Verbruggen acknowledged the challenge that traffic and pollution pose for the
city. Beijingers purchased about 1,000 new cars a day last year, giving the city
2.6 million vehicles, half of them private.
"Staggering figures like that give an idea of the problems they have to
solve," Verbruggen said. "It's an uphill battle for them."
Beijing dropped from fourth to 15th place in a Chinese survey of livable
cities this year, in part because of pollution and traffic. The city has 7,000
building sites, many of them being rushed to completion ahead of the Olympics. A
relay marathon went ahead last month despite hazardous smog.
Beijing's mayor regularly cites air pollution, traffic and water shortages as
among his gravest problems.
"You're lucky the air quality is good during your visit," Mayor Wang Qishan
told visiting Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley on Monday. When Daley handed Wang a
photograph of the Chicago skyline with Lake Michigan in the foreground, Wang
said, wistfully: "Look, the sky is blue, the water clean."
Beijing has a history of taking extreme measures during important public
events. In 1993, during an unsuccessful bid for the 2000 Olympics, police drove
beggars and the handicapped from the city before an IOC visit. For the 50th
anniversary of the People's Republic in 1999, city residents were ordered to
stay home while floats and military units moved through neighborhoods for a
parade.
The IOC and Beijing organizers have said they are counting on the traditional
hospitality of ordinary Chinese and their enthusiasm for the Olympics to make
the 2008 Games a success. But the Olympic contingency plans are testing the
tolerance of ordinary Chinese, who have grown more free and assertive after two
decades of economic reforms.
Beijing Olympic organizers have said privately that city residents, if given
vacations during the Games, might swarm the venues rather than leave the city on
holiday. Excessive security that keeps Chinese away also could spark negative
media reports and spoil the atmosphere.
"The temporary administrative measures we will take will be in line with
international practices," Jiang said.
