I have friends who have been to Beijing, and they say it is, well, let’s just be polite and say “not clean”. Not to mention the traffic. Will this be cleared up in the next two years? The mayor of Beijing says yes.
There are approximately 2.6 million vehicles in Beijing. That’s a lot of cars. Think of traffic in New York City, and you sort of get the picture. But if you can think of New York City traffic, and then imagine that everyone just ignores the traffic laws, that would give you a better picture. Mayor Wang Qishan is aware of the problem and says steps are being taken to enforce the rules of the road. Also, parking fees have been imposed to cut back on driving.
Will Beijing get this under control in time? We’ll see. We have a friend who will be in Beijing probably a couple of times between now and the Olympics, and she will hopefully be able to give us a first-hand look at what is going on.
