QINGDAO, China -- It's known for Tsingtao Beer, an
80-year-old reminder of German colonial days, but Qingdao wants
more modern fame as a center for tourism and technology.
To achieve that goal, the city is focusing on an arcane, costly
sport that few Chinese watch and fewer still compete in -- Olympic
yachting.
Qingdao is one of five cities sharing Beijing's bid for the 2008
Olympics. If the Chinese capital is picked on Friday, this port on
the Yellow Sea will be the site for yachting. Shanghai and three
other cities are to hold preliminary rounds for soccer.
"Qingdao is aiming to become a modern international city. The
Olympics is an important event, and the whole world pays attention
to it, so it can raise the city's profile," said Chen Jingshen,
the top sports official for the Qingdao branch of China's Communist
Party.
The strategy lets China's bid draw on the assets of prettier or
better equipped cities than its drab, smoggy capital. And if it
succeeds, Chinese leaders can show off more of the country to
foreign television viewers.
It's hard to find a more television-friendly setting in China
than Qingdao. Cobblestone downtown streets are lined with German
colonial buildings. Newer areas are tidy and green.
Blue skies and the scenic Yellow Sea coast make it a magnet for
tourists from Beijing, 600 miles to the northwest. Beaches are
packed in summer and an annual rock music festival draws fans from
all over China.
Qingdao is using its bid as an excuse to splurge on overdue
public projects.
On a $85 million wish list are a bigger airport, better phones
and more hotel rooms, Chen said. He points to the example of
Barcelona, which used the 1992 Olympics to modernize and publicize
itself as Spain's business capital.
The city is famous for the Tsingtao Brewery, started before
Germany lost its Asian colonies following World War I. Its name,
the antique spelling of Qingdao, has for decades been China's
best-known brand abroad.
But Qingdao wants to woo investors to its newer high-tech
industries. The city is home to Haier Group, a major appliance
maker, and wants to be a telecommunications base.
"The spirit of the Olympics is `Faster, Higher, Stronger.'
That's just what we need to accelerate our economic construction,"
Chen said.
The yachting site doesn't look like much now -- a shipyard full
of rusting freighters awaiting repairs. But a model in the bid
office shows it transformed into a spacious marina with hundreds of
sailboats.
City leaders hope the marina will make Qingdao an Asian sailing
center.
That's a tall order in a poor country where almost no one sails.
On a recent sunny Sunday, the only pleasure boat in Qingdao's
harbor was a barge carrying tourists at $1.20 a head.
It doesn't seem to matter to Qingdao officials whether China
wins or loses at yachting.
For a country with such a long coastline, China has shown little
recent interest in the sea. Its last famous sailor was Admiral
Zheng He, who led a Chinese armada to East Africa in the 15th
century.
Zhao Dongsheng, headmaster of a government sailing school in
Qingdao, is philosophical about China's chances. He notes that
Chinese yachtsmen have competed in six Olympics without winning.
Zhao's school opened in 1978 as part of the state sports machine
that made China a powerhouse at table tennis, gymnastics and other
sports -- though not yachting.
Today, it has 80 students aged 15 to 18 in a three-year training
program.
"In Asia, we take a lead in certain areas, but our overall
status is not high," Zhao said. "But we are taking an active role
in this contest, even though we didn't get a good record." Send this story to a friend | Most sent stories |
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