Will Beijing Be Ready For 2008?
As I sit in my air-conditioned room and stare out my eleventh floor window that looks out into Beijing, I can’t help but wonder if this city will be ready for the 2008 Olympics. I can tell that the sun is up there somewhere, but it seems more like a shadow behind a thick layer of smog and dust. Every time I have to leave my air-conditioned haven, a feeling of sluggishness pervades my body as soon as the foul smelling Beijing air hits my nostrils. Just the other day, I tried playing basketball with some friends, but after fifteen minutes, all of us Americans felt like we were breathing in water. However, air quality isn’t the only obstacle that Beijing faces towards holding a successful Olympics. The bigger problem for Beijing is something that is much more difficult to amend: the cultural practice of indifference.
In the United States, after eating at a restaurant, one would expect that the waiter or waitress would be very courteous and helpful. They’ll bring toothpicks and napkins and even validate a parking ticket. However, there has long been a “tradition” of poor service and indifference towards the customer in China. When a customer walks into a supermarket around here, he will see a sea of servicemen and women who look simply dazzling, that is, until he goes up and tries to talk to them. Often times, they are about as helpful as that cute little dog outside. This indifference extends into all service sectors and areas of society. Oddly enough, one of the most dangerous things one can do in Beijing is to try to cross the street. Drivers have the same indifferent attitude to a pedestrian’s well-being as servicepeople in supermarkets do to their customer’s needs.
In order for Beijing to have a successful Olympics, that is, one that isn’t marred by poor service, unsavory attitudes, and traffic accidents, there must be changes in the way people approach one another. People in Beijing are perhaps too obssessed with their own individual needs. Servicepeople can care less what customers think of them as long as they get to keep their jobs, and drivers take no heed that there are actually other people on the road. Although the government has been trying to change this attitude through etiquette classes and the promotion of different slogans and ideas, its efforts have yet to come to fruition. For Beijing to change its image of widespread indifference, it would need to completely change the thinking of the Chinese people. But if past attempts have been any indication, that is no easy task.
Your observations about the level of service in China is correct. With regard to the 2008 Olympics though, I have some different opinion. Having lived and worked in China for a number of years (and on multiple occasions) it is important to point out that China is really very focused when it comes to showing a face or showing achievements. I have no doubt that by the time the Olympics come to Beijing, the service personnel in most restaurants, the taxi cab drivers, shop clerks, etc. will all undergo a major training…
I have seen it done before – in 2001, when China/Shanghai, hosted the first meeting of APEC in a Chinese city, one of the nights prior to the event, I could not get a taxi cab. The reason was that all taxi cab drivers were at a training exercise! They were exercising how traffic is supposed to go during the two days of the event! I have to doubt that something similar will be done for days in a row in the weeks prior to the August 2008 Olympics.
Comment by Nikolay — February 25, 2007 @ 7:42 pm