I don’t know why this isn’t screaming across news headlines. Buried in a report I can no longer find on the BBC website (my search engine crashes when I look for it…) only 45,000 foreigners are here for the Olympics. (All I can find now is a BBC report that says “…tens of thousands of world leaders, athletes and spectators [are] expected in Beijing for the Games: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7545593.stm)  I actually heard about this first from a Chinese newspaper that wrote only 50,000 came. For those of us who were looking for a party this is disappointing news. According to estimates from over a month ago there were supposed to be over 500,000 of us laowai coming! Read one of the estimates here: http://edition.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/asiapcf/06/03/oly.foreigners.ap/index.html I work for a homestay non-profit organization and we only got 14 visitors to use our service. The government run homestay got none (I’m proud of that. They even called us to interview us about our success.) Word on the street is hotels right next to the Olympic Green are only half full and prices are falling every day. So… what happened? Here is my analysis: 

 

 1.)    Visas- everywhere you want to be?

Not really. Fact is, the Chinese government cracked down hard on foreign guests through strict visa policies. China officially stated that “no change was made” in the official visa policy, but the fact is, the infamous Hong Kong visa run was no longer a shoe-in for your visa. I had friends here who had worked for 2 years teaching in BJ and all of a sudden were not able to renew their visas. The black box was worse for those outside of China. 3 month visas became impossible, then even 1 month visas. I heard a rumor the longest you could get from HK was for 11 days! I didn’t even know they had 11 day visas. One of our customers from Indonesia could only get a 1 week visa. The government said that the new (although never admitted new) policies were for safety. They particularly feared terrorist attacks (and, of course, protests) here in Beijing, so they limited who could come. I heard down the line that what you look like and what country you are from directly related to how likely you are to get a visa. Look middle-eastern or from that region? No joy on the visa. There were some American athletes that also got blacklisted last minute, including one previous Olympic medalists that had a connection to Team Darfur. 

 

2.)    Game TICKETS! 

If you are flying for over 14 hours to a country for the Olympics then you want at least a few event tickets. I heard from the rumor-mill even the Olympic teams had trouble getting tickets for their own events. The tickets policies were so strict, and inconsistent, that many people threw their hands up and said forget it. For example, BOCOG decided at the last minute that all Opening Ceremony tickets needed to have a picture and passport sent in to be placed on the ticket. 80,000 tickets?! The logistics are mind boggling. Let’s just say the idea didn’t work out well in practice. Scalping is also illegal here and many Chinese websites that were selling tickets have been shutdown. Now you have to know someone who knows someone. From what I hear, many tickets are in drawers collecting dust as there is an oversupply but no way to sell them! I heard a horror story about three Opening Ceremony tickets found on a desk the day after.    

Sweet, sweet Olympic tickets

Sweet, sweet Olympic tickets

 

 

3.)     The Economy

People just aren’t traveling like the used to. Americans are tightening their belts and not going as far for vacation. Don’t blame them, especially with the falling worth of the dollar (which hurts us expats every time we go to the ATM.) 

 

4.)    Oil Prices

This figures directly into airline ticket prices. With the sky high (perceived) demand for Olympics tickets plus crude oil prices going through the roof made an expensive flight indeed. Oil prices are state controlled in China, so not a big deal here.

 

 5.)    Earthquakes and Disease

The Sichuan Earthquake was not good for China- which I admit did a pretty amazing job with the aftermath. Fact is people don’t want to travel to a country that suffered a huge disaster, even if it’s on the other side of the country. Add in the disease scare in Anhui killing infants and adults alike, plus a supposed cover-up of a mysterious disease in Qingdao makes for not so good a travel destination.

 

 6.)    …The D, T and X problem

Everyone knows about Darfur, although many are probably still unclear about exactly what is going on there. Even after doing an internship at the United Nations and being briefed by the very people who are stationed in Sudan I’m still a little puzzled about the exact mess in Darfur and China’s role in it. It’s pretty complicated. Everyone also knows about the Tibet issue- particularly us Boulderites. People know a little less about Xinjiang (I’m surprised I can access my blog after writing all this…). I won’t delve into the details of the issues here, but I have strong opinions about these three that tend to follow the stereotypical “foreigner thought trends.” Let’s just say that China is providing weaponry to the oppressive Sudanese government, there were riots in Tibet and bombings in Xingjiang and in southern China by Uyghur activists. When there are controversial weapon sales, bombings and riots, people don’t like to visit. Here is a link to some t-shirt artwork, all anti-Olympics and most focus on D, T and X (or human rights). http://www.redbubble.com/people/rossman72/journal/916686-boycott-beijing-artwork 

 

7.)    The Blood Olympics

I got this “Blood Olympics” comment on one of my youtube videos. There is a strong anti-China stance held by some, particular targeting the Olympics and China’s human rights abuses. Just look at the picture of the Olympic rings as handcuffs. Or even better, Amnesty International’s report “The Olympics Countdown: Broken Promises” which outlines China’s negative trend in human rights (http://www.amnesty.org/en/news-and-updates/report/chinese-authorities-broken-promises-threaten-olympic-legacy-20080728). I’ll be the first to say these abuses exist and are terrible. However, I believe that by being here you support the Chinese people, not so much the government. By being in Beijing foreigners are agents of cultural diffusion which can pressure for liberal change (look how the media was opened up after foreign journalists and the IOC pressured the CCP for less censorship. I’ll write about this later.) 

 

Add these together and what do you get? A pretty poorly attended Olympics. I can attest to this just by the lack of foreigners that I see around. I was expecting droves, and  all I see are scattered packs. Why isn’t someone in the major media writing this story? They said 500,000 and only 45,000 are here…. but why? This is certainly noteworthy.

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