It is now every two weeks that I write the diary and it seems as though while the pace of on coming dangers to my immediate concern has slowed, everything in Beijing is speeding up to create a communal feeling and Olympic spirit. I went to an event at the British Embassy to discuss ‘Olympic Opportunities – China’s coming out party.’ Representatives from the British Embassy, International Olympic Committee and a journalist from Reuters all gave insight into the fever infecting their organizations. In London it appears that anyone vaguely concerned with the London games in 2012 is making a bid to come to Beijing as an ‘observer’ of everything from tree planting to traffic to volunteer enlistment. Four hundred British civil servants are expected to travel to Beijing for the Olympics.
The IOC meanwhile apparently raises some US$4.2 billion in revenue from each Olympic event, which goes to the host city and the 203 National Olympic Committees. Beijing expects to spend US$1.6 billion on Olympic facilities and US$16 billion on other infrastructure requirements. (See
"Beijing's Olympic Economy" for more details.) China will need these extra roads and buildings as it is getting to be quite apparent just how crowded Beijing is going to be during the Olympics: * 350,000 Chinese have registered as volunteers * 500,000 foreign visitors are expected to attend the games * 17,600 journalists The half million foreign visitors will be competing for 1.4 million tickets. In other words, each Olympic tourist will get to watch three events, on average, if he’s lucky. Overall, 7 million tickets are being issued. The remaining 5.6 million tickets are reserved for Chinese. Of the 17,000 plus journalists, 5,600 will be officially accredited by the I.O.C. The remaining 12,0000 will come with their voice recorders and digital cameras hoping to take advantage of Article 6, a recently promulgated law allowing journalists to interview anyone who ‘grants them permission’. Evidence of this new ‘openness’ was the first ever BBC lecture in China, held on 9 March at Peking University. Jeffrey Sachs was the featured speaker at the
BBC Reith Lecture. He argues that our world is “Bursting at the Seams” because the current rates of population growth and economic development are unsustainable. Sue Lawley, in her impeccable British accent, rebutted one suggestion from the floor about the hypocrisy of holding this session in a State that is repressive of press freedoms by saying that it ‘would just seem rude and inappropriate’ to insult their hosts. There was a common distrust of local governments in the predominantly western audience. However one Chinese man countered that it is fine for the wealthy to be concerned about the environment when most Chinese in rural areas are simply trying to make ends meet. Another Chinese argued that western companies bear some responsibility for China’s pollution as they are taking advantage of local governments’ needs for funding. He said his organisation’s research shows that MNCs are relocating to the PRC from highly-regulated countries precisely to avoid environmental and other rules. Sachs avoided both of these issues and as Sarah, an American friend of mine commented, he did not give any practical tips on what each person could do to make a difference; the trouble perhaps with being a feted academic. By contrast the EASTWEST team has become a considerable tour de force of which I am immensely proud. Having moved into unit 2002, Xiaolei kept an eye on unit 2006 (a better number as combined it makes 8) and learned that Motorola would move out. By the end of the week she had negotiated for us to buy RMB20,000 of furniture for RMB8,500 and as 2006 is owned by the same landlord, secured the bigger unit for us, fully renovated saving us time and money. Ben meanwhile reluctantly brainstormed with me, yielding a concept for the British Council that they liked a great deal. Now we are awaiting the signed contract for an 8-city media relations program. Nellie worked quietly away on another client and in spite of her early anxiety managed to secure front page coverage on a newspaper and inclusion of the ‘cost of living survey’ in the Shanghai Daily; superb work after just 2 months on the job. To cap an excellent fortnight, we actually received foreign funds from a client and were able to convert the transfer into RMB without complication. It is far too early to be self-congratulatory, but certainly it appears that the communal feeling that we are building is making us a strong organization.
It was time to take to the hills and head for the Commune at the Great Wall with Wei, my girlfriend. The
Commune by the Great Wall is a private collection of contemporary architecture designed by 12 Asian architects who were each given US$1m to design a unique property. It was exhibited at the 2002 la Biennale di Venezia and awarded a special prize. Commune by the Great Wall was named “A New Architectural Wonder of China” by Business Week in 2005. Wei and I stayed in Forrest #2 and were treated to an expansive villa designed by Nobuaki Furuya with high ceilings and full height windows from where we watched snow fall on the Great Wall. At RMB3,500 (US437) per night including dinner, this is not a budget hotel. In the morning we took coffee in the lounge, only to find hordes of Chinese had arrived to tour the 42 Villas. One group obviously found the menu not to their liking, sitting in the plush surroundings with their own picnic consisting of pot noodles and sunflower seeds. Cheek by jowl with modern China, it was indeed a communal feeling. NOTES - PHOTOS 1.
Olympic Construction photo - AFP/LJH 2. The second photo - of "
Smile Beijing" volunteers is courtesy of Soho. 3. The third photo of The Commune by the Great Wall is courtesy of the resort's website.
The IOC meanwhile apparently raises some US$4.2 billion in revenue from each Olympic event, which goes to the host city and the 203 National Olympic Committees. Beijing expects to spend US$1.6 billion on Olympic facilities and US$16 billion on other infrastructure requirements. (See "Beijing's Olympic Economy" for more details.) China will need these extra roads and buildings as it is getting to be quite apparent just how crowded Beijing is going to be during the Olympics: * 350,000 Chinese have registered as volunteers * 500,000 foreign visitors are expected to attend the games * 17,600 journalists The half million foreign visitors will be competing for 1.4 million tickets. In other words, each Olympic tourist will get to watch three events, on average, if he’s lucky. Overall, 7 million tickets are being issued. The remaining 5.6 million tickets are reserved for Chinese. Of the 17,000 plus journalists, 5,600 will be officially accredited by the I.O.C. The remaining 12,0000 will come with their voice recorders and digital cameras hoping to take advantage of Article 6, a recently promulgated law allowing journalists to interview anyone who ‘grants them permission’. Evidence of this new ‘openness’ was the first ever BBC lecture in China, held on 9 March at Peking University. Jeffrey Sachs was the featured speaker at the BBC Reith Lecture. He argues that our world is “Bursting at the Seams” because the current rates of population growth and economic development are unsustainable. Sue Lawley, in her impeccable British accent, rebutted one suggestion from the floor about the hypocrisy of holding this session in a State that is repressive of press freedoms by saying that it ‘would just seem rude and inappropriate’ to insult their hosts. There was a common distrust of local governments in the predominantly western audience. However one Chinese man countered that it is fine for the wealthy to be concerned about the environment when most Chinese in rural areas are simply trying to make ends meet. Another Chinese argued that western companies bear some responsibility for China’s pollution as they are taking advantage of local governments’ needs for funding. He said his organisation’s research shows that MNCs are relocating to the PRC from highly-regulated countries precisely to avoid environmental and other rules. Sachs avoided both of these issues and as Sarah, an American friend of mine commented, he did not give any practical tips on what each person could do to make a difference; the trouble perhaps with being a feted academic. By contrast the EASTWEST team has become a considerable tour de force of which I am immensely proud. Having moved into unit 2002, Xiaolei kept an eye on unit 2006 (a better number as combined it makes 8) and learned that Motorola would move out. By the end of the week she had negotiated for us to buy RMB20,000 of furniture for RMB8,500 and as 2006 is owned by the same landlord, secured the bigger unit for us, fully renovated saving us time and money. Ben meanwhile reluctantly brainstormed with me, yielding a concept for the British Council that they liked a great deal. Now we are awaiting the signed contract for an 8-city media relations program. Nellie worked quietly away on another client and in spite of her early anxiety managed to secure front page coverage on a newspaper and inclusion of the ‘cost of living survey’ in the Shanghai Daily; superb work after just 2 months on the job. To cap an excellent fortnight, we actually received foreign funds from a client and were able to convert the transfer into RMB without complication. It is far too early to be self-congratulatory, but certainly it appears that the communal feeling that we are building is making us a strong organization. 
It was time to take to the hills and head for the Commune at the Great Wall with Wei, my girlfriend. The Commune by the Great Wall is a private collection of contemporary architecture designed by 12 Asian architects who were each given US$1m to design a unique property. It was exhibited at the 2002 la Biennale di Venezia and awarded a special prize. Commune by the Great Wall was named “A New Architectural Wonder of China” by Business Week in 2005. Wei and I stayed in Forrest #2 and were treated to an expansive villa designed by Nobuaki Furuya with high ceilings and full height windows from where we watched snow fall on the Great Wall. At RMB3,500 (US437) per night including dinner, this is not a budget hotel. In the morning we took coffee in the lounge, only to find hordes of Chinese had arrived to tour the 42 Villas. One group obviously found the menu not to their liking, sitting in the plush surroundings with their own picnic consisting of pot noodles and sunflower seeds. Cheek by jowl with modern China, it was indeed a communal feeling. NOTES - PHOTOS 1. Olympic Construction photo - AFP/LJH 2. The second photo - of " Smile Beijing" volunteers is courtesy of Soho. 3. The third photo of The Commune by the Great Wall is courtesy of the resort's website.