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Editor's Note

From China Daily on March 10 we learned that the Beijing Municipal Health Bureau is setting up a special on-site health clinic to serve the outpatient needs of about 15,000 people who are working on construction projects in the Hongshan Garden community in Chongwen District.

According to the newspaper, “The clinic will provide workers timely care when afflicted with common ailments, such as headache, slight fever, digestive system problems and trauma,” and the workers’ employers will foot half the bill, according to bureau official Ma Yanming.

The remarkable thing about this story is that it is not really remarkable. It is easy to overlook such as story with the “Liang Hui,” the annual meetings of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) and the National People’s Congress (NPC), under way (see story on Page 28), with the 2008 Olympic Games getting closer minute by minute and with inflation looming over economic prospects.

Yet, for 15,000 working people in Beijing, the existence of this clinic could be a very big deal indeed, especially if their headaches or fevers are merely symptoms of something more sinister, in which case the patients will be transferred to nearby hospitals.

There are countless “acts” going on in Beijing that are act-by-act giving real meaning to slogans such as “New Beijing, Great Olympics” or “People’s Olympics” that foreign residents or visitors to Beijing may not fully understand, and the opening of this clinic is just one among many. In this month’s issue, for instance, we look again into Beijing’s transportation plans (see Page 12), another factor in Beijing’s quality of life, but also one of extreme economic importance.

When heads and hearts come together, interesting and important things often happen as a result. In this case, it was likely a decision made at a Party Congress or maybe last year’s Liang Hui that nudged a policy-maker somewhere along the line to make a decision that better basic health care was needed in Chongwen District. And now, it’s there.

We wish all the best to those charged with making dreams of Olympic Games, nationwide modernization and a more liveable world for the Chinese people come true.