First Impressions of Beijing: The Air is Too Thick, but Overall, Not So Bad!
Western journalists are beginning to flood Beijing in the run-up to the Olympics, which start on Friday. Many of them are beginning to tell us their first impressions of the city, and overall, everyone has been pretty friendly.
George Vecsey of the Times was impressed by the volume of volunteers to help shepherd him from Beijing's airport to the Main Press Center in the Olympic village. One volunteer who didn't know a word of English a few months ago, took him by the hand and helped him through. "My first hour ever in China could not have been nicer," he wrote.
Juliet Macur of the Times isn't one bit happy about the thick air--96 degrees on Monday, with 88 percent humidity--but things are smoother now than back in the spring when she first came for a reporting assignment. "[At media housing], just like everywhere else, volunteers outnumber the media 10 to 1. Eight volunteers greeted me as I stepped out of the bus. Three escorted me to the front door of the registration desk. Four lazily wiped down the doorknobs on a building no one was going into. At breakfast today, 12 volunteers stared as I entered the empty cafeteria at 6 a.m."
Things still get lost in translation:
I was the only reporter on my flight, and two Olympics volunteers greeted me as soon I came out of baggage claim at the airport. “Media?” they asked, struggling in English. Tired, cranky and already sweating in the thick humidity, I was happy to see them. They asked me where I was staying and I answered, “North Star Media Village.” They looked confused.
Quickly, five more volunteers showed up. Then two more. Then, all of a sudden, I was surrounded by a sea of volunteers who were equally perplexed with my destination.
I pulled out the paperwork for my housing, and it took the group about 15 minutes of discussion before figuring out where I should go. Soon, I hopped in a waiting bus. We hit the highway and headed into smog. Sitting there alone, I grumbled.
CNN producer Steve Almasy isn't a fan of the air quality either--he confused the air with the smell of jet engines--but hey, all those volunteers! And the nice bedrooms in the media village. "Everything has been first class," he wrote.
Kevin Baxter at the L.A. Times writes about some of the, uh, challenges of reporting in China: "One colleague paused to take a picture of Chairman Mao's portrait as he left the Forbidden City. That's apparently a no-no, and when the guard's terse warning went unheeded, he accented it with a stiff shove."
After bitching about the air quality, he fairly concludes: "But it's far too early to be critical."
i like your essay for observer becuase you reveal you are keeping an open mind
that's what we americans need to do
look and see before condemning
i've been going to china since 1996 every two years to find ways of building bridges between literature and hummanties people in us and chinese, and i've found real opportunites, real interlocutors and published a series of books about china by chinese and other observers
fyi--i've written twice for the observer
You think that's pathetic? I spent 15 minutes trying to explain to the front desk clerks at a Beijing hotel, that the hotel guest there wanted a phone call he was expecting, to be routed into the dining room because he wasn't going to be in his hotel room. And I even had my Chinese girlfriend there trying to translate. We had to act out the scenario, and I forget how it happened but it was solved using a totally unrelated word or event.
One thing you missed in the city is they removed the starbucks. I'm surprised no one told you that pictures of certain things or going into certain mountain areas is forbidden to foreigners. Just another lax example of failing to prepare for English speakers. They should have had translators ready or you should have brought your own. You can try to find some at the local college. Most will be girls though. hehe