2008 Olympic Games In Beijing

China should learn from horrific accident

By Frank Ching

The deadly train collision near Wenzhou underlines the incongruous fact that despite China’s soaring economy, it practices an ultra-left ideology similar to that of the Great Leap Forward campaign more than 50 years ago when millions of people died.

That campaign, from 1958 to 1961, was aimed at rapid industrialization. The slogan was “more, better, faster and cheaper” production so China could overtake Britain in 15 years and be second only to the United States.

Today, 50 years later, the Great Leap mindset is just beneath the surface.

Take the high-speed train. Just like during the Great Leap Forward, the government continues to think that it can disregard ordinary norms by exhorting people to make superhuman efforts.

An article on the front page of the official People’s Daily newspaper makes this clear.

Under the headline “Pioneers of Our Day,” the article, published December 14, extolled Li Dongxiao as a hero who, though only a middle school graduate, had “created many firsts for China’s high-speed rail.”

His biggest achievement was that he learned to drive high-speed trains in just 10 days, just before the 2008 Olympic Games.

His German instructor told him it would take at least two or three months, but the government had ordered Li and nine other drivers to learn in 10 days, or else.

Li and his colleagues compressed three days’ work into each day, sleeping only three hours. After mastering the skills in 10 days, they went on to train China’s first generation of high-speed rail drivers.

This spirit of being willing to defy all odds is admirable but, when applied to the modern age ― where untold numbers of lives are at stake ― is inappropriate, to put it mildly.

Why was a training course of several months condensed to 10 days? This reflects poor planning and management at the highest level.

Evidently, those in charge were more concerned with making a good impression on foreigners than on safety. The goal was to inaugurate the Beijing-Tianjin high-speed rail line before the opening of the Olympic Games.

The Chinese government was reckless. Skimping on training, like skimping on construction materials, costs lives.

The government’s initial response, as always, was to clamp down. Law firms were warned not to represent relatives of survivors.

Beijing Tour – Olympic Park | Traveling China

As the site of most of the major events of the wildly successful 2008 Summer Olympic Games, Beijing’s Olympic Park remains as a reminder of the fantastic achievements of the athletes during those Olympic games as well as a still-vibrant and integral part of the historic city of Beijing.

The Olympic Park (also known as the Olympic Green) lies on the same north/south axis as the Temple of Heaven and the Forbidden City, intentionally placed there as a continuing part of centuries of history in Beijing. The park still stands much as it was during the 2008 Summer Olympic Games, at least as far as the outside of the venues are concerned. The Bird’s Nest (National Stadium) is still quite a spectacle to behold due to its unique architectural style and enormous size, and you can still see the Olympic torch from the south side of the stadium, although you do have to look closely as it was set down on its side during a period of high winds in 2009. For 50 RMB (about US$9) you can go inside and walk around inside the gigantic stadium, but be sure to get there fairly early as it closes to new entrants at around 3:30 p.m. The inside of the Bird’s Nest is much the same as it was during the Olympics, but around 11,000 seats were removed after the completion of the Games to better accommodate spectators for other events that were supposedly going to be held there. As of this writing (October 2010) there have only been a handful of events held there since the closing ceremonies of the Olympics back in August 2008.

The park’s other main attraction, the Water Cube (National Aquatics Center), still looks the same from the outside as it did during the Olympics and it is still absolutely beautiful when it is lit up at night, less so during the daytime. But inside it has undergone a dramatic transformation with the opening of the Happy Magic Watercube Park, a water park which is just about as bizarre as its name. It takes up half of the 12,000 square meter Water Cube area. It is supposedly Asia’s largest water park with all of the same attractions and rides that you would expect, and a few strange things (e.g. a stage set up inside apparently sometimes features Las Vegas-style showgirls and questionably-talented bands). The entrance fees, at least for the summer and fall of 2010, are a steep 200 RMB (around US$30).

In addition to those two sites though, the rest of the Olympic Park grounds are great for walking around and enjoying the weather when it is nice. There are numerous sculptures scattered throughout the park, and it is possible to walk from the Bird’s Nest and Water Cube area all the way north to the edge of the Beijing Olympic Forest Park (a separate park just north of the Olympic Park) and then take subway line 8 on the ever-expanding Beijing subway line to reach another destination in the city. Food stands abound, selling drinks and snacks, so a visit to the Olympic Park can be a very pleasant diversion for a few hours, particularly when the weather is good. It is well worth a visit to see Beijing’s Olympic Park, where so much history was made in the summer of 2008.

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