Sunday, April 01, 2007
Olympic unreadiness
Beijing will no doubt have the stadia built and the necessary telecomms infrastructure, but it won't be ready for the Olympics. The road network will creak - heavily - under the burden.
But where they are really not ready is culturally.
The *tourist* apparatus here can't cope with foreigners, except at very big tourist sites. Even there only (some) tour guides speak other than mandarin, and hwakers can say "You look, you buy" or equivalent. Timetables, brochures almost exclusively in Chinese.
How much a country should adapt itself to my ignorance and expectations is, in my view, only a little. I'm not sure that view is shared by the peopel who will spend larges ums of money coming here to see the Olympics and the sights.
It feels as there will be a massive gap between expectation and delivery.
But where they are really not ready is culturally.
The *tourist* apparatus here can't cope with foreigners, except at very big tourist sites. Even there only (some) tour guides speak other than mandarin, and hwakers can say "You look, you buy" or equivalent. Timetables, brochures almost exclusively in Chinese.
How much a country should adapt itself to my ignorance and expectations is, in my view, only a little. I'm not sure that view is shared by the peopel who will spend larges ums of money coming here to see the Olympics and the sights.
It feels as there will be a massive gap between expectation and delivery.
# posted by David @ 6:56 am 
