Bye, Bye Beijing
Posted: Sunday, August 24, 2008 10:05 AM
The flame is out, the bars in the Sanlitun nightclub district are undoubtedly headed for a drunken rendezvous with dawn, the Beijing Games are over.
They were simply marvelous. The venues were grand, the competition Olympian, and the city a most gracious host and the beers reasonably priced. Olympic volunteers are the grease that makes everything work. In every host city, they are always the most friendly and helpful people you’ll meet anywhere. But the hundreds of thousands who worked here for nothing more than their nifty uniforms and free water and sandwiches are beyond compare.
On one of my first days here, I needed to get to the Main Press Center. It wasn’t very far away in a straight line – about a half mile or so – so I decided to walk. The problem was that to get around the security zone, I would have had to walk to Mongolia to get there.
Hot and frustrated, I stopped at an information stand staffed by a gaggle of young Chinese volunteers and asked how I could get to the building I could see just on the other side of the fenced-in Olympic Green. A young woman who spoke just enough English pointed to a bus yard and said I could take a bus. I thanked her and headed off to find the proper bus, but she tagged along and helped me find the right bus. Since there was a transfer involved, and she didn’t want a visitor to get lost or have a bad experience, she insisted on riding with me to the transfer point. She found the next bus, got on it again with me, and wouldn’t leave until I was inside the security gate at the press center.
As I would learn, that level of desire to make everyone think well of China and the Games was the rule, not the exception. I cannot begin to count the number of people here who went out of their way – sometimes far out of their way – to help a media stiff find his way.
I’m not going to pretend to be an expert on Chinese history and the local brand of communism. I know the country’s government likes to keep control of everything it can. That desire isn’t unique to Chinese government. I know of a few closer to home that would love to have the same control over the masses that China does. The difference is in the degree of success China’s government has had in achieving that goal. Whether it maintains it as the country continues its economic boom is not a matter I’m qualified to comment on.
What I can say from my experience is that the Chinese excel in hospitality. In our hotel, there is a sort of hostess on every floor and others in the lobby. When you come in, someone pushes the elevator button and holds the door until you’re in. When you get off at your floor, the hostess says hello with a bright smile. When you leave your room, by the time you get to the elevators, she is standing at the door, holding it open for you.
Call housekeeping to pick up laundry and someone is there in minutes. No one accepts a tip.
It’s the same everywhere you go. My cigarette lighter ran out of fuel. A waitress in the bar gave me hers – to keep. Go into a bank to face the gauntlet of getting a cash advance on a credit card that won’t work in an ATM, and someone is there to hold your hand until the mission is accomplished.
Clearly, there is a wealth of cheap labor here. The level of service reminded me of my youth when gas stations had attendants who filled the tank, checked the oil and water and washed your windshield. I assume if you went back to early 20th century America, you’d find the same hordes of workers in banks and other businesses, all there to help the paying customers.
Someday, some of these volunteers and young workers may look back at the first decade of the 21st century the same way I look back to the middle of the last century. If they do, they’ll probably grouse that you can’t get good help the way it was when they were kids.
I hope they get the chance to complain like that. It will mean that some very hard-working and wonderful people have made it to where they’re working so hard to get to.
I’m off for the next two weeks. Ever since I was old enough to know that Egypt existed, I’ve wanted to see it. That’s where I’m off to – the pyramids, Aswan, the Nile cruise. I’ll let you know how it turns out.
