Chinese are clearly eager to impress

Rachael Blount with the Olympic mascot.

By Rachel Blount , Star Tribune

Last update: August 7, 2008 - 6:46 AM

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With 1.3 billion people, human resources would not seem to be a problem in China. So it wasn't unexpected when a posse showed up to greet us at the airport Tuesday, when our flight from Newark landed in Beijing. When we arrived at baggage claim, the army of volunteers had neatly lined up carts (note to MSP: they are free) around the carousel. Touch one, and people came running to assist you.

Jiang Shan helped me get my luggage, have my Olympic credential validated and find the bus to the media village. Along the way, she insisted on taking a photo of me with one of the Olympic mascots. She promised to send the photos after her shift ended, which she did promptly. A big xie xie (thank you) to Shan!

Though some Olympic athletes raised a big stink by donning breathing masks as soon as they stepped out of the airport, Tuesday was a blue-sky day -- and the rules were being enforced. Every car on the road (save for taxis and Olympic vehicles) bore a license plate that ended in an odd number. Short-lived, though; we woke up Wednesday to a beige-sky day. Hard to judge because we've been inside so much, but so far, the air looks worse than it breathes.

The Chinese are clearly eager to impress. The media village is the Ritz-Carlton of Olympic media villages, far better than any I've seen in five previous Olympics. (That includes the decommissioned asylum they housed us in in Sydney.) The room is spacious. Private bath. A double bed. A small fridge and very good air conditioning. Oddly, a large potted poinsettia. These rooms typically are closet-sized, with concrete floors and a cot. The volunteers also are plentiful here; every entry is staffed by doormen/women, wearing red satin sashes reading WELCOME, waving like they were on a parade float. Most of them proudly speak English but appreciate well-meaning efforts to say "ni hao'' (hello). A polite society, they complement even basic Mandarin words spoken with a Minnesota accent.

By the way, the media village is called North Star. A couple of Canadian scribes have taken to calling their accommodations the "Basil McRae suite.''

Have doubts that Minnesotans are everywhere? Go figure: two guys on a CCTV-9 telecast Wednesday morning were wearing U of M T-shirts. CCTV-9 is the English-language, international arm of the Chinese state broadcasting system. There was a sports segment in which four guys discussed how to pass a baton in a relay race. And half of them were wearing Gophers shirts. I put in an e-mail to CCTV and hope to explain this mystery in an upcoming entry.

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