First impressions--A Garden City
By Ajoa Yeboah Afari, From BeijingCall Beijing, capital of the People's Republic of China, a Garden City, and anybody who has been here in recent years will surely not accuse you of exaggeration.
Anywhere one stands, the horizon presents a marvelous picture of wide streets, bordered and decorated by trees, flowers and well-trimmed hedges. Even the central traffic reservations could win awards with their lovely greenery. The wide avenues make a great backdrop for the elegant, massive buildings and countless flyovers that boost the city's skyline and put Beijing in a class of its own as a very modern city.
A Ministry of Foreign Affairs official told our group of visiting journalists from Africa that one of the reasons for inviting us was to send out the message of the new look country."Introduce the new,modern China to your people,"said Mr. Qin Gang. He need not have bothered to say it. It would have to be the most cynical visitor who would refuse to be impressed.
It is hard to tell whether winning the bid to host the 2008 Olympic Games accounts for Beijing's fantastic metamorphosis, or whether it is the great progress made that gave it the confidence to make the bid.
Probably a combination of the two factors, but whatever it is, clearly some far-sighted, creative planning has been involved and it has paid off.
It's not just that the city looks picturesque; it is also a clean one and breathing-friendly-very different from what it was a decade ago. Then, air pollution was so bad that there were warning notices about it for the benefit of visitors to the capital. Some serious environmental strategies have obviously been implemented.
For people from countries of more modest statistics, the world's most populous country-with a population of 1.3 billion-with a capital home to some15 million could be intimidating. It could be a nightmare just to cross the streets, which are choked with cars of every brand, peerage and origin. However, the wide roads, many of them ten lanes, have pedestrian bridges to complement the flyovers. And it is also a bicycle city. A steady stream of bikes flank the vehicles in their special lanes.
Beijing is as modern as any western city, and more spectacular than most of them. In appearance the people in the street look like city folk everywhere, some sporting the latest fashions; and, of course mobile phones are glued to ears. Commerce is just as brisk as any city anywhere, perhaps even brisker, considering the numbers involved here.
Beijing is more than nine hours flying time from London; and it is equally far from most places. The distance and the language barrier are no doubt the reason why in my first two days here I came across only two black people in the streets. And for this time of year the weather is just like home to African visitors.
(The writer, Editor of the Ghanaian Times, is among a group of 22 journalists from English speaking Africa who are currently visiting China at the invitation of Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the People's Republic of China).
Sources: the Ghanaian Times