Although many great points about Beijing contributed to its winning of the Olympic Games, many improvements are still necessary. One Beijing citizen wrote to a website recently:

“Beijingers-warm-hearted and friendly-nevertheless have to suffer daily such indignities as ambiguous traffic signs, poor taxi service and the company of many fellow citizens who are not observing traffic rules, being too mean-spirited to say sorry for doing something wrong, spitting in public, and kowtowing to foreigners and have a habit to say too much about too little.…”

Such views are of concern to the Beijing municipal government.

“As our motto for the bid is New Beijing, Great Olympic, we should try to present a new image of Beijing, a city with 3,000-year history,” said Mayor Liu Qi.

No doubt immediate economic benefits will be ushered into Beijing and the whole country with the winning of the Olympic bid on July 13. Yet it has been less considered how Beijing and the nation should create a better international image through the Games, to let more foreigners know about the nation so as to establish a solid base for all-round cooperation between China and the rest of the world.

According to China Economic Times and the State Council Development and Planning Center, the Olympic Games will boost the country’s gross domestic product by 0.3 percent in seven years to come. This encouraging prediction waits to be proved.

The Olympic Games should serve as a window for the host country and city to demonstrate their charm and beauty to the rest of the world as the 2008 summer Games seizes the attention of the world on Beijing, China. The world media will continue to cover China, an ancient and opening country worthy of a visit where people live and work in peace and order. The Games will end but a great impression of Beijing and China can last forever.

China and Beijing may be just names to many foreigners, rather than a dynamic place with a big consumer market and business opportunities both for those who love travel and those who want to make investments. Foreigners may not know much about the investment environment and profitable industries in China, and efforts to inform them might make many hesitant investors able to make positive decisions.

Practice has proved that Olympic Games have always helped the host country be better known to the outside world.

Japan became more familiar to the rest of the world after it hosted the 1964 Games. South Korea is no longer remote in many people’s eyes after it hosted the 1988 Games. The host cities of Tokyo and Seoul have developed into world-famous economic centers. Now the chance has come to Beijing, China. If the 2008 Games can bring China and the rest of the world closer together, which that is far more important than the GDP increase.

It is good to see that the Chinese people and their government are striving to do something for the Games. Taxi drivers are learning English to better serve the athletes from other countries. Ten projects have been launched to improve Beijing’s environment. Beijingers from all walks of life are joining in concerted efforts to hold a unique and splendid Games.

(CIIC 07/23/2001)