percent of our worlds oil is from that region and we absolutely need to be over there because they could shut down the WORLD’s ecomony if they decided to. A Democratic presence is a MUST in that part of the world for this reason. You sound like a dumbass Obama supporter. GO MC CAIN!!! also China will be our next war because they’ll want Tiawann back. and China treats animals horribly. I am boycotting the Olympics based on that alone!
Hey 3:38 – Dummy. 99 percent of our worlds oil is from that region and we absolutely need to be over there because they could shut down the WORLD’s ecomony if they decided to. A Democratic presence is a MUST in that part of the world for this reason. You sound like a dumbass Obama supporter. GO MC CAIN!!! also China will be our next war because they’ll want Tiawann back. and China treats animals horribly. I am boycotting the Olympics based on that alone!