From USATODAY.COM:
They are evicting tenants to make room for visitors, shutting down factories to reduce pollution, plotting to control the weather, staging rallies to teach English and ordering Beijing’s brusque citizens to mind their manners.
Whatever it takes, the organizers of the Beijing Olympics are determined to put on the grandest Games ever a year from now ” and make them a symbol of the communist nation’s arrival as a global economic power. Even the time and date of the opening ceremony ” 8:08 p.m., Aug. 8, 2008 ” were chosen to try to ensure success, eight being a lucky number in China.
A series of recent scandals involving contaminated food and consumer goods produced in China has only heightened the urgency for Beijing to put on a good face for the more than 10,000 athletes and 550,000 visitors expected here next summer. In its zeal to do so, China will dole out a record $40 billion on stadiums and airport and subway improvements, more than twice what Greece spent on the Athens Olympics in 2004. [Full Text]
