Hosting the Olympics: a city's make-or-break impression

摘要

Many business people and scholars in China still criticize the strategic move of the Chinese government to host the Olympic Games, which was meant to exploit th rare opportunity to showcase China to the Western world en masse. Most critics claim that the sum of $42 billion was too big an investment for a developing country to put into a two-week sports show. Analysis of the investment reveals that most of the money did not go to preparing the Olympic facilities but rather into construction of national infrastructure. For example, the Chinese government spent $500 million to build the "Bird's Nest" National Stadium, while it spent $3 billion to construct a modern airport terminal. In Beijing itself, the government spent $30 million to renovate a dusty road, giving it a facelift which included planting trees and flowers and erecting an ornamental wall.