Beijing's New Party Line
China Officials Train Crowds
To Be More Polite, Orderly
As 2008 Olympics Approach
BEIJING -- City leaders promised the world a "new Beijing" when they won the right to host the 2008 Olympics. Now, four years into the capital's makeover, it seems they have decided what is really missing isn't broad avenues, lush parks or elegant hotels. It is common courtesy.
Beijing's Communist Party leadership has called for a full-blown campaign to improve etiquette and politeness ahead of the expected deluge of foreign visitors. Foul-mouthed taxi drivers have been called on to clean up their acts, and rowdy soccer fans to show more sportsmanship toward the opposing team.
"In 2008, what kind of Beijing shall we present to the globe? A Beijing both ancient and modern, a Beijing friendly and smiling," declares the Humanistic Olympics Studies Center, a city-government sponsored institute.
The next step to tackle, the powers-that-be have decided, is the art of standing in line.
Patiently waiting one's turn isn't a big feature of life in Beijing. Take an intersection on Chang'an Avenue, a main thoroughfare, on a recent Monday morning. Three lanes of cars and buses cram into a two-lane street, honking furiously. A swarm of bicyclists swerves onto the sidewalk to avoid getting trapped in the jam. Pedestrians dodge out of the way as the squeal of brakes announces a stopping bus and crowds rush to squeeze their way on.
Above them, a propaganda billboard reads: "Together enjoying a happy and harmonious life."
Trying to bring a bit more harmony to rush-hour chaos are people like Gao Shuang, a retired family-planning worker who now bears the title of deputy director of the Office of the Coordinating Group for Orderly Bus-Riding.
Ms. Gao and her colleagues have been charged with improving the 10,000 bus stops in Beijing and its suburbs, the key points in a public transportation system that serves a population of more than 15 million people. Her office's uniformed monitors have spread out to staff 533 stops, helping make change for bus fares, assisting the elderly and handicapped, rescuing lost items -- and, most importantly, getting passengers to stand in line.
Further west on Chang'an Avenue, the results of their efforts can be seen. Two monitors armed with bullhorns and red flags announce the arrival of buses, then wave waiting passengers into orderly groups. Most of the morning crowd cooperates. But the habit of queuing up isn't deeply ingrained. As one bespectacled monitor rushes over to a busy bus, he turns his back on a carefully arranged line of passengers. Without his supervision, it degenerates into a scrum as the passengers try to force their way onto another bus so packed that only the steps are free.
"Our goal is to have people line up voluntarily," says Ms. Gao. Although it is early still -- the campaign started in March -- she is full of confidence. "The cultural level of Beijing people is pretty high. They just need someone to remind them."
Big crowds are nothing new in China. The world's most-populous nation has long had to deal with too many people crammed into too little space, with its 1.3 billion people occupying an area slightly larger than the continental U.S.
Yet many of the country's traditional codes of politeness, once similar to those in other Asian nations such as Japan, were shattered by the Communist revolution and its campaigns to stamp out "feudal" thinking. China's pell-mell transformation to a market economy has brought out even-ruder behavior, as people elbow others aside in pursuit of every advantage, whether in competing for school admission, jobs or business deals.
But now a growing number of Chinese feel that something important may have been left behind in today's increasingly fierce struggle to get ahead. Some Chinese have turned to religion; others are signing up for volunteer work or donating to charity. This yearning for a greater good may help officials in their drive to overhaul bus lines.
The challenge is enormous. With only a minimal subway system, and limited, though rapidly growing, private-car ownership, Beijing's bus system is still the mainstay of transportation for many people. Beijing Public Transport Holdings Ltd., the government-owned bus company, operates 24,153 vehicles on 750 lines, carrying its riders on 4.4 billion trips a year. That makes it roughly six times larger and busier than the bus system serving the five boroughs of New York City.
Ms. Gao, who has visited New York and Washington, D.C., says those cities make her job look especially hard. "In America...it wasn't crowded at all," she says. "It didn't matter if you stood in line or not." When moving as many as 14 million passengers in one day, as Beijing's bus system can do, anything that eases the flow can make a big difference.
To make riding the bus more pleasant and convenient, the city government will be buying more and newer buses, and increasing service at peak hours. Plans also call for several new subway lines to crisscross the city and its suburbs, part of the gargantuan construction spree that is intended to bring the city's infrastructure up to Olympic standards in time for 2008.
While traffic engineering may be getting much of the money, social engineering is also a big part of the equation. A local government body, dubbed the Capital Civilization Office, is overseeing educational projects and contests to discourage spitting, littering, foul language, aggressive driving and catcalls directed at the opposing team during sporting events. Migrant workers, taxi drivers and teenagers -- thought to be particularly uncivilized -- are getting special attention.
Few Beijingers these days are given to parroting such party propaganda campaigns. But the incessant talk of the Olympics does mean that they increasingly feel the world's eyes upon them. And despite its simplistic sloganeering, the lining-up campaign is striking a chord with some people who feel that contemporary Chinese life has gotten a bit too rough and rude.
Qian Yuli, a diminutive woman with a ready grin, cheers on the bus-stop monitors' work at a stop along Ping'an Avenue, saying it hasn't come a moment too soon. "It is part of the Chinese people's traditional etiquette to let the person who arrived first go ahead of you," she says. "It is just that there are some people these days that aren't so good about it."
北京提高人文素质迎奥运
北京市领导人在赢得2008年奥运会主办权时承诺，将给世人展现一个“新北京”。如今，四年过去了，他们似乎已经认识到，北京真正缺失的并不是宽广的街道、绿荫环绕的公园或者豪华的酒店，而是人们的文明素质。
为迎接预期中大量外国游客的到来，北京市政府发起改善市民文明礼仪的全面倡议，要求满口脏话的出租车司机修正其行为，粗暴的球迷们更文明地对待客场球队。
“2008年，我们准备以一个什么样的北京呈现给世界？将是一个古老而又现代的北京；一个亲切微笑的北京，”由北京市政府发起成立的人文奥运研究中心(Humanistic Olympics Studies Center)宣称。
政府确定的下一步举措是宣传排队礼仪。
北京市民在生活中还没有养成耐心排队的习惯。以最近一个周一的清晨为例，在北京市主要街道长安街的一个十字路口，三队轿车和公共汽车正一辆紧挨著一辆地挤入一条两车道的马路，急促的喇叭声不绝于耳。大量的自行车骑车人为了避免被困而涌上了人行道。行人则在车流中穿梭，一有公共汽车进站便蜂拥而上。
在他们的头上方，一个宣传广告牌写著：“共创幸福和谐生活”。
为了纠正高峰期的混乱局面，许多人参与到维持正常乘车秩序的活动中来，北京市共建文明乘车秩序协调小组办公室(Office of the Coordinating Group for Orderly Bus-Riding)副主任、计生委退休员工高爽就是其中之一。
高爽及其同事的职责是改善北京市区及郊区一万个公交站台的乘车秩序，这是服务1,500多万人的公共交通系统的重要环节。她所在办公室的身著制服的监督员分散到533个站台，协助兑换零钱，帮助老弱病残人群乘车，退还人们丢失的财物──最重要的是，让乘客排队候车。
在西长安街上，他们的努力见到了明显成效。两位手拿喇叭和小红旗的监督员通知人们汽车进站，然后挥舞红旗让等待的乘客按秩序排队。早晨等车的乘客们大多比较配合。不过人们排队的习惯还没有根深蒂固。在一位戴眼镜的监督员忙著维持一辆进站汽车的秩序时，身后原本排列整齐的另一队乘客乱作一团，人们纷纷抢乘另一辆拥挤不堪、只有车门口稍有空档的汽车。
高爽说，“我们的目标是让人们自觉排队。”虽然这项活动3月份才启动，但她对前景充满信心。“北京市民的文化水平很高，他们只是需要有人提醒一下他们。”
拥挤的人群在中国并不鲜见。作为世界上人口最多的国家，中国长期以来不得不应对人多空间小的问题，它的13亿人口占用的面积略小于美国大陆。
但是，中国许多曾与日本等其他亚洲国家类似的传统礼节渐渐消失在共产党的革命浪潮和肃清封建思想的运动中。向市场经济的转型孳生了甚至更不文明的行为，人们为了追逐私利不惜排斥他人，无论是在入学、就业还是经商中都有这种情况发生。
不过，如今越来越多的中国人意识到在当前的激烈竞争中可能忘却了某些重要的东西。一些中国人开始转信宗教；其他人则签约志愿服务或向慈善事业捐款。官员们希望利用当前人们对公益的热情来整顿乘车秩序。不过，形势还很严峻。由于地铁系统不发达，私家车虽然数量激增但仍有限，对很多人来说，公交系统仍是北京市交通运输的主要力量。政府所有的北京公共交通控股公司(Beijing Public Transport Holdings Ltd)共开辟了750条公交线路，运营车辆达24,153辆，每年运送乘客44亿人次。
曾到纽约和华盛顿参观访问过的高爽表示，这些城市的情况让她的工作显得尤为艰难。“在美国，根本就没有人群拥挤的情况，”她说。“你排不排队一点关系都没有。”而像北京公交系统这样，每天运送1,400万人次，任何纾缓人流的措施都能起到很大作用。
为了使乘车更舒适、更便捷，北京市政府将购买更多、更新的车辆，并增加高峰时刻的发车班次。此外，政府还打算建设几条贯穿城区和郊区的新地铁线路。为了使城市基础设施在2008年达到奥林匹克标准，北京市正在掀起建设热潮。
对奥运会话题的热衷意味著北京人越来越感觉到世界对他们的关注。尽管口号比较简单，排队倡议在一些认为当代国人的生活变得太过粗俗的人心中激起了共鸣。
在平安大街上的一个公交汽车站台上，身材较小、面带微笑的钱玉丽（音）对站台监督员的工作表示认同。她说，人们自觉排队的时刻还没有到来。“让先到的人先上车一直是中国人传统礼仪的一部分，”她说，“只不过现在有些人做得不太好了。”
