BEIJING, NEWS, ANALYSIS: “I Count My Balance Every Night”: A Better Job From 2008 Olympics is Reason Why

By Deng Jing, Li Xiaoshu and Zeng Yan

The fingers of her bare wrinkled hands are stained red from the heavy bricks carried across the construction site for the No. 4 Beijing Olympic Subway line. Kong Yu, a 37-year-old migrant worker from rural China, piled them up beside a metal fence in the heat of the noontime sun amid swirls of gravel and dust.

"Not tiring at all compared with farming," she said, "I'm still young and I can handle it." She also more than tripled her income.
Kong and her husband moved to Beijing from Henan Province in central China three

months ago to work on the nearly $8 billion subway expansion. Their two children stayed behind with their grandmother to attend middle school while they labored to prepare Beijing to handle the expected flood of Olympic visitors to this traffic-clogged city.

"Farming is not profitable at all since our total annual income amounted to less than $500," she added.

Kong Yu is one of the some 4 million migrant workers seeking a better life in Beijing by working on Olympics-related construction projects.

Another migrant, Mr. Wang, earns slightly higher wages as a porter at the construction site--enough to send his son to a college where yearly tuition amounts to $748.

"I stay with the project in order to earn more from a long-term perspective," said the white-haired 52-year-old. "I need the money. Ten thousand ($1,280) means a lot in my village."

Construction workers aren't the only ones in demand as a result of the Olympics. Investments and spending

generated by the Games are expected to create as many as 1.3 million new jobs in Beijing, according to the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.

"At the end of 2008, the overall Olympic investment will add up to 1.5 trillion Yuan under a preliminary calculation," said Ding Xiangyang, chairman of the Beijing Municipal Commission of Development and Reform.

"In the United States, it cost $2.5 billion for the city of Atlanta to host the Summer Olympics 10 years ago, but the Games created 770,000 new jobs and the state economy grew by from $6.3 billion to $14.5 billion, according to infrastructure," said Jeffrey Matthew Humphreys, a University of Georgia economist.

Similarly, the advanced job opportunities in an expanding pre-Olympic market may also provide opportunities for university graduates, people changing jobs, laid-off workers and others.

A report in China Youth Daily said the GDP per capita in Beiing would reach $6,000 in 2007, up from $5,457 in 2005.

"I'll have a personal account then," said Qiu Cuixia, a female worker partnered with Kong Yu, contented, "Sometimes I can buy what I want."

The official Xinhua News Agency says job growth spurred by the Olympics will affect the construction, tourism, transport, retail, food and professional consulting businesses as well as the creative and cultural sectors.

Wei Xiaozhen, chief Accounting officer of Beijing Municipal Bureau of Statistics, said new construction jobs will peak next year, while the service industry will see its largest increases in 2008.

The Olympics has an unparalleled ability to capture people's imagination and interest and to mobilize human and financial resources, experts say. The challenge is to ensure that the jobs generated are both sustainable and can be accessed by local residents.

Sydney, Australia set up a training program to up-skill its workforce in advance of the 2000 Games, targeting a select number of anticipated growth sectors, including volunteerism designed to help the disadvantaged.

"It is far different from a domestic competition," said Ye Qiaobo, the former Olympics champion, now an MBA candidate in Qinghua University, "Qualified talents should expand expertise in not only sports but also foreign language, marketing, and management."

The Beijing Olympic Action Plan raised concern on the employment growth, pointing out that skill shortages of high-quality and versatile personnel meeting international standards have already been identified in the major industries available for vacancies created as a result of the Olympics.

"We will spare no effort to train more management personnel who understand international practice in city administration and economic management, who have international vision," said a Beijing Olympics official. "Specialists in Olympic affairs, international law, international business, international finance and insurance, electronic information technology, environmental protection technology, will also be trained."

Anastasios Kyvellos, an Olympics finance expert from Greece, said, "The shortage of a skilled workforce is a challenge China faces in the preparation (for the Olympic Games)."

Jin Yuanpo, a professor of Humanistic Olympics Studies Center in Renmin University of China, echoed in conclusion, "In fact, there is a rule underlying the impact Olympics exert on different industry. We will see a lack of talents specializing in the Games."

Around 20,000 specialists in language will complete their training before 2008, to facilitate communications with some 21,000 international journalists, Xinhua has reported.

Beijing Foreign Studies University, the top university in language studies in China, has been designated as an "Olympic Project Center," an undergraduate program for Olympics language training for students seeking internships with Olympics organizations.

Dai Ting, a senior student majoring in e-business, took a national exam to enter the program but failed. "I was frustrated, even lost my direction," she said. "Two-years of hard work and I end up with nothing."

Migrant workers also are eager to get professional training, but most were turned down as unprofessional.

An exception was Yu Hua, leader of the building team for one of the Olympic Stadiums who was admitted into Beijing Institute of Technology and the highest wage earner on the construction site. "I was trained for more than one month and finally got to stay here, but some other unskillful workers were dismissed," he said.

"The number of migrant workers who attend the test for certain technical certification has snowballed to 30,000 last year," said the vice director of the Center of Occupational Skill Testing Authority.

Even without such training, Kong Yu is happy to be working in Beijing for much higher wages,

"I used to grow corn in the land," Kong Yu said, "Your mind is always in a blank confronting the hard life, not to mention anything related to big events like the Olympics. I may be moved away from Beijing in 2008, but I count my balance every night."

Photos by Li Xiaoshu

BEIJING, NEWS: Sweatshops Found in Beijing Suburbs

By Shi Rui and Wang Yan

15 to 21-year-old girls had to work more than 14 hours a day, seven days a week, in an illegal Beijing suburban sweatshop and were paid only one fen per piece of garment.

Overburdened workers in the sweatshop came to light when two journalists from the Beijing Morning Post pretended to be manual workers and stayed at one such sweatshop for 24 hours. During their stay, the journalists found that workers had to get up at 6 a.m. and most did not stop working until midnight.

A 17-year-old girl described her work at one Beijing suburban sweatshop as, "too tired to keep your eyes open." She said, "That's hell, they make you work to death."

Most of these "work–to-death" girls came from the same village in Handan, Hebei. They introduced each other to the job, but couldn't have imagined the abominable working condition.

Heat continuously given out by over ten sewing machines, burning electric incandescent lamps and the stuffy weather made the plant like a steam box even in the evenings. Still, half of the girls continued working in the plant during "off-duty" times.

Another girl worker said many of them usually stayed till midnight. "We are supposed to leave at 10 p.m., but those who work too slowly to finish their task have to stay and continue working." She also said that if one could not finish her task, someone else would be assigned to it, which meant her money would be earned by others.

In their first month, workers got 230 Yuan, which was much less than the 640 Yuan Beijing minimum monthly pay standard. From the second month on, they began to earn piecework wage ranging from 1 fen to 26 fens per piece, depending on the difficulty of the job. The most skilled worker, who had worked in the sweatshop for three years, could produce 200 to 300 pieces every day and earn about 1,100 Yuan per mouth while the average wage was 500 Yuan.

Food and sleep were supposed to bring refreshment, but to save money the boss served only steamed bread with celery in it. Three beds in the dormitory held 10 girls every night. A rocking electric fan made a loud noise above their heads and mosquitoes filled the room.

The long hours laboring together with poor food and little sleep murdered the passion and dreams of these young girls in the sweatshop. Faced with the question whether they were satisfied with their current life, they answered no, but when asked about future plans, they fell into bemusement.

Journalists informed the Beijing Shunyi Bureau of Industry and Commerce after leaving the sweatshop. Receiving the information, officials from the bureau said prosecution would soon be put into practice.

Handan, Hebei, 邯郸

This article by the authors first appeared in the South China Morning Post, July 20 -- the editors

NATIONAL, BEIJING, ENVIRONMENT: Shutting Down the Past to Clean Up the Future

By Shi Rui and Wang Yan

The contamination producer Beijing Coke Chemical Plant was officially off production on July 15th to serve the Green Olympics in 2008.

According to Beijing Olympic Action Plan, preventing coal-burning pollution is one of the environment pollution control tasks. The city aims at "fully meeting the standard for hosting the Olympic Games" by 2008.

The cease of production of the Beijing Coke Chemical Plant will annually reduce coal consumption by 2.96 million ton, the volume of industrial waste gas emission by 4.33 billion cubic meters, the volume of sulfur dioxide emission by 1.671 ton and the industrial Soot Emission by 64 ton.

Lin Guanming, senior engineer at the College Of Environmental Sciences of Peking University, analyzes that the plant was responsible for nearly 1% of the whole sulfur dioxide emitted into the city, and the reduction will help a lot to clean up Beijing.

According to Lin, the improvement of air quality will be more obvious in southeast Beijing where the coke chemical plant is located. The average volume of sulfur dioxide emission in the surrounding area was four times more than the city's average, and after the stop of operation the local sulfur dioxide pollution may decline by 79.6%.

BuilT in 1959, the plant was to replace then prevailing coal burning with cleaner manufactured gas in Beijing and had been the only manufactured gas supplier in the city for the succeeding 47 years. But burning coal to produce coke seriously contaminated the environment by releasing waste gas and dust.

"Cinder coming from the plant chimney was blown into the field, and black particles were found everywhere between cabbage leaves. Nobody wants to buy them. Even newly washed clothes are coated with black powder," Ms. Li, who lived near the plant, complained.

The close down was first put on schedule in 2002. From last Saturday on, the plant will take 3 to 6 months to fully stop production.

"I entered the plant at 17, and retired at 55. I've witnessed its whole development process. The building of the plant was to improve the city environment. Now the close down is also for environment purification." 66-year-old Li Guishu said, who was an old employee of the plant.

After the close down, manufactured gas will be replaced by natural gas in the city, which enables Beijing to be the first city with exclusive use of the clean energy.

The coking equipment and 1,400 workers of the original plant will move to the Seaport Develop Zone in Tangshan, Hebei, where the new Tangshan Jiahua Coal Chemical Industry Co., Ltd starts up and will begin supplying manufactured gas to Tangshan city beginning July 28.

This article by the authors first appeared in the South China Morning Post July 19 -- the editors

INTERNATIONAL: Modern Classic Movie Review: Battles Also Lie in Hearts

Saving Private Ryan

Review by Li Jiajia

"What the hell do we do now, sir?" the discombobulated grunt asks his equally nonplussed captain. The captain has lost most of his men in what appears certain to be a rout. As soon as their landing craft hit the beach, most of his troops are slaughtered before they can get out. A few jump into the sea only to be shot underwater while attempting to remove their heavy packs. The water turns a blood red from the massive bleeding of thousands of dead and dying soldiers.

It is June 6, 1944 at Omaha Beach. By the end of the day the battle, which looked at first like a monstrous disaster, will turn into one of the greatest victories in modern military history.

As the wise Captain John Miller, the man whose unit has almost vanished, Tom Hanks gives the most reserved performance of his career -- reserved, but no less brilliant. Hanks plays a man who prefers being an enigma to the men under his command. They take bets on when he will finally reveal his occupation in civilian life. Why this is a mystery is a mystery in itself. Mild mannered but self-assured John Miller doesn't look like a man who would want or need to hide his past.

SAVING PRIVATE RYAN is director Steven Spielberg's best film since SCHINDLER'S LIST. A moving war picture that takes neither an overly pacifist nor patriotic approach, it avoids shameless manipulation of the audience's emotions. The war itself is shown so realistically that the reaction of many viewers may be similar to mine. I wanted to go to a private corner and cry my eyes out after the movie finished.

The film opens in the present with a dramatic scene of an old man leading a private procession to a military cemetery. With his extended family behind him, he stares at a white cross in a sea of crosses and breaks into tears.

Part of a strong cast, GOOD WILL HUNTING's Matt Damon plays Private Ryan. Private Ryan's three brothers have been killed in the same week in battle so the top brass sends Captain Miller and a small crew out to locate the private and bring him home to safety. Edward Burns, Jeremy Davies, Vin Diesel, Adam Goldberg, Barry Pepper, Tom Sizemore and Giovanni Ribisi play the soldiers accompanying the captain on the rescue mission.

Since Private Ryan has parachuted behind the German lines, finding him is a dangerous operation akin to finding the proverbial needle in a haystack. The captain's men resent the mission to prevent Private Ryan's mother from losing all of her sons. They argue that they have mothers too. As they start to be killed off, their cynicism increases and then turns bitter toward this Private Ryan, whom they've never met. Full of twists and turns, their quest is long and torturous.

John William's heroic music for the film is sweeping in its grandeur, yet never overwhelms the more delicate moments.

SCHINDLER'S LIST's Academy Award winning cinematographer Janusz Kaminski is as good in the intimate moments as the dramatic ones. When the men rest inside a church, he uses a warm natural lighting to show reverence toward the men's battle worn faces. When the captain goes up on a ridge, the camera captures him in shadow with all of the drama of a Life magazine cover. Finally, Kaminski uses the handheld camera to good effect during the battle sequences. As it bounces up and down, you can feel the jitters of the fighting men, and the chaos of the battle.

Between scenes that take your breath away, Robert Rodat's script is smart enough to throw in a little much-needed humor. Fighting a war vicariously can take an enormous toll on an audience. Watching men necessarily reduced to animals fighting for survival may be hard to watch, but this film of Spielberg's is movie making at its best. It is an experience sometimes hard to endure but not to be missed.

CHINA, NATIONAL, SOCIETY: University Graduates Up, Salary Expectations Down

By Shi Rui and Wang Yan

Mainland undergraduates have dismissed overly high salary expectations in job hunting. Most set their expectant monthly pay this year between 1000-2000 yuan, according to a survey on 2006 mainland undergraduate employment.

Conducted by the School Department of Central Committee of the Communist Youth League of China and the Peking University Public Policy Institute from April to May, the survey involved 3451 students from 16 universities from across the nation. The report viewed the expectation change as "university students have given up the unrealistic illusion of high salary and begun to judge their value rationally."

Mainland undergraduates this year reached 4.13 million, 22% more than that of 2005, which sharpens the conflict between the excess of job hunters and the lack of jobs. Until the end of May, more than half of the respondents had not settled with a job, and only 49.81% had "signed a contract" or "had clear intention but not signed yet."

Fu Xiao, a senior-to-be from Shanxi University of Finance and Economics, hoped to get a position in some commercial bank after graduation, and her salary expectation is among the average: "2,000 yuan will be fine, and most of my classmates share the same expectation. We hope the salary can be no less than 1,000."

Xu Jinzhong, who graduated from Beijing Foreign Studies University in July 2006, now works at China Youth League School, department of international communication. His monthly pay is around 2000 yuan, "just the standard of a public official," Xu said.

"I didn't set a high expectation on my salary before job hunting. Any salary no less than 2000 would be acceptable to me."

Learning that 66.1% of undergraduates set their expectant monthly pay on 1000-2000 yuan, Xu explained: "Things are a little bit different in BFSU. Our major is foreign languages. Undergraduates’ salary in our department is no less than 2000 on average."

During his job hunting, Xu gave up a position in a real estate company, which offered him 2500 yuan per month, excluding extra commission. He thought his present job had better "future prospects," enabling him to meet more people and learn about protocols, which overshadowed its disadvantage in salary.

Future prospects offered by a job were listed as the NO.1 consideration in job hunting by 67.10% of the respondents, the survey showed. Extreme pursuit of individual development led to "volunteer working," that is, some undergraduates offered to work for their favored employers with no pay.

"It's understandable," Xu said, "If you do not have a financial problem, doing your favored job is a good choice," Sharing Xu's idea, Fu would also be willing to work without pay for a period of time if the company can provide her a bright prospect and large room for development.

"The emergence of 'volunteer working' reflects undergraduates' yearning for the chance of individual development, their complex attitudes towards personal ability and professional prosperity, and their helplessness facing the tight job market." The report commented.

Sources:
Fu Xiao, student, 付晓
Xu Jinzhong, undergraduate, 徐金忠

An earlier draft of this article by the authors appeared in the South China Morning Post July 18 -- the editors