07.22.08

Beijing Today, Beijing One Week Ago; The Olympification of the Capital City

Posted in Beijing, Olympics at 3:29 am by Benjamin Ross

Three weeks ago I wrote a post about the changes Beijing has witnessed between 2006 and 2008. Just yesterday I returned from a brief trip to Dongbei to find the Beijing of today vastly different from the one I left only one week ago. China’s capital city is currently in the home stretch of its extensive eight-year Olympic preparation plan. The goal is to transform a city, once severely lagging in public infrastructure, into a worldwide metropolis capable of being a host to the global stage. As the final pull towards preparation, a new onslaught of rules and regulations went into effect on July 20. The aim of the regulations have been to ensure a positive Olympic experience for the record numbers of visitors expected to flock to Beijing in the coming weeks. Here’s a rundown of some of the changes.

Northern Third Ring Road, Monday evening rush hour, 6 pm

Traffic
Until the end of the Olympics, only half of Beijing’s private automobiles will be allowed on the street each day. Who is allowed and not allowed is determined by license number. Dates alternate between cars with even numbered license plates and those with odd numbered license plates being allowed on the road. Today was the first business day with the policy in place. At 9 am I had to make a trip to the Lenovo service center, located along the Eastern stretch of the Third Ring Road, to pickup my laptop which was being serviced. I had taken public transit to get there, but decided to test out the new policy by taking a cab back. My apartment is located along the Northern stretch of the Third Ring Road, and it was 9:30 am on a Monday morning. Usually at this hour, the Third Ring Road is a virtual parking lot, and those traveling in cars are lucky if they can move faster than the bicycles which pass them on either side. Under normal circumstances, the taxi from the Lenovo service center back to my apartment would have taken anywhere from half an hour to an hour and cost around 20 RMB. In fact, it would have been even more than likely the taxi driver would have just told me to take the subway. Today I made it back in under fifteen minutes, and at the cost of 11 RMB. Traffic moved fluidly the entire way.

Security
The past week has seen a major increase in security in and around Beijing. Yesterday, while taking the bus from Dalian back to Beijing, the driver collected each passenger’s ID card. At three different checkpoints, police stopped the bus, and asked to see all of the ID cards. At one of the checkpoints, I was asked to get off the bus, and taken into a police questioning room, where several officers looked through my passport scribbling down information in a log. They asked me how long I had been in China, what I was doing there, and how long I planned to stay. After a brief questioning session, I was led back to the bus. The officers were all friendly, and told me that the check was in order to “ensure the safety of the Olympics.” Upon arrival in Beijing, every passenger’s luggage was run through an X-Ray scanner before we could leave the station.

A troop of student volunteers eagerly awaits duty at Beijing Capital Airport.

Army of Volunteers
With a population of over 1.3 billion, China is rarely shorthanded when it comes to manual labor. With this in mind, they have enlisted the help of tens of thousands of volunteers all across Beijing, many of them students and senior citizens. On the streets, in subway stations, at the airport, and virtually any other place where people congregate can be found uniformed volunteers, wearing red arm bands and Olympic volunteer credentials. From pedestrian traffic, to queuing control, to simply answering questions, the army is in force, in preparation for the mass influx of visitors to Beijing. The quantity of citizens eager to help appears to be so great that there almost seems to be a surplus of helping hands. I saw one senior citizen volunteer today sitting in the shade under a sky bridge reading the newspaper. I asked what his responsibility was, and all he could produce was “ensuring safety.”

Po11ution
As of yesterday, many local factories were shut down and ordered not to resume until after the Olympics. This, along with the traffic restrictions, is expected to seriously improve Beijing’s air quality. In addition to the reduction in the number of cars on the road itself, the lack of traffic jams is expected to curb the amount of pollutants released per vehicle per trip. Today the air is fresher than normal, and the skies are showing a hint of blue. This would be considered a good day, compared with Beijing’s usual grey summer skies. However it is probably still too early if this is attributed to a cut back of pollution, or just the natural effect of the change in weather. I’ll have to check back up on this in a couple weeks.

City Beautification
Now that pollution controls are in effect, Beijing has been gung ho on the beautification and Olympification of the city. Ornamental Olympic displays have been appearing in traffic medians, and the streets are now draped in “Beijing 2008” flags and banners. Along with the backdrop of all the volunteers, it is finally starting to look and feel like the Olympics are coming to town.

Business Hours
Since I live relatively close to the Olympic grounds, many of the nearby local businesses have had their hours staggered in order to help control traffic. The idea is that staggering employees working hours, will space out the rush hour strain on transportation. When I went to use the ATM in the shopping mall near my apartment at 9:45 this morning, the entire mall save for the grocery store in the basement had been roped off by security. “In order to comply with regulations, everything except for the basic necessities, has to stay closed until 10 am,” I was told by a security guard. This included my ATM. “The only place you can go now is the grocery store, to buy basic provisions like food. For everything else, you have to wait until 10.”

Subway Transit
July 20th also saw the opening of Beijing’s newest subway lines. Line 10, which runs a route roughly under the north and east sections of the Third Ring road, Line 8, the spur route to the Olympic grounds, and the Airport Express line connecting Beijing Capital Airport to the rest of the subway system. Beijing’s subway system has long been inadequate for a city of its size, and the new subway lines will no doubt ease the strain on the gridlocked road system. The one potential bottleneck however is that the Olympic spur line only connects to line 10. Therefore subway riders coming from line 2 (Beijing’s central loop line), will have to transfer 3 times (first to either Line 13 or Line 5 and then to Line 10 before transferring to Line 8 ) in order to take the subway to the games. The 2012 subway plan calls for Line 8 to be extended to meet up with Lines 1 and 2, but this will be long after the Olympics have left town.

Bus Transit
With the excessive subway transfers required, Olympic visitors might be better advised to take advantage of the Olympic buses which are now running test routes around the city. To alleviate the threat of traffic jams on main traffic arteries, special lanes have been marked off and reserved solely for Olympic traffic. This will include transporting the athletes and officials to and from the games, as well as special free buses for spectators. With the Olympic subway spur only connected to Line 10, the buses will likely be the most convenient ride to the Olympics for most visitors not staying near the North or East Third Ring Road.

Beijing has come a long way since it was awarded the Olympics in 2001. The Chinese capital was badly in need of a face lift, and the Olympics could not have come at a more convenient juncture in time. While the city still has a long way to go, it is certainly in better shape to handle the influx of tourists now than it was when preliminary planning first began eight years ago. With only 17 days 16 hours and 48 minutes to go, only one can only wait to see how it all unfolds.

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