Horses at the 2008 Summer Olympic Games for the equestrian competitions will have a shorter quarantine period. Instead of the former 17-day quarantine, the horses will only have to arrive in Hong Kong just 10 days before the Games and will be allowed to compete during their post-arrival quarantine.
China says it will keep the rest of the world notified of security-related developments both before and during the Games in a timely fashion. The International Liaison Department of the Security Command Center for the Games of the XXIX Olympiad (OSCC) will work with security personnel from foreign embassies to organize an international liaison mechanism and an Olympic security conference, which will be held every three or six months before the Olympic Games and daily during the Games. The OSCC will also arrange on-site visits for foreign Olympic security delegates during a series of test events scheduled to run in Beijing starting in August. The first Closed Door Seminar of the Coordination and Consulting Committee on International Security Cooperation will be held next month. BOCOG has invited more than 70 experts to work as security advisers for the Games and will employ 80,000 security officials, including volunteers, giving them extensive training on the technology that will be used, and how to administer emergency first aid.
Tourist agencies in Beijing have been given notice. Beijing plans to “name and shame” dodgy tour operators in the city’s major newspapers to help clean up the industry ahead of the Games, said China Daily. There will be monthly reports starting in May that will list “the most complained about” tour agencies and their offences. Most complaints have been directed at travel agencies breaking contracts and providing poorer accommodation and transport than advertised, but there were also complaints about agencies tricking tourists into buying counterfeit goods. China is also urging tour guides to avoid uncouth behaviour such as spitting and littering.
China is about to begin restoration work in June on a 2,455 metre long damaged stretch of the Great Wall as part of Games preparations. The stretch, which is not open to tourists, is located north of the Badaling section of the Great Wall, 75 km northwest of downtown Beijing. It has suffered from natural erosion, damage by wild animals and construction work. Nearly one third of the stretch has reportedly collapsed.
The Beijing Times reports that a state-run Chinese construction company attempted to cover up the collapse of a subway tunnel being built for the Games that has probably killed six workers. The company building the line waited at least eight hours before notifying authorities of the accident while it organized its own rescue teams to keep word from leaking out. According to the Beijing Times 10 people have been taken into custody over the matter while a labour contractor working for the company has fled. As part of the cover-up the construction company had asked all rescue workers to turn in their cell phones and locked the gate of the site. State television has blamed the collapse on “porous soil” but gave no other details.
