by Xinhua writers Meng Na and Qiu Hongjie
BEIJING, July 29 (Xinhua) -- Upon less than ten days in the run-up to the
Beijing Olympic Games, worldwide athletes, coaches, journalists and officials are swarming to Beijing. In the meantime, Olympic organizers have been working under pressure.
Last week, many Chinese, especially the organizers and local officials, felt rather frustrated by the massive media reports on the city's hazy sky, often linked with criticism about air quality and pollution control. The city's environment watchdog immediately came out to explain that it was the treacherous weather to blame, and there had been critical progress in pollution reduction.
Actually,
Beijing has exerted tremendous efforts in improving air quality, such as relocating a giant steel manufacturer, sealing off a long fleet of government vehicles and halving the number of private cars on city roads.
Despite the visible haze in the eyes of the public, monitoring data indicated that air quality had improved. Ever since July 20 when a traffic ban on private cars with plates ending with odd and even numbers, the density of carbon monoxide, nitrogen dioxide and particulate matters in the city air had kept falling, a 20 percent decrease in comparison with the same period last year, said Du Shaozhong, deputy director of the
Beijing Municipal Environmental Protection Bureau.
Since July 2001 when
Beijing was selected to be the host city of the 29th summer Olympic Games, Chinese people have showed unprecedented enthusiasm in preparing for the Games. To host a high standard Olympic Games with distinctive features is the Chinese dream and promise to the world. To achieve the goal, comprehensive and precise plans have been worked out and implemented.
Accordingly, the Chinese have made remarkable efforts in the preparations for the Games. Now they should be confident enough to adopt an easy mood to welcome guests and deal with criticism at the same time.
Such an easy attitude should also be adopted in the watch of Olympic matches. For quite a long time, many people expect China's Olympic squad to seize more gold medals by taking advantage of their host venues. Some even predicted that China would sit atop the Olympic gold medal tally.
Indeed, that is a pleasant scenario every Chinese wishes to see, but it is not necessary to put too much pressure on the Chinese athletes even though they are competing on the home fields. The "advantage" might turn into "disadvantage" under certain circumstances.
For instance, some experts have pointed out that Chinese shooters are very possible to encounter "mother tongue disturbance", which means spectator's conversation or even murmur may affect Chinese marksmen or markswomen when they take the aim, just because they can understand the language.
Some Chinese also put high expectations on Liu Xiang, defending Olympic champion of men's 110 meters hurdlers. Not mentioning that Cuba's Robles has created a new world record recently and is in good form. Everything could happen. If Liu won, it's OK for the Chinese to cheer for his victory. It would be broad-minded if he was unfortunate to lose.
After all, the Olympic Games is just a game. In the course of sports competition, people from all around the world deepen understanding and promote friendship. A relaxed sentiment is what the Chinese should opt for as the Olympic host.
Special report: 2008 Olympic Games
