With the 2008 Beijing Olympics only ten days away, it is already drawing much attention on media. I, however, still feel the urge to write something about it after ruminating for the past week what I should write for my last blog as an intern in SIIA.

Studying in the United States, I have often found my thoughts secretly swimming against the tides across the Pacific Ocean, to the country where I was born and grew up. For the past year, this has especially been the case, owing much to the Olympics. It feels dramatic, with the world’s hottest sports event taking place in a transforming city and a transforming country, prevalent nowadays in domestic and Western media alike, albeit often in quite different tones.

It is not surprising to find discrepancies in the viewpoints of Chinese and Western media even though it may be obvious that the same event has initiated their impulses to report. It is exactly the case, if not even more so, of the upcoming Olympics. While the Chinese media have been effusively welcoming the game’s countdown, Western media have taken a more skeptical, sometimes more somber, stance.

Much criticism has been laid on Beijing’s ability to host a Green Olympics, a promise it made back in 2001. The air quality is not great in the city in general, and one can seldom imagine how bad it can become when a gigantic storm of sand sweeps over the city. It is a suffocating and terrified feeling. I remember listening to my dad’s description of a sandstorm before I moved to Beijing and went through a few myself. I thought he was probably exaggerating the fact when he said that when he woke up in the morning, the windowsills looked like they had been carefully covered with a blanket of sand. Sandstorms have been stirring concerns for years, but the silver lining is that the situation seems to be turning towards the better, and the sandstorm my dad was trying to describe to me was recorded as the worst sandstorm that happened in Beijing for the past 50 years or so.

Besides the main venues in Beijing, the sea area designated in Qingdao, Shandong Province, for the Olympics’ sailing regatta was heavily polluted this June: the red tide in the Yellow Sea sent ashore tons of green moulds of algae. The official news agency, Xinhua, reported that algae invaded a third of the coastal waters for the Olympic races. The short interval between June and August, as well as the fact that some sailing teams were already in Qingdao preparing for the games pressed the city government to mobilize as many as 20,000 people, who either volunteered or were ordered to participate in scooping algae out of the Yellow Sea.

Qingdao may be lucky, but short-term responses are not always dependable. In Beijing, tackling environmental problems has been on the city government’s radar for years, and thanks to the opportune Olympics, Beijing has been endowed with considerable financial capital as well as good-wills to “greenize” the city. Many trees have been planted, lawns rolled out, rivers cleaned up, new parks planned, and more emphasis has been made to educate its citizens to be responsible city-carers: no littering, no swearing, no rude behaviors, etc. The city government should take full credit for these efforts, but the challenges ahead seem daunting. It is sad truth that Beijing, once enjoying amicable weather and fertility, which, together with its strategic location, account for why it has been chosen to be China’s capital for hundreds of years, is gradually losing its climatic edge and is facing impending drought coming from the northwest. Although people living in the city of Beijing may feel their living environment is getting better due to the government’s costly endeavor, people living in the suburbs or other close-by places can reap little benefit.

Apart from the environment, energy poses another challenge, in both short-term and long-term senses. During the past few years, electricity shortage during peak hours has caused multiple small-range power cuts. This summer, with the usual inevitable heat, the burgeoning entertainment industry, and all Olympic venues that require high-standard power performances, is not going to give workers in the power industry an easy time. China, although resourceful in many senses, is coping just barely well enough to feed its huge population and their increasing demand for everything. The South-to-North Water Diversion Project, astonishing the world for its engineering difficulty as well as financial budget, is supposed to channel water from the Yangtze River in the Southern part of the country to the north through three canals upon its completion, and a big part of the incentive for launching this grand project is to derive more usage from the water. Another equally ambitious project, the Three Gorges Dam Project, was extremely controversial before it finally secured permission from the National People’s Congress. Although many were firmly against it because of its irreversible environmental damage to the surrounding area, the country’s dire thirst for power supply propelled it to the more pragmatic end of the pondering.

Human rights issue is also likely to create tension. This will, perhaps, pose the most unpredictable situation of all. The human rights issue is known to be a taboo subject in China, and it is probably not a good idea to mention it to any Chinese-looking person anywhere on earth. But think about next month, when several of the world’s biggest and most influential media camp in Beijing, when athletes, politicians, businessmen, journalists, tourists, and others gather in the city for the world’s biggest party in four years, when too many spotlights center here, will the Chinese government be able to deal with human rights eruptions like before? What if one athlete, while marching into the opening ceremony in the Bird’s Nest, unexpectedly shouts something or holds out a banner that says something unwelcomed? Although the government can take precautious measures such as banning certain artists from entering the country for the near future, it is, to be very honest, hard to censor all the wire-transfers, cyberspace, cell signals, and whatever other means technology has enabled for us. I really have no idea right now what will happen if those kinds of incidents occur, but it is by all means worth keeping an eye out for.

Safety issue during the Games has also caught our attention. The very recent bus-explosion incidents in Kunming, Yunnan Province, and in Shanghai, took the Chinese by surprise because for the first time, they realized that the so-called “terrorism” could happen in their country as well. The city government has paid much attention to ensure the safety of the games, and nothing serves better examples than the newly-released security policies that incorporate as many as six rounds of security checks before one can enter a sport venue or the subway or boarding the plane or entering the city by car, the network of video cameras closely watching neighborhoods throughout the city, battalions of military soldiers based nearby ready to respond to abrupt disruptions, and how the airport will be closed for five hours during the opening ceremony, etc. I am not sure whether to think that the new policies are so excessive that nothing could possibly happen and it will just be annoying to everyone.

In fact, I worry less about deadly terrorist attacks in Beijing than about sports-related conflicts then. What if some other country’s fans are having a loud celebration in the streets? Will that bother the locals? What will be their response? I heard when the Korean team won their first match in the 2006 World Cup, some Korean students blocked the Wudaokou intersection in the northwest part of the city where major universities are since all restaurants in the area had set up tables so students could drink and watch the game in the open air. On the night of the next Korea game, however, all those places mysteriously “took a break” and were closed. I have also heard that during the Seoul Olympics in 1988, a Korean athlete was disqualified in a speed skating race because he, supposedly, bumped into an American skater, and they gave the gold medal to the American even though the Korean guy finished first. What’s more dramatic was that this American guy later had to withdraw from a skating event in Korea, because of death threats! Granted, that Korea is in a special situation with respect to the United States because of the latter’s military presence in the former’s territory, but I wonder if these sorts of sport-related incidents would happen in Beijing.

Indeed hosting an Olympics is not as easy as throwing a weekend party. Too many people, too much emotion and attention are involved, and consideration of all sorts is needed for a successful Olympic Game. The public traffic situation in Beijing has undergone great changes, as new buses have replaced the old models from late 80s and early 90s, three new subway lines just opened last weekend, and increasing education about road decorum has been promoted. The city government is also likely to reduce daily traffic by half by applying the odd-even license plate restrictions, meaning vehicles with odd or even license numbers will take turns in running on the streets. This measure is part of the “Emergency green plan for the Games,” [1] as a boldfaced headline for a front-page story on Monday’s China Daily suggests, since the city is currently under pressure to consider taking temporary air quality control plan.

I keep my fingers crossed for a smooth Beijing Olympics everyday. I diligently follow news related to the Games or to the city of Beijing every time I pick up a newspaper or surf the internet. Indeed it is an event that is deemed too important by the Chinese people to let them down. Although there are news about how some migrant workers and city dwellers choose to desert Beijing during the Games, 98 percent of the citizens polled by a government agency respond that they are enthusiastic about the Games and choose to stay for the entire duration [2]. Such enthusiasm is illustrated widely on campus in Beijing: even many college students’ volunteer roles incorporate simply waving flags by the roadside or standing for hours ushering people or clogging the athletes’ entrance competing with professional journalists for grabbing someone to fire questions, and so on. Such passion is echoed on the other side of the Pacific as well: the week before the finals, Yale’s undergraduate Chinese students occupied a big table in the school’s most popular library all listening to the same Olympic song over and over again. It is simply moving to imagine the scope of passion that has been instilled in this event. My dad told me a couple days ago that his pilgrimage to the ticket booth for diving events failed because upon his arrival in the morning around 9am, he saw a line that had already extended miles away, where some people were seen to have brought convenience stools and piles of newspapers and enough food and water to sustain their lengthy waiting. Such news did not strike me with surprise. The reason that I do not feel sad at all about not having a ticket to any of the sports event is that I believe the city itself and the general atmosphere will be interesting enough to keep me occupied.

I feel grateful that I can witness this event in Beijing. My Yale interviewer, who has lived in Beijing for two years and who has just left the city for home in the United States for a short period of respite before embarking on his Law School career at Columbia, said with obvious disappointment that “All sorts of crazy stories are showing up, I wish I were around in Beijing so I could investigate.” He suggested that maybe I can set up a facebook album to keep him updated. Sure, I’d love to do that. Right now, I plan to examine the changes in the streets and architecture, check to see if prices go up, try to ask people if they feel affected by the new security policies or whether they feel the city is trying too hard to present an orderly city, and not to mention pure people-watching – when all the tourists arrive, there will be chaos in the streets. By “chaos,” I mean in a good and interesting way.

2008 has been a very eventful year for China. It has been tough, with protests in Tibet in March, the disruption of the Olympic Torch Relay, the calamitous Sichuan earthquake that has claimed more than 69,000 lives, the direct charter flights between the Mainland and Taiwan, the bus bombing, etc. All have been unusual, and all have drawn international attention. China has indeed been in the spotlight this year, and I think these are opportunities for the country if it wants to become a responsible world player – I believe it does, and the way to achieve this goal is to interact with and learn from the world. The opening-up of China, for one example, has changed Chinese people’s attitudes towards foreigners, from being ridiculously flattering to being more healthy, justified, and confident. Granted that sometimes people go from one extreme to the other, since there was a story about a French student getting beaten up in Shanghai by some Chinese guys who told him “You are not welcome here, go away.” This incident was probably triggered by Sharon Stone’s inappropriate Tibet remark, as she was one of the French cosmetic brand, Dior’s image representatives. This French student was later “saved” by some school girls and an old person. I believe this is a rare incident, but since there occurred in the Washington Post a few days ago a piece about how some foreigners think “China is a less friendly place than usual” these days, I am curious to see whether this turns out true or not.

One thing I have noticed and think highly interesting is that, this year, the city of Beijing seems to be drawing much more attention than the sports extravaganza itself. Ah well, how can it not be this way? After all, this is China, which has a developing economy and a Communist regime. It is simply, different. After bearing with me thus far, you can probably tell that I cannot conceal my excitement for the Games, and I will not try to deny that. Part of my people-watching mission next month is to see what kind of action and reaction my fellow Chinese will showcase in the midst of all their excitement and anticipation. As my Yale interviewer has said, “I don’t have a TV (in Columbia). But I’m sure the Chinese students association will have some event of some kind. That will certainly be interesting.”

[1] Cui Xiaohuo, “Emergency Green Plan for Games,” in China Daily, July 28, 2008, available at http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/olympics/2008-07/28/content_6880338.htm, retrieved on July 29, 2008.

[2] Sim Chi Yin, “Locals Desert Beijing Ahead of Olympics,” in The Strait Times, July 29, 2008.