Olympian Extravagance
Beijing Indulges in a Frenzy
Of Building for 2008 Games;
Will Projects Benefit Locals?
QINGDAO, China -- When this port off the Yellow Sea won the right to hold the sailing competition as part of landlocked Beijing's 2008 Olympic Games, city planners pulled out all stops.
They decided to relocate a heavily polluting shipyard near the city center to make way for a state-of-the-art sailing marina, with an athletes village boasting the amenities of a five-star hotel. Then, they added some infrastructure projects, including an expansion of the year-old airport, a high-speed railway, a 23-mile-long bay bridge and new sewage-treatment plants, lighting and landscaping for the city.
The estimated price tag: as much as $8.5 billion, or almost one-third of the city's gross domestic product last year. Never mind that most of the projects actually have little to do with Olympics.
International Olympic Committee members at the site of the National Olympic Stadium in Beijing in May.
"The Olympic sailing regatta is like a big calling card," says Li Fengli, a civil engineer who is overseeing preparations for Qingdao's sailing center. "We can market ourselves on the world atlas."
It seems like everyone in China is trying to get a piece of the Olympics action. China's communist leaders want to showcase the country's rising wealth to the world and enhance their popularity with their own people, while local governments are using the event to promote their own agendas. "Anything that involves a crane is called an Olympics project," says an executive with the China subsidiary of U.S. conglomerate General Electric Co., a top Olympics sponsor.
The result is that the Beijing Games are fast shaping up as one of the most extravagant Olympics ever.
One group has been more circumspect: foreign companies. While some such as GE and Eastman Kodak Co. are among a dozen or so world-wide corporate sponsors of the 2008 Games, few are participating directly in construction or investment projects in China. One possible reason is red tape: A July 1 rule requires foreign construction companies to obtain an operations license in China before being allowed to bid independently or jointly for an Olympic project.
Others have been wary of the uncertain returns on investments. Golden State Holding Corp. of Los Angeles is one of the biggest foreign investors in Beijing's Olympics-related projects, with a small stake in the company that is building the National Olympic Stadium as well as investments in construction and operation of a water-supply company and a power station.
Golden State executive Zhang Hengli admits that "foreign investors are uneasy about the unclear prospects for returns, and remain cautious about entering the Beijing Olympic construction market."
Officials of the Beijing Olympic Committee and the International Olympic Committee say Beijing's official Olympic budget, which covers the stadiums, athletes housing, media centers and other infrastructure needed for the Games, won't exceed Athens's 2004 Games budget of about $2.4 billion. But much of China's expenditures aren't in this official budget.
A construction worker.
With three years to go, Beijing and several minor host cities are building infrastructure at staggering expense. Even cities unconnected to the games are spending: Provincial Hohhot on the edge of the Mongolian steppes, which isn't hosting a single Olympic event, is getting a new $70 million airport and a highway to Beijing in case weather renders the capital's airport unusable.
Beijing's planned spending ranges from $8 billion for subway, rail and other transportation facilities to $5 billion to build up suburban satellite towns. City officials say such projects, which don't include Olympic-venue construction or security, will run more than $39 billion, and most of it will be financed from government coffers. Greece spent an estimated $12 billion on urban renewal and public works for the Athens Games, a sum that inflated the country's deficit.
The Beijing Reform and Development Commission, which oversees project approvals, dismisses concerns about waste. The "investment in infrastructure will serve the 2008 Games, but its major goal is serving the people of Beijing after 2008," says Liu Jingsheng, head of the commission's Olympic office.
Yet it isn't clear that all the projects will serve the people. A government audit last year found that the General Administration of Sports, the nation's sports regulator, appropriated $13 million of Olympics funds to build apartments for its own staff. A $400 million natural-gas-fired power plant going up in northeastern Beijing, meanwhile, could increase pollution and will cost four times as much as a proposed smaller version that could adequately service the Games, critics say.
"The whole thinking behind this is wrong," says a government engineer. "This is a return to Soviet Union-style planning: It's got to be big."
False Olympics connections, meanwhile, have put off some business people. Shi Feng, a maker of waterproof paints from the southern city of Kunming, signed up for the China Beijing Olympics Building Materials Exposition in late June. He plunked down $942 for the right to set up a booth at the show, hoping to win some Olympics contracts. But "I met no one representing Olympic projects and signed no contracts," grumbles Mr. Shi.
An expo organizer from Beijing's construction office, which oversees all city building, admits the event used the Olympic name as a "promotional measure." Only later, he says, did "we find out that Olympic projects didn't need to come to the show to find suppliers; they have long lines of suppliers waiting just outside their doors."
Some local governments are harboring improbably high hopes of how the Olympics might help them. Hebei province, abutting Beijing, has invested $217 million to revamp a section of the Great Wall in its jurisdiction, three hours' drive away -- despite that Beijing sections of the Wall long have been open to tourists. Sichuan province's newly established Coordination Office for Grasping Olympic Business Opportunities is rallying locals to flood the country with postcards decorated with pictures of pandas, which are native to the province. Although Beijing Olympic officials have said they aren't likely to pick an animal as the mascot, provincial officials still are hopeful the panda will be chosen and help attract more tourists to Sichuan.
Qingdao officials certainly expect their city to benefit from hosting the regatta. The former German treaty port, still home to colonial-style mansions and fish-and-sauerkraut restaurants, has never lived up to its potential as a tourist destination, and city leaders were so keen to win the regatta bid that they promised to cover the necessary development costs on their own. Eight days after Beijing was named the 2008 host city in July 2001, Qingdao's mayor held a meeting to map out an action plan, covering everything from infrastructure construction to English and etiquette lessons for the city's population.
Taxi driver Sun Qiang says he has learned "hundreds of daily phrases," since the programs began three years ago. "I can make more cab fares during the Olympic Games because my English must be better then," he brags.
Bank borrowings are financing many of the projects, but Mr. Li, the civil engineer overseeing the marina project, doesn't see this as a burden for the city or its residents. As cranes finish laying star-shaped concrete slabs for a breakwater for the marina and commercial developers erect high-rise apartments offering views of "Olympic Bay," Mr. Li says he is gratified.
"I hear these voices that say, 'You're spending too much on the Olympics.' I don't think so," Mr. Li says. "For Qingdao, this isn't a burden. It's a chance."
北京放纵奥运会建筑热
当黄海之滨的青岛赢得了2008年北京奥运会的帆板比赛主办权后，这座城市的规划者就开始不遗余力地著手准备。
他们决定搬迁靠近市中心的一个污染严重的船厂，给先进的帆船比赛基地，还有据说达到五星级标准的运动员村让路。随后，他们还增加了一些基础设施项目，包括扩建年久失修的机场、一条高速铁路、23英里长的跨海大桥、新的污水处理厂，以及照明和景观设施。
预计的总造价为85亿美元，相当于青岛2004年GDP的三分之一，虽然大多数项目实际上同奥运会没有太大联系。
监督青岛帆船比赛中心准备工作的建筑工程师李峰利（音译）说：“奥运会帆船比赛就像是张大名片，我们能够向全世界展示我们。”
似乎每一个中国人都想从奥运会中分得一杯羹。中国领导人希望向世界展示国力的不断增强，提高在本国人民当中的威望，当地政府则希望以此提高他们的政绩。奥运会主要赞助商通用电气(General Electric Co.)旗下中国子公司的一位管理人员称，所有的在建工程都被冠以奥林匹克项目。
结果是北京奥运会迅速演变成有史以来最为铺张奢华的奥运会。
有一个群体则更为谨慎，这就是海外公司。尽管通用电气和伊士曼-柯达公司(Eastman Kodak Co.)等部分公司名列2008年奥运会的十几家全球赞助商之列，但它们很少直接参与中国的建设或投资项目。其中一个原因可能就是政府的规章制度：7月1日发布的一项规定要求外国建筑公司在中国获得经营许可证后才能独立或联合参加奥运会项目的投标。
其他公司也对投资回报率的不确定性持谨慎态度。美国金州（控股）集团有限公司(Golden State (Holding) Group Corp.)是北京奥运会相关项目最大的海外投资者之一，持有建设国家奥林匹克运动场的一家公司的少数股份，并投资了一家供水公司和发电站的建设和运营。
金州管理人员章恒利（音译）承认，海外投资者对回报前景的不明感到不满，仍对进入北京奥运会的建筑市场持谨慎态度。
北京奥委会(Beijing Olympic Committee)和国际奥委会(International Olympic Committee)的官员表示，北京奥运会的官方预算，包括比赛场地、运动员房间、新闻中心和其他所需基础设施，不会超过2004年雅典奥运会的24亿美元。但中国的许多支出都不在这个官方预算之内。
距离2008年奥运会还有3年，北京和几个小主办城市正在以惊人的投入兴建基础设施。甚至同奥运会无关的城市也在大兴土木：内蒙古自治区首府呼和浩特就在投资7,000万美元建设新机场和高速公路，以在首都机场受天气影响时使用。
北京计划中的支出包括投资80亿美元兴建地铁、轨道和其他交通设施，50亿美元兴建卫星城镇。市政府官员表示，这类项目不包括奥运场馆的建设和安全设施，总投资将超过390亿美元，主要将由政府财政提供。希腊为雅典奥运会而进行的城市改造和公共建设工程的投资约为120亿美元，这导致了国家财政赤字的增加。
负责项目审批的北京市发改委(Beijing Reform and Development Commission)否认存在浪费问题。北京市发改委奥运办主任刘京生说，基础设施投资将服务于2008年奥运会，但主要目的是在2008年后服务于北京市民。
但还不清楚所有这些项目都将服务于北京市民。去年政府进行的审计发现，中国体育监管机构国家体育总局(General Administration of Sports)挪用了1,300万美元奥运资金为其员工建设住房。批评人士还指出，在北京市东北部投资4亿美元兴建的一个天然气发电站可能会增加污染，而比起原计划足以满足奥运会使用的规模较小的电厂，其成本要高出3倍。
政府部门的一位工程师表示，这背后的整个思路就是错误的。这回到了苏联式的老路上：越大越好。
随意同奥运会挂钩也使一些企业家望而却步。一位防水涂料的制造商石峰（音译）签约参加了6月末的中国北京奥运建筑材料展。他缴纳942美元在展厅设立了摊位，希望能赢得一些同奥运会有关的合约。但他说：“我没有碰到一个同奥运会项目有关的人，也没有签订一项合约。”
来自北京市建设委员会的一名展会组织者承认，这次会展使用奥运会的名称只是促销手段。他随后表示，奥运会的项目根本不需要通过展会寻找供应商；长长的供应商队伍就等在门外。
一些当地政府也对奥运会能给他们带来的好处寄予了不切实际的过高预期。临近北京的河北省就投资2.17亿美元翻修了距北京3小时车程的河北段长城，尽管北京段长城也一直向游客开放。四川省近期也成立了抓住奥运商机协调委员会，号召本地人向全国寄送大熊猫图案的明信片。尽管北京奥委会官员表示，不太可能选择动物作为吉祥物，但四川省的官员仍希望当地特有的大熊猫能被选中，从而吸引更多游客到四川旅游。
青岛官员相信这座城市将从举办帆船比赛中获益。青岛从未完全发挥出作为旅游城市的潜力。在2001年7月北京赢得奥运会主办权的8天后，青岛市市长就召开会议，研究行动计划，从基础设施建设到该城市居民的英语和礼仪课程，无所不包。
出租车司机孙强（音译）说，自3年前开始实施该项目以来，他已经学了几百句日常会话。他炫耀道：“奥运会期间我能挣到更多的出租费，因为到时我的英语水平一定会更高了。”
多数项目的资金都是通过银行贷款解决的，但建筑工程师李峰利认为，这不会成为青岛或其市民的负担。
李峰利说：“我听到的一种说法认为在奥运会上的支出太多了。但我并不这样认为，对青岛而言，这不是负担，而是机遇。”
