• Welcome to the Beijing Olympics – OLYMPICS SPECIAL
After seven years of effort, Beijing is ready to fulfil its dream.

Seven years have passed since Beijing was awarded the 2008 Olympics. After seemingly endless construction the city has been transformed into a dynamic modern capital with many refurbished reminders of its long history. Since 2001 other factors have come to influence Beijing’s future direction, with development now planned to continue well beyond the Games. China’s economic growth has surpassed expectations, as any visit to Beijing’s skyscraping CBD testifies. Even for long-term residents, driving south along Sanhuan (No. 3 Ring Road), the panorama is breathtaking, with the futuristic CCTV building and the 330 metre-high China World Trade Centre 3 nearing their final construction phase. A range of sophisticated museums and the National Centre for Performing Arts (Paul Andreu’s famous ’Egg’) have similarly boosted the city’s position for culture.

Most importantly, for residents and visitors alike the Olympics have been the facilitator for a first-class infrastructure and transformed service sector which will carry Beijing forward long after the final curtain comes down on the Paralympics in September. Olympics projects have also stimulated growth in other venues such as Qingdao, Tianjin and Shenyang, while cities such as Hohhot have benefited from airport upgrades in case of flight diversions.

In 2001 the view was that the city’s construction would be finished well before the Opening Ceremony. Today there are plans, including expansion of the metro citywide, that go way beyond 2008. For environmental reasons it is expected that construction work will be suspended and the volume of car movements greatly curtailed during August and September. While the restriction on cars has been officially announced, the construction restrictions are a bit vague but new announcements are being made now almost every day.
During the Olympics spectators will not be allowed to drive to the main venues. Modern gas-powered buses following dedicated routes will complement the ‘Olympic’ Metro Line 10 which starts operating this month. Beijing’s modern bus fleet has started introducing on-board route and passenger information in English. The metro has said goodbye to paper tickets with self-serve machines issuing plastic cards at every station. Meanwhile, on the older lines smart domestically produced trains boast on-board monitors providing updates on the city’s Olympics readiness.

Meanwhile Capital Airport’s Terminal 3 continues to receive positive comments from arriving visitors. Returning briefly to the UK in May, I had the pleasure of going through the new terminal. The feeling was breathtaking, while the immigration and security procedures were efficient, speedy and polite.

In the last few weeks, competitive events have been held at Games venues to search for and to smooth out any potential problems. All indications suggest that the stadiums performed to expectations.

It is partly thanks to the Olympics that the city’s top hotels are today world-class. President Bush’s favourite, the St Regis, has emerged from a major refurbishment; Tony Blair recently stayed at the upmarket Regent, a few minutes from Wangfujing Street; the CBD’s Park Hyatt, opened in July, gives guests a spectacular ‘eye-in-the-sky’ view across the city; while next to the Forbidden City’s eastern moat, The Emperor provides the luxury its name inspires in an ultra-modern artistic environment. Meanwhile Shangri-La offers quieter surroundings near the Summer Palace, and a health club boasting a new luxury spa. Opening a week before the Olympics, the luxury Oriental Club in the 5-star Sofitel Wanda Beijing, will cater for China's most successful entrepreneurs, politicians and overseas business visitors.

The early 20th century former US Legation, and the place where Zhou Enlai and Henry Kissinger discussed proposals for Richard Nixon’s historic visit, is set to become one of the city’s top dining and cultural venues. It is a project by Handel Lee who was responsible for Shanghai's Three on the Bund.

Restaurants and comfortable café bars provide an international dining experience in an increasingly smoke-free environment, unheard of a few years ago. Carefully refurbished café bar street Nanluogu Xiang, offers a hutong experience in ‘Old Beijing’ surroundings while rebuilt Qianmen Street will give Olympics visitors the feeling of shopping and dining in the former business centre of the Qing Dynasty capital.

South of Tiananmen Square, the former Qing Dynasty commercial area has undergone two years of renovation, with its new buildings maintaining traditional Beijing architectural style. Qianmen Historic Street is pedestrianised, except for electric street cars, and combines international shopping and traditional culture in an appealing pseudo-historic setting.

One of the world’s largest car shows was held at the newly opened International Exhibition Centre at Shunyi, close to the airport. The long-established exhibition centre in Chaoyang district is expected to move gradually to this vast multi-arena complex. Ironically, attendance at the Car Show caused traffic jams on access roads including the Airport Expressway!

With street posters everywhere proclaiming the aim of achieving a ‘Harmonious Games,’ late June saw final efforts to enhance the city’s appearance, with the flower industry and the city’s gardeners seemingly on 24-hour shifts. Safety and security for visitors and locals is a top priority. Public information programmes on the metro show the authorities’ determination that nothing will be left to chance. Thousands of people, from students to the elderly, have volunteered to be helpers for the visitors expected to flock to the city, and many people have spent the last few years studying English for this very moment.

Information booths staffed by multi- or bi-lingual speakers have opened along major avenues and at tourist hotspots. The capital’s bilingual radio service has been launched on the web, allowing the sounds of the city to be heard worldwide. www.netfm.com.cn

The city’s new smoking regulations were enacted in May. With public buildings and offices now ‘smoke-free’, cafés, bars and restaurants are required to designate ‘no smoking’ areas. This popular move appears to be working, with many restaurants and café bars smoke-free indoors while smokers sit at outdoor tables — not a problem in Beijing’s warm summer!

The city meanwhile continues with its ‘greening’ as more flowers, bushes and grass lawns cover former open patches of ground. Many hutongs (back streets) have almost been returned to their former glory, while even in local communities, smart new hoardings advertise the shops below.

As part of the greening, retail outlets are now forbidden to give out free plastic bags — an estimate published in China Daily suggested 1,300 tons of oil were consumed daily nationwide to produce the bags issued by supermarkets. Flimsy bags are banned while heavier duty ones are charged.

Passing the torch
For Britain, the Olympics have strengthened links, not least because the torch will be passed on to London for the 2012 Games. UK expertise has contributed much to Beijing’s potential success.

There is a lot of excitement and passion towards the Games, something which has intensified since the Sichuan earthquake tragedy. People wearing “I Love China” t-shirts and cars flying the National Flag illustrate universal respect for the tremendous efforts undertaken. There is the hope that the Games can somehow be a fitting memorial or tribute to those who have lost so much so suddenly.

Although the Games are mainly in Beijing they are also China’s Games. There is a real hope, after seven years’ intensive work, that visitors will come to a peaceful, but exciting tournament of sport, and depart with positive feelings of achievement, both local and national. It is a very important period in Beijing’s, and indeed China’s, history.

– Bruce Connolly. View Bruce’s images of Beijing at www.flickr.com/bruce-in-beijing/