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In the Olympic Spirit "Truly Exceptional" Games Yield Golden Legacy for Beijing

With a dramatic fireworks display in the evening of August 24 at the National Stadium, along with singing of the song "Guests from Afar, Please Stay," the Beijing Olympics came to a dazzling close, ending 16 days of spectacular athletic performances during an Olympic competition. Speaking at the televised ceremony watched by billions around the world, Jacques Rogge, the president of the International Olympics Committee, summarized the Games, saying they were “truly exceptional.” Two days earlier, Prime Minister Gordon Brown of Great Britain, who came for the Closing Ceremony, said the Beijing Olympics set a new standard for the next host, London in 2012. "With the whole world watching, the Beijing Olympic Games has captured the imagination of the entire global community," he said when meeting with Chinese President Hu Jintao.

China’s success in organizing and staging the global sports extravaganza, which was unprecedented in scale and grandeur, has been acclaimed worldwide. As the New York Times opined in a commentary on August 24: “The Games were seen as an unparalleled success by most Chinese; a record medal count inspired nationwide excitement, and Beijing impressed foreign visitors with its hospitality and efficiency.”

Now that the Beijing Olympics glow is dimming, people are pondering: What next for China? What have the Beijing Olympic Games done for this country?

Open-Mindedness

The Games would have been unimaginable without the reform policies initiated by the late paramount leader Deng Xiaoping in the late 1970s, under which China was opened to the outside world after decades of self-imposed isolation. “Beijing’s bid and hosting of the 2008 Olympic Games indicate that China will open wider still,” Xinhua, the State news agency, said in a commentary.

The ongoing infrastructural development that has taken place in Beijing over the past seven years, especially the construction of Olympic-specific venues, will enhance China’s continuing opening. The futuristic design of the National Stadium (the Bird’s Nest), accomplished by the Swiss architectural firm Herzog & de Meuron, in collaboration with ArupSports of the United States and the domestic China Architecture Design & Research Group, and the National Aquatics Center, the iconic bubble-clad “Water Cube,” are “fruitful results” of China’s opening, Xinhua said.

But even more important is the open-mindedness shown by China’s ordinary citizens during the Games. A widely cited example is the women’s volleyball match between the United States and China on the night of August 15.

Even before the opening serve, the match was already dubbed the “Battle of Peace,” an invention of Chinese fans based on a play of words combining two characters in the names of the coaches of the two teams: he in Chen Zhonghe of China and ping in Lang Ping of the United States (with heping meaning “peace”). Years ago, Lang coached the Chinese national team, and Chen worked under her. Lang, once an ace spiker nicknamed the “Iron Hammer,” is a legend in China, having played on the Chinese national women’s team that won five successive world titles, including one at the 1984 Los Angeles Games.

But on August 15, Lang Ping had different loyalties; it was her job to shepherd the Americans through the preliminary round. “The mostly Chinese fans in the packed stadium did not seem to mind that Lang was taking on her home country,” the Associated Press reported. “She was introduced to thunderous applause, and so iconic is Lang that Hu Jintao, the Chinese president, even attended the match.”

The Americans won the match 3:2. The following day, Xinhua published a commentary, hailing Lang Ping as a “national heroine”…and “Lang Ping was and still is our heroine.” The state news agency said. “She epitomizes not only the Olympic spirit, but also the essence of our own culture.” Bloggers in their tens of thousands voiced their support for what Lang Ping did as a coach. “Any coach with a sense of responsibility would have worked the way she did,” one blogger, Hong Qiaojun, wrote on a Web site at Sina.com.

“Had the match been played, say, 20 years ago, what would have happened to Lang Ping?” Hong asked, citing the tragic story of He Zhili, a table tennis player who quit the Chinese national team after refusing to throw matches to teammates in the early 1990s and then went to play for Japan under the name Koyama Chire, adopting her husband’s surname. At the 1994 Asian Games in Dohar, Qatar, she defeated China’s champion hopeful Deng Yaping, and for that, she was condemned by table tennis fans across China as a hanjian or “national traitor.” “This time,” the blogger noted, “even the most radical fenqing—“angry youths” with exceptionally strong nationalistic sentiments—are joining us in shouting: ‘We love you, Lang Ping!’ ”¡¡¡¡

This kind of open-mindedness could be an important Olympic legacy for China and its people, the Chinese language China Times of Taiwan said. “With 1.3 billion people so open-minded, we may safely say that the Beijing Olympics will help China attain the ultimate goal of modernization ten years earlier than the country has planned.”

Like Lang Ping, a dozen Chinese served as coaches for foreign teams, including Liu Guodong, National Table Tennis Team of Singapore; Li Mao, National Badminton Team of the Republic of Korea; and Qiao Liang, Women’s Gymnastics Team of the United States. Then again, there are 38 foreign coaches from 16 countries working on behalf of China’s national teams in 17 sports disciplines. Sports officials say they “played an important role in helping athletes improve their performances during the Games.”

Guided by French coach Christian Bauer, Chinese fencer Zhong Man won the gold medal in the men's sabre individual final, the first fencing gold for China in 24 years. Chinese swimmer Zhang Lin, the first Chinese man to become an Olympic medallist after winning silver in the 400-metre freestyle, had been coached by Australian Denis Cotterell since 2007, who was the former coach of Australia's long-distance swimming king Grant Hackett. There was also Kim Chang Back from the Republic of Korea who led the Chinese women’s field hockey team to a historic silver medal.

At a press conference on August 20, Cui Dalin, head of the Chinese sports delegation to the Games, paid equal tribute to Chinese coaches in foreign countries and foreign coaches in China, calling them “goodwill ambassadors” and “envoys of friendship.” “We are proud of all of them,” he said.

The “Bird’s Nest Generation”

Observers keen to follow developments in China were quick to note that the Games were held during the 30th year of China’s reform and opening, which will be celebrated nationwide after the Beijing Paralympics in September. In some eyes, the Beijing Games were a “coming-out party” for China in the era of globalization. In the words of the U.S. News and World Reports, the Games testified to “China's re-emergence as a great power and an economic dynamo.”

Its unprecedented growth and vitality over the past three decades made the country financially and technologically powerful enough to play host to the mega-dollar Games. According to some foreign estimates, the government outlay for the Games accounted for just 0.3 percent of China’s annual economic output over the past seven years, from 2001 to 2007.

Only those with some knowledge of China’s past are able to understand why the Chinese people were so enthusiastic about the Beijing Games. For a century after the Opium War in the 1840s, China was known in the West as the “sick man of the East.” The Chinese cannot—and should not—forget the humiliations they suffered, such as the Nanjing massacre in 1939 and the 1919 Treaty of Versailles, which gifted Japan with Germany's special concessions and extraterritorial status in China even though China was a party to the victory in World War I.

In this thrilling moment, China hosted an Olympic Games on their own soil for the first time but also topped the gold-medal chart, followed by the United States. “It is justifiable that Chinese youths are jubilant over the victories of their athletes,” the China Youth Daily declared. Meanwhile, the newspaper noted that a sense of national humiliation is giving way to an even stronger sense of self-confidence thanks to the Beijing Olympic Games. “The Beijing Olympics conquered Chinese youths while fascinating the world,” the newspaper said, basing its comments on an on-line survey it conducted in cooperation with Sina.com. “As a result of the Games, a new generation of Chinese youths, the ‘Bird’s Nest Generation,’ is now emerging.”

Some 71.9 percent of the 3,006 Internet surfers covered by the survey reported that they thought the Beijing Olympics changed their lives and thinking. Among them, nearly 30 percent pledged to follow the Olympic spirit of fairness in their involvement in social life. In answering the question about the “key words” for the “Bird’s Nest generation,” 55.3 percent chose “self-confident”; 51.9 percent, “peace, reconciliation and harmony”; and 49.8 percent, “openness.” “Rationalism in expressing one’s patriotic sentiments” should be taken as the best quality of the “Bird’s Nest Generation,” followed by “cherishing friendships,” “aiming high in life,” “daring to compete,” “ready to make self-sacrifice” and “sense of responsibility.”

College student Guo Yi was one of the respondents. “While enabling the world to watch China,” she was quoted as saying, “the Beijing Olympics provided us with a rare opportunity to understand the rest of the world. The world, as I see it now, should be like Beijing Olympic medals, which symbolize harmony of the Chinese and western cultures,” she said. “On their obverse side, the medals adopt the standard design prescribed by the International Olympic Committee (IOC)—a drawing that represents the winged goddess of victory. On their reverse side, the medals are inlaid with jade, a symbol of China’s cultural tradition.”

“Peoples Legacy”

   The entire Chinese society is changing thanks to the Beijing Olympic Games, not just its youth. For one thing: never in the past have Beijing and the Games’ co-host cities had so large an army of volunteers.

   In New China, voluntarism may be seen as dating from the 1960s, when Mao Zedong called on the nation to learn from soldier Lei Feng, still remembered for being always ready to help people in need. “Uncle Lei Feng,” however, was “gone” as a result of the “Cultural Revolution,” a ten-year period of national chaos from 1966 to 1976 when, allegedly to purify China of whatever was seen as “capitalist” or “feudal,” children were allowed absolute freedom to humiliate their parents and students, to “struggle” against their teachers: in fact, anyone accused of “taking the capitalist road.”  

“Uncle Lei Feng” did come back after China embarked again on the right track, but it is the Beijing Olympics that turned the “Lei Feng spirit” into a kind of voluntarism involving millions of people, people of all ages and from all walks of life.

Armed with nothing more than red armbands, mobile phones and occasionally a collapsible stool, an army of retired men and women may not look like much, but they were a key frontline in Beijing's Olympic security force. Across the Chinese capital, tens of thousands of pensioners, replete in red baseball caps and smart red-and-white T-shirts, were deployed as "Olympic Security Volunteers."

In addition to this “citizen police force,” volunteers were spread out around the city at 550 booths at Olympic venues and tourist sites, proffering tourist advice, offering coloured pens for people to scrawl Olympic wishes. Many of them were able to speak a little English and had some first aid skills, all part of Beijing's efforts to present its best face for the Games.

In the Olympic Village, the Olympic Press Center and competition sites, in hotels where IOC officials and tourists stayed, volunteers were everywhere and any time, ready to help, and they were always smiling as “hosts.” Voluntarism has always been a part of modern Olympiads, but the Beijing Games were the first to honour representatives of volunteers at a closing ceremony.

In a video interview with the People’s Daily Online, Alex Carre, PhD, a professor of Olympic Sports at the University of British Columbia in Canada, said the most important legacy of the Beijing Olympics is the "people’s legacy." He said he believed that a positive, harmonious legacy for the people would create a "ripple effect," like throwing a pebble into a pond, which would have good effect on China and the world.

This “people’s legacy,” as a matter of fact, has made Beijing a more pleasant place. Unseen or heard was the so-called “Beijing curse,” for which sports fans in the Chinese capital used to be notorious. “Popular habits” such as spitting and queue jumping at bus stops and in front of ticket offices were rarely exhibited during the Games, because of a mass education in public manners before the Games and the support of the “citizen police” everywhere.

“First Step in a 10,000-Li Long March”

On August 25, the day after the Beijing Olympics closed, the Beijing Municipal Environmental Protection Bureau announced that during the 17-day Olympic Games, the city’s air quality was rated as “excellent” for ten days and “good” for seven, meeting the IOC standard for the Games. “We have fulfilled the pledge to host a ‘green Olympics,’ which we made when bidding for the 29th Olympic Games (in 2001),” Du Shaozhong, the bureau’s deputy director and spokesman, said at a press conference.

Success was not easily won. At a press conference held in late July, before the Beijing Olympic Games opened, Du addressed Beijing’s efforts to tackle its environmental problems beginning ten years ago. “We have done our best to protect the people’s health,” he said. “We would have done the job even if we were not hosting the Olympics.”

The city’s efforts have paid off. In 2007, Beijing had 246 “blue sky days,” compared with less than 100 in 1997. The government is now expecting 11 more “blue sky days” in 2008. Government officials have vowed to keep this “green legacy,” as a part of a long-term plan to make Beijing an international metropolis congenial to live in.

The city’s success is widely recognized by unbiased members of the international community. On July 28, at a time when some in the western media were raising a hue and cry about Beijing’s “smog,” Greenpeace praised Beijing for its “tremendous efforts and investment in environmental initiatives.”

Titled China after the Olympics: Lessons from Beijing, the report says that Greenpeace “recognizes Beijing’s increased use of energy-efficient technologies and renewable energy.” Examples cited in the report included the use of geothermal heating systems and the introduction of wind and solar power. The report said “Beijing has expanded its public transportation system by adding five new subway lines and raised its emission standard for new vehicles to EURO IV, one of the most stringent standards in the world.”

The Greenpeace report, however, makes no mention of the fact that Beijing had temporarily closed 200 factories and taken half of the city’s 3.3 million cars off the road in a bid to cut air pollution levels during the Olympics and Paralympics. It also stops short of giving Beijing blanket approval, noting that there are “several missed opportunities that could have ensured a better short- and long-term legacy for the city.” For one thing, "Beijing failed to take the opportunity of the Olympics to adopt zero-waste policy or comprehensive water conservation policies." The report also urges Beijing and other Chinese cities to work harder on water treatment, re-use and rain-collection technologies.

Despite all the “missed opportunities,” Greenpeace said the Chinese have already made the 2008 Games “greener” than the Athens Games: “The successful introduction of all of these initiatives and the benefits they are bringing—cleaner air, clearer roads and energy security—are offering a template that other Chinese cities can follow.”

A separate report from the Climate Group reveals that China has become a world leader in renewable energy technologies, exporting vast numbers of wind turbines and solar-power technologies. The Climate Group, an independent, non-profit organization dedicated to advancing business and government leadership on climate change, operates in Britain, the United States, Australia, India and China.

It remains to be seen how hard Beijing will work to develop this “green legacy” and how fast it can change China. But, as the proverb goes, “a good beginning is half done.” The Chinese news media have called the Beijing Olympics a “first step in a ten-thousand-li Long March”—a metaphor based on the Communist-led Red Army’s strategic retreat in the 1930s from South China to northern Shaanxi, an odyssey of more than 12,500 kilometres. “The ‘first step’ has been a brilliant success, making us even more confident in completing the ‘Long March’ toward the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation,” Xinhua said. 

Despite China’s success in hosting the 29th Olympic Games, there is no change in China’s international status. “China remains a large developing country,” Qin Gang, a spokesman for the Foreign Ministry, told a routine news briefing on August 26. “It still lags behind developed countries in many aspects. For China, development will remain a protracted, arduous task.”

“Tangible Legacies”

The Olympic legacies for Beijing, as President Hu Jintao sees it, are largely cultural. When giving an interview to a group of journalists from 25 countries on August 1, Hu predicted that among the Olympic legacies to be left for China, “those cultural legacies will be more valuable, more enduring.”  IOC President Jacques Rogge, two days before the Games closed, said: “The world has learned about China (through the Games), and China has learned about the world. And I believe this is something that will have positive effects for the long term."

Both were short of citing the “tangible legacies” of the Beijing Olympic Games, the real benefits the Games might generate for the people of Beijing. The fact is that the massive infrastructural development will continue in Beijing along with the city’s efforts to ensure more “blue sky days.” It is no coincidence that the day after the Games closed a contract was signed concerning the building of a 23.23-kilometre light-rail line from Songzhuang to Yizhuang to link Beijing’s Third, Fourth and Fifth Ring roads and the Beijing–Tianjin–Tanggu Expressway. Moreover, officials have pledged that the Olympic competition venues will be put to day-to-day use by ordinary citizens. “The ‘tangible legacies’ of the Games will be developed for the benefit of the Beijing people,” Xinhua said.

As regards the traffic measures that allow cars with even- and odd-numbered license plates to drive on alternate days, will they continue past their expiration on September 20? Officials say public opinion is being considered in this decision.

Another question is whether China will be able to escape the grasp of a “post-Olympic” economic slump so commonly seen in other host cities. Professor Zhang Xiaode, deputy secretary-general of the China Society for Study of Public Economics, compared the Chinese economy to an ocean and the Beijing Olympics, to a frog. “When a frog jumps into an ocean,” Xinhua quoted him as saying, “its affect on the ocean would be negligible.”

无与伦比的奥运 宝贵持久的遗产

文/黎信

2008年8月24日，当绚丽的焰火腾空而起，当《远方的朋友请你留下来》的歌声久久回荡在天空，熊熊燃烧了16天的北京2008年奥运圣火缓缓熄灭，第29届奥林匹克运动会在北京圆满落幕……

直到今天，相信很多人至今依然可以清晰的记得国际奥委会主席罗格在北京奥运会闭幕式上的致辞：“这是一次真正的无与伦比的奥运会，16个光辉的日子将永远在我们心中珍藏。”

自2008年8月24日以来，国际主流媒体对北京奥运会的赞扬声不绝于耳。美国最有影响的报纸之一《纽约时报》这样评价：“绝大多数中国人认为北京奥运会取得了前所未有的成功……北京人民的好客和高效率的工作给来自世界各国的宾客留下了深刻印象。”法国路透社评价说：“中国成功举办了世界上规模最大的体育赛事，这将增强中国人民的爱国热情和国家的政治力量，正是在这两个因素推动下，中国收获了奖牌的胜利。”不少西方国家的政要也高度评价北京奥运会。美国总统布什说：“北京奥运会提供了一个让我们尊重中国传统、尊重中国历史的机会”。精通中文的澳大利亚总理陆克文说：“我认为，我们的中国朋友非常成功地举办了奥运会。北京奥运会是中国向国际开放的行动。”

毫无疑问，在中华民族伟大复兴的历史进程中，北京2008年奥运会将是浓墨重彩的一笔。今天，当人们盘点北京奥运会给中国留下什么的时候，英国前首相布莱尔2008年8月26日在美国《华尔街日报》上发表文章指出：“北京奥运会标志着一个新纪元——中国的开放进程将永远无法逆转。这还意味着，随着现代中国的现实变得越来越清晰，过去对中国的无知和恐惧认识将逐渐减弱。”

大国风范——一个重要的奥运遗产

2008年，正是中国实行改革开放政策的第30年。没有改革开放，就没有北京奥运会；而北京奥运会本身，就是中国改革开放光辉成果的集中展示。强盛的国力，是北京成功申办、筹办和举办奥运会的物质基础。据外电报道，从2001到2007年，每年用于筹办奥运会的资金平均仅占当年中国国民生产总值的千分之三。可以说，“绿色奥运、科技奥运、人文奥运”的理念、“同一个世界同一个梦想”的口号，以及“鸟巢”、“水立方”等世界一流的奥运场馆……北京奥运会的方方面面，从“硬件”到“软件”，样样都是中国拥抱世界的成果。

然而，更令人难忘的是中国人在北京奥运会期间展现出来的那种开阔的胸怀，那种拥抱世界的胸襟。2008年8月15日，有“铁榔头”之称的前中国女排主力郎平执教的美国女排与她的“老相识”陈忠和麾下的中国女排在北京奥运会上首次相遇，展开了一场至今仍被人津津乐道的“和平之战”。据美联社报道说：“中国女排曾经‘五联冠’，包括在1984年洛杉矶奥运会上夺得金牌，其间作为中国女排主力队员的郎平发挥了关键作用。然而，这一次郎平却效忠于美国队，她必须在自己祖国的土地上、在中国国家主席胡锦涛眼前带领美国队打赢这场女排预赛。”尽管绝大多数观众是中国人，但是“郎平出场的时候，迎接她的却是雷鸣般的掌声和欢呼声。”

这场“和平之战”以美国女排3：2胜中国女排告终。次日，中国国家通讯社新华社播发评论，赞扬郎平的表现不仅体现了奥林匹克精神，也放射出中华文化的光彩。新华社高呼：“郎平仍然是我们的英雄”。成千上万的网民在互联网上留言赞扬郎平，大家都认为任何一位敬业的教练，都会像朗平那样尽力带领自己的运动员夺取胜利。而14年前的日本广岛亚运会上，中国乒乓球原“国手”何智丽代表日本队出战，击败邓亚萍一举夺冠后，却被无数国人激愤地指责。

在对待“海外兵团”上出现的这个巨大的反差说明什么呢？新华社认为，30年改革开放，使“中国民众的心态进一步走向成熟、自信”，“改革开放改变了中国人民表达爱国热情的方式，帮助他们完成了一次美丽的蜕变。”

这种“美丽的蜕变”还表现在中国人民对待比赛胜败的态度上。2008年8月18日，在北京奥运会男子110米栏预赛中发生了令人意外的一幕：中国选手刘翔因伤意外退出比赛。无数中国观众为此扼腕叹息，有些人甚至抛洒泪水。但大多数人都表示理解，并且通过手机短信、网络留言等形式向刘翔表达同情和问候。2008年8月9日上午，北京奥运会射击比赛结束了女子10米气步枪决赛的争夺，中国选手杜丽发挥很不理想，以499.6环的成绩获得了第5位。对于她，观众和网民仍然给以支持，纷纷呼喊“杜丽别哭”。杜丽果然不负众望，在8月14日上午结束的北京奥运会女子50米步枪3×20决赛上顶住压力，凭借690.3环的总成绩打破该项目的奥运会决赛记录摘得桂冠，为中国代表团夺取了奥运会上的第19枚金牌。

让我们再次把时光推后——20年前，体操运动员李宁在韩国汉城奥运会上失利的回国时，迎接他的是成捆的指责信件。而20年后的今天，人们对运动员的这种理解、支持和信任，这种从容面对遗憾的心态，同样体现了大国国民的风范。这种风范，既是中国改革开放的成果，也是北京奥运会的一个重要的“非物质遗产”。我们有理由坚信，今后无论遇到怎样的挑战，中国人民定能把中华民族的伟大复兴变为光辉灿烂的现实。

“人民遗产”及其“涟漪效应”

在接受《人民日报》网站记者采访时候，加拿大哥伦比亚大学教授、奥林匹克运动研究专家阿雷克赛·卡尔指出，在众多的北京奥运会遗产中，最重要的是“人民遗产”。他认为，和谐与进步是“人民遗产”的精髓。“人民遗产”能够产生一种“涟漪效应”，犹如投一粒石子在水中，“涟漪效应”能够对中国乃至全世界产生影响。

中国人在北京奥运进程中展现的大国风范，便是这“人民遗产”的一个方面。如果把“人民遗产”人格化，那就是成千上万来自各行各业，性别、年龄各异的奥运志愿者，其中最引人注目的就是“鸟巢一代”。

北京奥运会开幕的第二天，韩国发行量最大的报纸《朝鲜日报》便提出了“鸟巢一代”的观点，它指那些受过高等教育、富有爱国心的中国年轻人。这些年轻人成长于中国改革开放以后，他们比父辈更加国际化，许多人为了成为奥运志愿者，苦学英语和国际礼仪。而“鸟巢”指的是北京2008年奥运会，是北京奥运会给这些成长中的年轻人带来了精神的洗礼。奥运会后，一项有3000多名网友参与的调查显示，71.4%的网友认为北京奥运会改变了自己的生活，47.4%的网友认为“所有受奥运会影响的年轻人都是‘鸟巢一代’”。在问到“鸟巢一代”的关键词时，“自信”以55.3%的支持率排在第一位；“和平、和解、和谐”以51.9%的支持率紧随其后；排在第三位的是开放（49.8%）。作为奥运会的志愿者之一，郭怡就是“鸟巢一代”中的一员，她说：“北京奥运会不仅为世界了解中国提供了机会，也为我们与世界接轨提供了契机。”她认为，世界应当像北京奥运会奖牌“金镶玉”一样，“一面是西方胜利女神像，另一面嵌入中国的玉璧”。

在北京奥运会上，这些“80后”、“90后”的年轻人，用无微不至的服务和热诚的微笑征服了挑剔的国外媒体，被视为未来中国现代化建设的领军群体。就连一向对中国怀有偏见的日本东京都知事石原慎太郎也忍不住感叹：“北京的青年志愿者亲切却不卑不亢，和日本的大学生不同，他们对国家的前途明显地充满希望，真实了不起啊！”

北京奥运会使中国青年经历了一次前所未有的精神洗礼，更准确的说，北京奥运会使中国人民的精神面貌得到了升华。让我们暂时告别活跃在奥运场馆、奥运村等奥运场所的那些志愿者，把目光移到北京的大街小巷，关注一下志愿者中的普通市民们怎样扮演奥运东道主的角色。对于他们，美国《基督教科学箴言报》是这样描述的：“他们是‘公民警察’，红色袖章、电喇叭是他们的‘武器’——当然，有时还配备着小马扎。这支‘公民警察’由成千上万领取养老金的人们组成，作为奥运安保志愿者，他们头戴红色棒球帽，身穿红白相间颇为美观的套头衫，精神抖擞地活跃在北京大街小巷，活跃在北京奥运安保第一线。”

除了这支‘公民警察’队伍，在奥运场馆和旅游点的550个志愿者服务站中，也能看到老人们的身影。他们不厌其烦地向外国游客提供旅游咨询，如果游客想在横幅上留下对北京熬运的祝福，他们会提供彩笔。不少人能说简单的英语，有的还初步掌握了急救技能——这一切，都证明北京为展示自己的形象所做的努力卓有成效。

北京奥运会充分展示了北京乃至全国社会主义精神文明建设取得的成果。曾经让北京人蒙羞的“京骂”在奥运会期间彻底消失了，人们用欢呼声向强者致意，也用掌声鼓励弱者。在公共场所随地吐痰、加塞之类的“社会痼疾”越来越少见，公共汽车上主动让座的越来越多。全国人民的支持是北京奥运会成功的坚强保证；在北京，在各个协办城市，数以百万计的男女老少自愿无报酬地为北京奥运会出力，而且干得那样出色，奥运精神在新时期得到了历史性的升华。

万里长征的第一步

2008年8月25日，北京市环保局副局长、新闻发言人杜少忠向报界宣布：北京奥运会17天中，北京空气质量天天达标，其中10天为优，7天为良。他指出，北京市实现了向国际社会和国际奥委会做出的“绿色奥运”的承诺。

北京奥运在环保方面的成功，来得并不突然。早在10年前，北京市就开始大规模治理环境，所投入的人力、物力、财力不断增加，全市空气质量逐年改善。2007年，北京市收获了246个“蓝天”，2008年将在这一基础上再增加11个；而1998年全年“蓝天”不到100个。北京市委、市政府多次强调，要把北京建设成一座“宜居”的国际大都市。杜少忠指出，即使没有奥运会，北京市政府也要遵照“以人为本”的执政理念，为市民创造一个清洁、宜人的环境。

北京市在环保方面的巨大投入和取得的明显进展得到了社会的极大肯定。2008年7月28日，就在部分西方媒体就所谓的北京“烟雾”问题大做文章，企图误导国际社会和运动员的时候，绿色和平（中国）在其网站上就公布了一份报告，“异乎寻常”地赞扬北京市“在环保方面做出的巨大努力和投入。”这份题为《奥运之后的中国：北京的遗产》的报告“肯定了北京市越来越多地利用高效能源系统和可再生能源”，包括地热和风能、太阳能发电。报告指出，“北京市不仅增加了5条地铁线路，从而扩大了城市轨道交通体系，而且地面交通采用了欧4排放标准——欧4是最严格的排放标准之一。”

在肯定北京市取得的环保成就的同时，绿色和平也指出了不足之处，例如“北京市没有以奥运会为契机推行‘零废物’排放政策”。报告说：“在水处理以及雨水收集、利用方面，北京以及中国其他城市都有改进的余地。”尽管如此，绿色和平（中国）网站依然认为“北京奥运会将比雅典奥运会更环保”。另外，特别值得注意的是，报告还指出北京为中国其它城市做出了榜样：“北京市在环保方面采取的一系列行动取得了成功，这些行动带来了实惠，包括更清洁的空气，更畅通的交通，更可靠的能源安全。所有这一切，都为中国其他城市提供了可以效仿的榜样。”

绿色和平的报告表明，北京奥运会的确给北京乃至全中国留下了一份“绿色遗产”，同时也告诉我们，尽管在社会主义中国改革开放的伟大进程中，北京奥运会是永恒的经典、历史的丰碑。然而，北京奥运会的成功举办，只不过是“万里长征走完了第一步”。2008年8月26日，中国外交部发言人秦刚在例行记者招待会上指出，奥运会没有改变中国的国际地位，中国仍然是发展中的大国，在许多方面仍然与许多发达国家有差距。对于中国，发展仍然是长期、艰巨的任务。

在北京2008年奥运会上，中国代表团以51块金牌的成绩位居金牌榜首。在为此骄傲的同时，中国体育界保持了清醒。中国国家体育总局局长刘鹏在总结中国代表团在北京奥运会上的表现时说，从社会影响大、群众喜爱程度高的集体球类项目看，中国虽有进步，但整体上与世界强队相比还缺乏竞争力。在田径、游泳、自行车等奥运会大项上，中国与世界水平“差距巨大”。更重要的是，中国体育的群众基础与发达国家相比还比较薄弱，基础体育设施和经常参加体育活动的人口也都有很大的差距”。奋力夺取金牌，为金牌欢呼，但不搞“金牌崇拜”，这也是一项珍贵的奥运遗产。

奥运精神遗产更持久、更宝贵

在盘点北京奥运会遗产的时候，我们回顾到2008年8月1日中国国家主席胡锦涛在接受来自世界各大洲25家外国媒体的联合采访时说的话：“我们更加珍惜北京奥运会留给我们的精神遗产，并努力使之发扬光大。”他指出，“北京奥运会的举办，将为我们留下一批体育场馆和基础设施。我们十分珍惜这些物质遗产，并将充分发挥它们的功能和作用。同时，我们认识到，北京奥运会的精神遗产更为持久、更为宝贵。最重要的有３个方面。一是弘扬团结、友谊、和平的奥林匹克精神。二是实践绿色奥运、科技奥运、人文奥运理念。三是促进世界各国文化的相互交流、相互借鉴。”

怎样理解胡锦涛主席这番话的深刻内涵？2008年8月27日发表在《今日美国报》网站上发表了一篇题为《美国不愿与中国对抗》的文章，文章指出：“我们可以惊叹于中国人因体育而生的自豪感，但无需对此恐惧。”“中国在金牌榜上位于美国之上，中国获得的奖牌总数也没有和美国相差很远。然而，这和冷战期间与苏联或东德竞争不同……现在的美国人绝不会像在冷战期间蔑视苏联人那样讨厌中国人。”

历史正在并将继续证明，对于和谐世界的构建，北京奥运会做出了应有的贡献。新华社报道说：奥运会为中国提供了一个新的契机，一个更加紧密拥抱世界的机会。30年改革开放的辉煌成就使中国成为国际舞台上的重要力量，一个对外开放、协调发展、全面繁荣的中国将开始在世界的舞台上书写新篇章，不仅中国人民、世界其他国家和地区的人民将都会从中受益。

诚如胡锦涛主席所言，北京奥运会的举办，给北京市民留下了基础设施、体育场馆等物质遗产。事实上北京市民已经在享受这些遗产，而且随着改革开放的深入，人们得到的实惠将更多。然而，更重要的是奥运后的北京将更加开放、更加文明、更加繁荣，一个既古老又现代的首善之区，将给全国、全世界带来更多的惊喜。