It’s 35 degrees out, I’m late, hot and in a rush. When the security guard stops me at the gate to a compound I’ve entered a million times before during my four years in Beijing, I begin to curse the Olympics under my breath.
The number of daily hassles in the city is mounting as the Games draw nearer. I now have enough passes and ID cards to open a small shop.
They include my main Olympics accreditation, my office ID and swipe card, a new photo ID to enter my apartment
block and I’ve been carrying my passport since police began enforcing a long-standing Chinese law that foreigners must have them on their person at all times.
Several friends have had house-calls from their neighbourhood police, making sure they are properly registered and in some cases requiring they register again for good measure.
Having never been in my local police station before this year, I am now a regular there, checking in each time I re-enter the country after a trip abroad in accordance with newly enforced rules.
There are now X-ray machines at subway stations, compounding the morning rush, and police checkpoints at entrances to the city, where cars and their passengers are scrutinised for anything that might threaten Beijing’s Olympics-level security.
The amazing part of all of this is not that it exists — a certain level of security is to be expected with any huge event, and in a host country that frowns on popular protest, even more zealous checks are no surprise. But to me what is incredible is how little it seems to bother the citizens it most affects.
While I feel my heart begin to speed with irritation at the mere sight of a checkpoint, Beijingers seem to be displaying remarkable forebearance in the face of these disruptions to their daily routine.
“If there are a lot of cars the wait can be long, but it’s for Olympics security so everyone is very understanding,” one man told me in the queue at a checkpoint just outside the city.
“Even with the heat today, look around, no one is very irritated,” he said.
Sure enough, no other drivers I spoke to seemed the least bit vexed, and bus passengers filed out and queued without a fuss to present their identification at the police window.
Perhaps there is a lesson here for the impatient Westerner in their midst.
Pictures by Jason Lee
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3 comments so far
If foreign media really understand how ordinary Chinese people feel about the Olympics instead of making guesses out of their own wishful thinking (like everything the government does is wrong, ridiculous or laughable), they’ll know it’s nothing about forbearance. No country is perfect. Chinese just want to present the best for guests from around the world and make them safe. We’re doing our best and we’re happy to do that.
- Posted by A BeijingerReminds me of a time in Russia when going from Vladivostok to P-K and our plane landed in Magadan due to bad weather and we were all told basically to get out and fend for ourselves, even though night was falling. I and the American with whom I was travelling were furious, but the Russians took it all in stride. I attribute it to not knowing things can be different and to not believing any protest will really effect change.
- Posted by DanThis is understandable and necessary.
- Posted by Mike