Nothing to See Here Folks
I have a confession. My apartment and desk need to look clean. It drives me nuts to see clutter. However, If you open my drawers, my clothes and papers tend to be piled in a haphazard manner. In other words, I need the appearance of tidiness.
I bring this up because I’ve noticed some remarkable changes around the city in recent days. Last week the building by Dongzhimen gate, right next to the airport shuttle looked like the construction crew had just broken ground days earlier. It was just empty concrete. You could see right in and there was nothing there. Now it has beautiful tinted windows. Thousands of them. Is it possible that someone was able to build something that big that fast, or are they happy just having the appearance of completion?
The CCTV Tower and the new Guomao building near it seem to have similarly shiny facades that have gone up in remarkable time. These two have been in the works for years, so I wouldn’t shocked if there are closer to being usable, but even so…
Even the train to the airport, which only a month ago had a 100 meter chunk missing, appears to be readying to go. President Hu rode on it last week and appeared not to be terrified. He even assured the world the line would be ready for the Games saying:
All the transportation systems prepared for the Games should do their last-minute checks and secure safety and speed as the host city promised to the world. The preparations should satisfy all visitors and benefit local residents.
Okay, so it’s not super-encouraging that he emphasized additional safety checks after getting off the rail, but even so, it sounds fairly positive.
So maybe the buildings are really all finished and the rails are all ready to go. Wouldn’t that be something?
After all, if there were potential problems they would have sent Wen instead of Hu, right?
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