Olympics boost Chinese economy 奥运带动经济

The spirit of commerce is alive and well in traditionally communist China, as the country gets ready for the Olympics.

For people in Beijing, China are going gaga over the upcoming Olympics since being awarded of the Games in 2001 the city have undergone a major transformation to prepare itself to host, literally, the planet, this summer, everything from subways to highways and the airports, they've all have been revamped and expanded to host millions of spectators that will descend on Beijing. Joining me now Money magazine, Senior Writer, George Manne, see you were there. Thank you for joining us, today,

Thank you for having me

Bringing us a little piece of Beijing, what’s interesting, you have talked about a bit of how the city is really educating the public about the Olympic Games, what did you notice?

Well. It is the coolest thing that I have ever seen in a subway that you didn't ,don't wanna talk to the police about ,it was they had videos , not only do they have TV monitors in the newest subway lines, but while I was there , they were running non-stop educational videos about the Olympics ,so if you watch for 5 minutes ,and if you know Chinese which I don’t. You can learn all about how you judge let's say the trampoline competition, what makes a good trampolinist versus, you know, a none-medal-winning trampolinist.

They're really trying to get them into it.

Oh,yeah, plus, they were showing an endless loop of the sequence of events that showed originally when China was awarded at the Olympics. They had Samaranch, they had the International Olympics Committee announcing Beijing ,and everybody cheering.

When I was in Athens they had the Olympics, and they were doing the as similar, as similar thing, but it does not sound like to the same extent .It seems like Beijing is really taking this all out.

Yeah, it’s been an excuse for a lot of construction in the city, building new highways, obviously building the main venues also upgrading transportation systems around them ,around the city.

Other than changes in infrastructure, what did you notice, the signal that hail the Olympics are coming?

Lots of advertising, everywhere you look, there were billboards with Olympic times, also billboards with the five cute little furry little mascots for the Olympics.

Right. I’ve seen those

Those are the Fuwa, the good luck dolls and they represent different Olympic sports, different Olympic ideals, and also different elements, five different, elements (Earth, fire, wind), yes ,and also different animals representatives of China . There is a panda there, too. Of course. What is also interesting is that the government has cut down on call-to-call guerilla advertising by non-Olympic sponsors, they are trying to make an effort that if you see an advertisement that has something to do with sports; it is from an official sponsor who has paid-up.

But what about the big sponsors like Nike for example, how are the Chinese government officials controlling their advertising in Beijing？

Well , it is pretty uncontrollable , sorry Carol advertisement is everywhere ,that was one of the things that were the most interesting thing to me, going to China for the first time , you think of China as a socialist country ,but is just filled with capitalism and buying and purchasing ,and stuff like that.

What are you noticing, you know, finally just from the men and women and pedestrians on the street, what is different do you think possibly about their behavior, are they really really geared up for the game , and some of them // off the construction that they have to deal with to prepare for the Games ?

Well, that is an issue in China ,there has been a lot of tearing down of old neighborhoods are to build new buildings, new hotels ,just to develop the city ,and it does not seem as if there is a strong historic preservation movement in China as strong as it is let's say in major cities in the United States . So that is just rolling along there.

I have to ask you about the smog, because if you think the smog in L.A. is bad, you should check out Beijing, right? I mean, it's supposed to be a little less now, because they cut off a lot of their industrial production for the Games

Yes every, people that I spoke to said you know unfortunately this is about the worst time of the year that you could have an event in Beijing, it is just seasonally . it is just a bad and more polluted time , what I told people coming back, I live in NY,what I told people coming back,it was a really exciting city, make New York feel like a small town, make NY feel like just a little tiny building that has not that many people ,it also made NY look like it had air like in a country meddle compared to Beijing . So I know they are really fighting to try to fix them up in time for the Games.

Yeah we'll see what happens, George, thank you for giving us you first // perspective, I appreciate that.