With Beijing 2008 just round the corner you can definitely feel the pressure – last minute touches to spawning skyscrapers, subway lines about to open, the torch relay, hype everywhere. Everyone here is talking about the olympics. But in the name of the olympics, are some things taken too far?
In addition to moving factories away from the city and closing the remaining ones down for the duration in order to combat pollution, and in addition to new subway lines due to open this month or next, the Beijing government will in June implement restrictions on cars entering the city by way of an even/odd number plate alternation arrangement. Cars from outside provinces will also be restricted – all in an effort to reduce traffic pollution.
There are tighter visa controls for foreigners causing many to panic or even leave China as their current permits expire, and even Chinese with hukou’s (户口) from outside Beijing are facing tighter control with spot checks increased on companies to ensure that everyone has proper documentation.
Our co-location facilities now allow special permit-holders only to access our own servers – yet as a Hong Kong’er I cannot get this permit (I thought Hong Kong was part of China?). During August we are expected to not be allowed any movement in/out of the facility. I still don’t understand the rationale behind this.
Many more bureaucratic changes have taken affect also.
I’ve heard so many “because of the Olympics” excuses that one can’t help to be tired of the games before they even begin. You see signs to the effect of “作好文明迎奥运 (be a good citizen welcome Olympics)” – then telling you, e.g., not to spit. But surely people shouldn’t spit anyways?
A lot of these changes are good for Beijing, but the problem is the way they are enacted. In typical Chinese fashion they are often an overnight affair: consultation and transparency of course minimal. To be fair, drivers had plenty of notice of impending changes but many foreigners were caught by surprise with almost overnight announcements of changes to Visa rules. Meanwhile the pollution hasn’t improved much either, and i’m beginning to wonder whether the games should be dubbed the ‘inconvenience olympics’ instead.
* Edit: It’s now confirmed that the even/odd system will begin on July 20th beginning with even numbering.
At 2:28pm Monday, exactly one week after the devastating 7.8 earthquake struck Sichuan Province (四川省), three minutes silence were observed across the nation as flags flew half mast, traffic came to a halt, sirens rung, and people stood still in memory of those who perished in the worst earthquake to strike China in three decades. At our office, work also came to a standstill.
In the Chinese cyber-world websites began three days of mourning by shedding their colours and presenting everything in black & white. The result is a great showing of solidarity both online and offline, as well as providing a sombre reminder of the power of nature and fragility of human life.
Sites have sprung up online offering links to donations whilst google meanwhile provides a map of the devastation and a Google Earth overlay. Blogs have sprung up across the nation, cellphones constantly beeping from text messages, and TV offering almost excessive coverage. This disaster is certainly getting a lot of coverage – but luckily for the government this time, most feel they are genuinely doing an excellent job.
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Posted by Terence
May
20
2008
For some reason my WordPress had been disabled for the past few months due to some bug (security breach?) that messed up the option settings. Only after digging around online did I find a solution – somehow the plugins path had changed and subsequently crashed every post I made.
This has finally been fixed, which means i’m back to writing boring blog entries again.
Be warned.
Unless you’ve been stuck in a basement for the past 24 years you would no doubt have heard about the devastating earthquake in China on Monday. I was in the office at the time and, although I didn’t feel a thing, many in Beijing did – but little did we imagine at the time the scale of the devastation.
Continued news coverage is available at numerous online and offline news sources, with the death toll currently estimated to be around the 50,000 mark.
Those interested to donate could do so through various outlets: in Hong Kong you can donate through the Hong Kong Red Cross (donations above HK$1000 are tax-deductible) or in China most major payment gateways such as YeePay are offering similar services. At Jipingmi we have also listed various options for those within China.
The US based Mercy Corps with long established projects in Sichuan Province accept donations in USD and, just so that Burma isn’t entirely shunned from the news, i’ll mention that Mercy Corps also accepts donations towards Burmese cyclone survivors – something unfortunately now being overshadowed by events in China, albeit that the Burmese government is much to blame for its refusal to accept foreign aid.
