Pac Travel
China Calls
Previewing The Chinese Olympics
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| Brilliantly-colored costumes and dazzling helmets and pendants shine as girls take part in a festival parade in a town near Guiyang city in Guizhou Province, China. | A miniature version of the main stadium, which is known as the Bird's Nest. |
Gazing over the top of prettily painted construction fences as the bus zooms along the crowded Beijing highway, a massive monolith looms into view. The giant geometric twist of 14,000 tons of iron is the main stadium for the 2008 Games of the XXIX Olympiad.
Known as the Bird's Nest, it will play host to the August 8 opening ceremony when 16 Oceania teams stride around the track. Many of these athletes will be Pacific Islanders, whose journey to the Games venue will have been far from straight "forward." Sideways, down, around, and up would be a more appropriate description with, for example, the Marshall Islands' team touching down at six or seven airports before reaching China's capital.
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But there's many months for Beijing to clean up its environmental act and Sun Weide, deputy director of the Games' media department, is confident that with the closing of coal mines and other factories and the forced reduction of cars on the roads, the skyline will have shed its gloomy grey cloak.
Beneath this cloak, life goes on at a hectic pace. "It's just so b-i-g," exclaimed Akka Rimon of Kiribati. "You're standing in the middle of a road and instead of lagoon one side and ocean the other, there are just cars, people, and tall buildings in every direction. I sure hope the athletes don't get lost."
Fortunately, a huge percentage of China's 1.3 billion people are madly trying to get their tongues around English, with TV stations airing one item a day in the language.
As well, the Beijing Olympic Organizing Committee and the city of Beijing has recruited 470,000 people to help look after visitors for the Games' 16 days. Once the Games draw to a close, visitors who have some extra time and money can see a bit more of this country that holds a fifth of the world's population.
"The Forbidden City and the Great Wall are must visits, because they're an experience of a lifetime," said Emily Moli of Fiji and a member of a recent Pacific media delegation to China. Another delegate, Vanuatu's Royson Willie, had a top time climbing the wall's steep steps: "It was great, except that the Rolex I'd bought for five yuan (about US75 cents) stopped when I got to the first tower." Oh, dear. "It's okay, though, the next day it started again," he said cheerfully.
"The Chinese are putting their all into the Olympic celebration," said Cherelle Jackson of Samoa. "I think the Games will be a tremendous experience. Just the fact that they're changing the whole face of the city to cater to the visitors, and that they've thought of everything-right down to lost tourists-shows that they'll make it work."
But some words to remember if you're headed to China: "Be ready to be stared at," said Rimon with a grin. "Chinese people often look at you oddly, but it's just like when someone new steps on our shores and the kids all stare at them." And don't expect that you'll always be able to find a translator when you need one. Mue Bentley of the Pacific Islands Forum Secretariat recommends China visitors learn at least three phrases: "'Hello', 'thank you', and 'knife and fork'.
