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Chinese cities share Beijing's bid
QINGDAO, China (AP) -- 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. The key, the city has decided, is an arcane, costly sport that few Chinese watch and fewer still compete at -- Olympic yachting. Qingdao is one of five cities sharing in Beijing's bid for the 2008 Olympics. If the Chinese capital is picked on July 13, this port on the Yellow Sea will be the site for yachting. Shanghai and three others 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, 1,000 kilometers (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 700 million yuan ($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," said Chen. 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 10 yuan ($1.20) a head. It doesn't even 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."
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