The Beijing Olympics: A Fifteen-Year-Long Ride

Posted by Reading Time: 5 minutes

 

By Chris Devonshire-Ellis

Aug. 25 – Now that they’re over, that was some amazing journey! It began, for those who remember, not just a little over two weeks ago, or even when Beijing was awarded the Games in 2001, Beijing’s bid for the Olympics went right back to 1993, when they tendered for the 2000 Games. I was in Hong Kong, and Dezan Shira & Associates was a small, two city practice (Hong Kong and Shenzhen). The politics, as always, were out in force. The Tiananmen Square incident of 1989 was still fresh in many people’s minds, and there was a ground swell of thought that said China wasn’t quite ready. The city bid had been impressive, yet Beijing was a great deal different from today’s modern gleaming metropolis. In 1993, the main hotels were the Jiangguo, the Great Wall Sheraton, and the Nikko. People danced the night away at the Havana Club. Charlie’s Bar was the place to hang out, and the Jiangguo Hotel getting a fax machine was a major event—the hotel even ran adverts for a year showing how it had helped cement a large U.S. JV deal through “instant communication with the U.S.-based legal team in Detroit.”

Beijing wasn’t ready, as it happened, but it only lost at the time by one vote to Sydney. Many, like me were disappointed; worried that China might retreat back into its shell. It was still early days to be conducting business there. The Chinese initial reaction was one of humiliation and disappointment. A bid for the 2004 Olympics was ruled out. But shortly afterwards, plans were made to bid for 2008. The auspicious date too, was not lost on the Chinese, who put every effort they could into winning. Largely kept under wraps, business thoughts concentrated on Shanghai, which began to boom. Beijing was largely forgotten.

That all changed in a summers evening in 2001. I had just flown in that afternoon from Pyongyang, North Korea, and was, like many expatriate businesspeople at the time, waiting for the announcement in the legendary Frank’s Place, located at the time opposite the Worker’s Stadium in Beijing. Beers in hand, we watched on live TV as Antonio Samaranch unveiled the winning bid. Paris was a main contender, along with Istanbul, Toronto and Osaka. Samaranch opened the envelope. All he said was one simple word: “Beijing.” Spontaneity burst out like nothing I had seen before—Frank’s Place erupted with people hugging and kissing, and a city party developed, that incredibly, moved quickly to Tiananmen Square. Fireworks, illegal at the time, burst out and even then-president Jiang Zemin—without security—came down to shake hands and greet the people. It was an amazing night, and the freest expression of excitement I had ever seen in China.

BOCOG was formed soon after, and almost immediately, Dezan Shira & Associates began to get inquiries from companies interested in tendering for construction, security, F&B franchises, you name it; everybody wanted to bid for something. It took awhile to get BOCOG organized, but after six months, they were open for business. Various government officials were shifted around to fill certain positions, with the then-vice mayor of Beijing, Liu Dehua, being given the job as Chairman of BOCOG. China Briefing was of course there to meet and greet, and explain to readers and clients of the firm how to submit tenders.

That issue, April 2002, is reproduced here (click on the image to download).

Looking back, the magazine then looks amateurish, but at the time it was practically all there was on China business circulated in China. Pre professional internet marketing, blogs were six years away. Companies had only just begun having decent looking websites. Small Nokia phones were the mobile of choice, and it was to be the Workers Stadium that was to hold the main events.

Since that time, we’ve seen a lot of people, and a lot of clients, all wanting to get involved. One of the more difficult aspects was the obtaining of licenses for architectural and construction firms that wanted to bid. The Chinese had already identified their preferred partners, and it was tough on a lot of international businesses that they just couldn’t get the class of license to operate in China they needed to submit tenders. I went to many, many meetings with government to see plans, get updates on projects and feed through what we knew to clients that could participate. However, apart from a lucky few, already well known to the Chinese and already possessing international reputations, it was fairly obvious from the outset the Chinese were in control and that participation would be limited.

IOC officials visited, and houses in Beijing began to get paint overhauls and re-pointed brickwork. Our office at the time had a 360 degree balcony overlooking the back of the Grand Hotel. Great for a lunchtime snack or a crafty smoke, it was regularly sealed up by the Public Security Bureau whenever IOC officials were in town. They didn’t want anyone taking potshots at IOC members from buildings overlooking the hotel.

Gradually, Beijing began to change. New metro lines, a new airport, let alone a new terminal! The old Capital Airport terminal—there was only one—had a great communist throwback at the end, a huge, silver and chrome Russian samovar that used to dispense boiling hot water. Dried noodles were the only available snack. I had loved that samovar, the steam, the scalding heat, the very do-it-yourself nature of being served in China at the time. I saw the last horse and cart too, on the newly opened airport road, trotting along the fast lane in 2004. They’re still around, a horse and cart sells watermelons around the back of our gleaming offices at Twin Towers, but they are now confined to back streets. Like the samovar, largely gone in the new Beijing.

But it’s OK. Beijing when it first bid for the Olympics was what would now be described as a third-tier city. When I used to travel there from Hong Kong, people and friends thought I was crazy. “It’s dirty, horrible,” they said. “Hong Kong is much better. You don’t need to go there.” But I did. Even so, when it won the Games, in 2001, Beijing was overshadowed by a much more glitzy Shanghai. It was still a hardship posting, second-tier, typically northern, partially industrialized city, albeit the capital.

Today, after these wonderful two weeks, the actual event has shown the world what Beijing has become, and to some extent, what we’ve all become. More modern, more successful, more professional, more savvy.

The China Briefing issue we produced was the state of the art at the time, although it looks naive now. Today however, we publish books, blogging has arrived, our website is slick and professional, and the magazine—to which we’ve added new sister titles in India Briefing and Vietnam Briefing—wins international awards. We’ve grown up with Beijing’s transformation, and that’s what’s really so pleasing about the Olympics. Beijing has become an international, fashionable, and acceptable city, and for those who have been there during this time, it’s been a privilege to be part of the same evolution.

It was, as Jacques Rogge said, “an extraordinary Olympics.” Beijing is, after all, an extraordinary city. So thanks Beijing, for a great 2008 Games. And thanks too, for finally living up to the promise that fifteen years ago, I had hoped would come true—and it finally did.