I was originally going to title this post ‘Wang Qishan should be fired’ but I thought it might be a little too provocative (Wang Qishan is Beijing’s mayor).  From all accounts, Wang Qishan is an intelligent man and a good leader.  Firing him, however, would probably fit in with the government's policy of finding scapegoats when public anger grows too hot.  Wang’s predecessor Meng Xuenong was fired after the public found out about the SARS cover up.  Last year Xie Zhenhua, China's Minister of the State Environmental Protection Administration was fired after chemical toxins spilt into the Songjiang River.  As any avid footy fan knows, when a team's performance is shocking, the coach is usually the first one to go.  As I mentioned in my last post, Beijing's performance in regards to traffic is shocking and I reckon public anger must be starting to rise. 

It took me two hours to get to work today.  For some reason, Monday is always the worst day for traffic and rain clouds were ominous.  But the huge traffic jam that clogged up the Third Ring Road was beyond a joke.  The government has to do something and I suggest the following:

• Stop selling cars in Beijing
• Enforce varied working hours so that people don't all go to work at the same time
• Find a scapegoat and fire him/her to relieve public anger

Obviously the third one is the most practical, especially since the Beijing Municipal Government is well-practised in the art of dismissal following the sacking of Vice Mayor Liu Zhihua in June.  Something has to be done because Beijing is a mess, despite it getting a large piece (the majority?) of China's funding pie.  Beijing's diminishing status is shown by a survey by Horizon Group which says Beijing is China 15th most liveable city, a drop of 12 places since 2004.   Even China Daily isn't afraid of complaining.  (I am a bit surprised about Nanjing's positioning at No.8, but it is good for bike riding.)

At the risk of sounding like a wide-eyed foreigner, I would like to make a complaint about Beijing’s traffic.  I catch a bus to work so I am pretty well qualified to talk about the worsening state of the city’s traffic.  For the last two weeks, the traffic from Monday to Friday has ground to halt and it seems that Beijing’s capacity for traffic has finally hit the ceiling.  In good traffic conditions, my trip from home to work only takes 20 minutes by traveling down the Third Ring Road.  In bad conditions, however, the trip can take up to 80 minutes as the entire stretch of road is clogged up by private cars, taxis and buses. 

 Traffic in Beijing on a Saturday afternoon

Beijing’s bad traffic is the reason why I actually look forward to working during the National Day Holidays.  While the majority of Beijingers have a well-deserved break, I will be getting on the bus and enjoying this year’s best traffic.  This is a clue to what will happen during the Beijing Olympics. The Chinese government must be planning to give everyone a very long two-week holiday so that Olympic tourists can enjoy the kind of traffic that is seen during national holidays. 

Seeing the problems associated with Beijing’s transport makes me question whether Beijing will be the first developing city to host a modern Olympic games.  Athens must’ve needed a lot of work on its transportation system, but its Olympic development was mostly about protecting heritage sites from damage.  Sydney was a finished city when it hosted its Olympic.  London is planning to use its Olympics in 2012 as a way of developing the eastern part of the city.  As you can see, Beijing is the only one that is developing its entire city (mostly from scratch) to accommodate the Olympics.  In this way, Beijing’s Olympics must be one of the most risky to date.  Traffic is curdling, the city is full of dust and the risks have never been more evident. 

A stray cat from my estate

It seems that stray cats are taking over Beijing.  Outside the Nepalese Embassy in Chaoyang District, several kittens lick dishes that have been pushed under the perimeter fence.  In the morning, a man pushes a pram to the embassy and shows his child the playfulness of new life.  But in this case, these newly-born kittens are adding even more numbers to the uncontrolled population of stray cats that is taking root in the capital. 

A middle-aged workmate of mine is a cat feeder.  She feels sorry for the homeless cats that have inhabited the grounds of the Nepalese Embassy and often leaves dishes of food and water.  But now she has noticed something rather startlingly – concubines of the main tomcat deliver a litter of cats every week!  Within a few short months, the stray cat population at the Nepalese Embassy had greatly expanded in size.  My workmate is considering capturing the cats and taking them down to the vet to be made infertile. Not surprisingly, however, the cats aren’t really fond of being picked up and handled. Money is another issue that needs considering as well, who will foot the bill for these feline medical treatments?

A lame kitten rests outside the main gate of my estate.  The fur on top of its head has been eaten away – it looks hideous and I feel sick after seeing it.  Tossed aside by the main cat colony that resides on my estate, the poorly-paid security guards are the kitten’s only friends now. 

But what if this kitten is sick with an infectious disease?  Dogs are a common fixture on the estate and are usually free to roam its boundaries during the evening.  What if a dog dies after coming into close contact with the sick kitten?  Ideally, the kitten should be cured of its illness or put down.  But once again, this comes down to the issue of money.  There is no one officially responsible for looking after the estate’s stray cats, although there is one woman who is chiefly responsible for their food and housing (she has erected several cat kennels in the estate’s gardens). 

I am also worried about the effect that avian influenza could have on a population of stray cats.  Cats are natural predators and skilled killers of birds.  I am scared that one of the cats will eat a bird and become infected with avian influenza.  In this case, the human population of the estate would be put at risk and the value of raising stray cats becomes very questionable. 

People who feed stray cats are not thinking about the long term.  Pity compels them to feed stray cats, but it would be more compassionate to put the cats down.  Otherwise, the cat population will continue to grow and the cruelty of animal life will be exposed.  More kittens such as the one I mentioned above will be tossed aside and left to rot.  And eventually a cat will infect a dog or person with a nasty virus and cause illness or even death.  People who feed cats don’t think about such consequences.  They enjoy feeding stray cats because they don’t have to go home and deal with cat hair and errant droppings.  But will they take the responsibility when a sick cat infects somebody and causes serious illness?

For the most part, Beijing looks like a normal city, but there are some things that make you remember that it’s a little bit different.  One example is the red banners that have been plastered all over the Third Ring Road for the last couple of weeks.  The slogans on the banners implore people to avoid taking heiche (illegal transport such as unauthorised taxis and three-wheeled motorcycles).    Such modes of transport are quite popular because bus stops and subways can be located in inconvenient places.  Catching heiche is often a good way of cutting down on the transit time between home and the bus stop.  Some people even argue that heiche are a safe way of getting around at night, especially for women.

The government, however, doesn’t agree, believing heiche are deathtraps that have to go. It’s certainly an interesting move, especially when one considers all the other dangerous things that happen on Beijing’s roads:

• Not many people wear seatbelts and less wear helmets when driving a motorbike.
• People speed.
• Road rage is a daily occurrence.
• People are often caught drink driving. (The Olympics ping pong champion, Kong Linghui was caught drink driving last month)

Out of the many road safety issues that are around at the moment, the problem of heiche is the one which gets the most attention.  I try not to mention the Cultural Revolution on my blog, but this red banner campaign makes me think of another era.  I mean, wouldn’t a TV campaign be a better option?  And I’d like to know the exact reason why heiche are killers.   I know that drink driving causes accidents, but I am not fully convinced that heiche are that dangerous.  Could it be that the government is pissed off because the drivers of heiche don’t pay taxes?  Or maybe the campaign is being orchestrated by the powerful Beijing taxi companies who don’t want to share their profits with illegal modes of transport?  Probably partly due to the reasons mentioned above, heiche drivers are a hunted species, but if they lay low for a couple of months, they'll still be around for a while yet.  With plenty of gaps in Beijing’s public transport system, there’s definitely market share for heiche.  

This banner says illegal motorbikes are road killers

This banner says improve road safety knowledge, actively avoid heiche

The office just shook for a few seconds and everybody felt it.  It seems that there has been a small earthquake in Beijing just before 12pm.  This is a definite worry because there are so many poorly constructed buildings in this city.  I wonder where the epicentre was. 

I thought the Thornbirds was a bad book because it was too long and the second half was poorly written.  But one line has stuck with me – it was the part about how the value of a person or animal directly corresponds with its quantity. 

“We all have contempt for whatever there’s too many of.  Out here it’s sheep, but in the city it’s people.”

If you use this kind of logic, then a person’s life isn’t worth much in China.  Beijing has a near-infinite supply of peasants who are willing to take part in back-breaking labour.  You don’t have to live in China for a long time to see that workplace health and safety laws haven’t really caught on here.  Construction workers perched precariously on bamboo scaffolding is a common sight.  Everyone has seen on television stories about China’s disastrous mines – death traps for people too poor to care.  But this kind of thing also happens in Beijing, the capital and the stage for the 2008 Olympics.  Part of the city’s modernisation drive is the building of a more comprehensive subway system, a system that will hopefully help transport tourists to the games.  It is probably a key part of the Olympic plan, but the question needs to be asked: How many lives will the Beijing subway cost?

The Beijing Subway

The Beijing News reported on June 28 that two workers were killed when a section of the subway’s No.10 line collapsed on June 27.  The No.10 line is being built in northwest Beijing’s Haidian district and will wrap down to the city’s southeast.  I think it is a shame that during the Olympics, people will enjoy the city’s improved transport system and marvel at the modern high rises, but they’ll probably be no mention of the many labourers who died during the process of all this construction. In an ideal world, a memorial should be unveiled during the opening ceremony in their honour.  Of course this won’t happen because the Olympics are for fat cats and politicians.   But it would be a nice touch if the 2008 Olympics were to be dedicated to the peasantry, especially considering the sheer number of peasants in China.