According to some reports, Beijing painted some grass in Beijing a little bit greener to make a better impressions to the committee, which evaluated the city before the decision about the host of the Olympic Games 2008.
Okay, I admit, since the decision, that Beijing was the host city for 2008, Beijing made many efforts to improve the townscape, reduce the pollution and strengthen the environmental awareness of it’s citizen.
China wants to become a green country. There is a campaign with the goal to reach a certain amount of days with blue sky in Beijing, there are campaigns to improve the attitude of Beijingren to prepare them for the masses of foreign visitors in 2008. There is waste separation is slowly introduced in Beijing and there are no more coal heaters anymore in Beijng. Local public transport was improved, they build a lot of new subway lines in Bejing. In the North of Beijing, under the supervision of the Beijing Linye Daxu (Beijing Forest University), they plant a lot of trees to prevent sandstorms reaching Beijing in spring.
Environment protection already reached the highest levels of politics. Wen Jiabao demanded that environment protection should play a more important role in the consideration of Chinese business men.
Okay, I must admin, since my first visit in Beijing in 1999, Beijing changed a lot. It is cleaner, not so much smog anymore, the city looks much friendlier now.
A Beijing taxi driver told me something about his personal contribution to environment protection in Bejing. Okay, he did not really like the new subway lines, especially the one to Beijing Capital Airport - bad for his business. But in general, he agreed with the idea, that Beijingren have to do more for environment protection. With a touch of humour, he showed me a sign in his car, he had drawn himself:
Smoking prohibited for passengers.
He was smoking a cigarette at the same time.