Willi Chen
The Canadians of Ontario have blamed their Mayor, Mel Lastman,
for losing their bid to host the Olympic Games in 2008, when
he made the foolish remark about not wanting to go to Mozambique,
for fear the natives would boil him in a pot and eat him.
Seven out of eight journalists lambasted him and attributed
his faux pas to foot-and-mouth disease.
But justifiably rejoicing in its victory of having been picked
as the host nation to the Games, China has reasons to celebrate
because of the strategic plan it had outlined to the call
of the International Olympic Committee.
The three themes to be adopted were mainly “to be green,”
to promote an upliftment of human causes, and to explore to
the fullest the technological aspects of life.
Beijing’s aim is to gain total improvement of the whole
society in relation to its people, the environment and to
the urban infrastructure.
An extensive programme includes a massive pipe work of natural
gas lines, which will be constructed for domestic and industrial
use, eliminating coal as fuel for boilers, increasing the
supply of thermal energy sources, in addition to the trapping
of solar energy.
Public transportation will be expanded by extensive routes
and lanes.
The Bawangten-Tongzhou Route, with its high-speed rail, will
reduce the use of transit vehicles.
Clean fuel will be used, and more than 300 liquid gas stations
will be built.
Inspection and strict maintenance will be implemented to meet
international standards, using the dynamometer approach for
emission inspection. Old vehicles will be scrapped.
Beijing plans to modernise its transport systems, so that
the city will be vitally and strategically linked with over
140 airports.
It is planned that athletes will transfer freely from airports
to Olympic stadiums in a matter of 20 minutes.
Green plans
All buses will be converted into natural gas engines—pollution-free
for 2008.
In Beijing, buses will carry ten million people along 650
routes by 2008, the number of vehicles will increase to 150,000,
most of which will be manufactured to work with electronic
systems for control announcement and movement to handle four
and one-half million people.
Such awaited expressways like the Beijing Shiziazhuang, Tianjin-Tanzgu,
Capital Airport Highway, Beijing Harbin and the Badaling are
under heavy construction with other expressways that will
be ready for the Games.
Beijing has advanced plans for dust pollution control, storage
for waste material and garbage to be used, and water quality
improvement projects at Guanting to be improved in conjunction
with the Miyun and Huiaivon reservoirs, with an aim to restore
ground water levels of purified water.
But Beijing’s ambitious plans revealed a complete desire
to change in its image of greenery.
Large areas will be covered with trees and lawns, and old
unauthorised buildings will be demolished.
Forty per cent area of greenery is targeted for coverage and
even wildlife will be protected from bounty hunters.
The use of environmentally-friendly materials will be used
for building equipment and other facilities.
The Beijing 2008 Olympic Games Bid Committee has adhered to
the vitally strict principles of the Olympic Movement Agenda
for the 21st Century, and by its commitment to the grand scheme
of world-class environment life improvement plan, has now
proven itself a worthy candidate to qualify as the ideal host
to the 2008 Olympic Games.
The Games promise to be the most meaningful and spectacular
event that can have tremendous effect on China in all aspects
of its social, economic and cultural history
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