Click to play videoBeijing: From the streets to the skies, China has taken nothing for granted in the run up to the Olympic games.
The banners are up, the streets are decked, and Beijing is showing its finest colors. For seven years — since being selected to host the 2008 Olympic Games — China has prepared to welcome the world to a modern city.
Top architects were summoned and bold, futuristic buildings were constructed as the old ones were torn down.
However, it's not just the difference in the way Beijing looks, but how it acts.
Chinese officials have distributed millions of etiquette handbooks outlining “dos and don'ts" for the locals. The dos include smiling in public and the don’ts say: Don’t shake hands for more than three seconds and don't wear too many colors. The book also advises women with thick legs to wear dark socks to hide their imperfections.
Even though some might think it’s taking etiquette lessons a bit too far, locals don’t seem to mind.
“As long as it educates people about Olympics and tells them how to be civilized, I think it’s necessary,” says a university student. “I don't think it's an ‘order’. It is just a simple suggestion,” says another local.
Residents have also been told to stand in line at bus stops and not spit in public places. Taxi drivers too have been advised to go easy on the garlic to control bad breath. And everyone has been encouraged to learn the English language.
Posters instructing people on how not to talk to foreigners can be seen everywhere. For instance, it discourages Chinese — known for their ‘blunt’ small talk routines — from asking foreigners about their age, income or love life, lest they take offence.
State surveys report good progress on improving manners and behavior. As far as the government is concerned, this Olympic makeover deserves an Olympic gold.
However, to make way for the re-development, the government ordered thousands of people living in old Chinese neighborhoods to vacate their homes, which were later bulldozed.
CNN was surrounded by private security guards and forcibly pushed out of the area, when it tried to cover the demolition.
There are sides of Beijing’s transformations that the world won’t see, but they certainly will see 40 million flowerpots placed precisely across the city.
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