Beijing's appeal to the international community

It’s been like this for more than a week now in Beijing, very smoggy, grey sky, in fact you hardly tell if it is morning, noon or afternoon, because the layer of dust is so thick that the sun looks like a faint icon hanging in the sky, and sometimes you can’t even see the sun at all.

The city looks like a giant ailing monster, deeply trapped in the heavy pollution. This really has to change. It is almost hard to believe that with this look Beijing is ready to welcome our friends for the 2008 Olympics. Beijing needs a thorough face cleaning and lift.

With the pollution problem on the side though, Beijing still seems to be an attractive place to live for a lot of people from the west and other parts of Asia. The international community has expanded, and it continues to grow.

I was invited to an Australian friend's house party on the weekend. It was held at his friend's apartment, in a brand new residential and commercial complex called “China Central Place”, 2 kilometers east of China World Trade Center. It was a typical expats crowd, mostly Australians, but also British, Dutch and local Chinese (mostly girls) who can speak English. And interestingly, most of Aussies at the party are architects and interior designers and a lot of them are involved in the Olympic projects in Beijing. I joked with one friend, “I never met so many architects under one roof!” Everyone seems to be quite happy with the life in Beijing, and excited and proud about the fact they are working on new stadiums, airports and other facilities attached to the Olympics.

“The expat life style is quite good here in Beijing”, an Australian said to me. Of course I can understand this. Everything is much cheaper and your house work is taken care of, by your ayi you almost never bother to cook because eating out is so cheap and the good is generally good. It is a comfortable life. With the history of being the old capitals of emperor time, there are always so much to see and to do in the city. Also the dynamics here is a big contrast compared with Europe, and that is a strong appeal for the youth. So many new things and building are popping up everyday. There are hundreds of thousands of foreigners studying Chinese in China, trying to capture the golden opportunity in this land of adventure and actions.

But is that enough to make Beijing an appealing place to live? On the way back at night, I looked up at the sky, I didn’t see any stars. Pollution and bad traffic are common problems in almost any big cities, though it has gotten worse in an accelerated rate in the past ten years in Beijing, and despite the prosperity of material world, people’s manner and social values seem to be on the decline in some perspectives or very little improvement has been made. A friend of mine from Britain said he thinks the social values in China is close to the 1890s in Europe, I have to admit I was quite shocked and sad at the same time when I heard the comments. That says a lot about how much advancement we still need to make to catch up with the rest of more developed world.

It is difficult in a city on a fast moving train, people tend to be driven by intangible forces to strive for a better life. But a quality life is never a just equation of goods available in the market, rather it has more to do with how people can learn, grow and interact with people in a friendly and respectable way. I hope Beijing don’t become a place with just huge shopping malls and office buildings with no character. I hope people come here and enjoy here because it represents a life style, a free mind and a warm and welcoming community.