Favorable Visa Rules for Beijing Olympics

To cater for the influx of foreign visitors next year when China hosts the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games, favorable visa rules will be in place, a senior immigration official said yesterday.

Anyone with valid Olympic Identity and Accreditation Cards (OIAC) will be allowed to enter China without a visa one month before and leave during the four weeks after the Games, Li Changyou, deputy director of the Exit-Entry Administration Bureau of the Ministry of Public Security, said at a press conference.

The Games will be held from August 8 to 24 meaning cardholders can enter the country without a visa from July 8 to September 24.

It's a common practice for host countries to offer visa-free entry to OIAC holders. The OIAC is a personalized card granted by the International Olympic Committee that gives its holder the right to attend the Games for participation or in a work capacity.

Li said China had already loosened some requirements including the granting of one-year employment permits to people coming to work in the run up to the Games.

China currently offers visa-free entry to nationals of Singapore, Brunei and Japan for 15-day stays.  Visitors from the United States, Canada, South Korea, Australia and several European countries can stay for 48 hours without a visa if they enter via Shanghai.

Li said China may offer some other favorable policies next year to make it easier for foreign visitors to enter China. "We'll respect Olympic conventions and the Olympics' Charter and consider anything that is beneficial to ensuring a successful Games."

(China Daily January 26, 2007)

Beijing continues 12% growth

By Zhu Zhe (China Daily)
 

Beijing's economy completed its eighth consecutive year of double-digit growth in 2006, thanks to infrastructure investments and consumption.

The Beijing Bureau of Statistics yesterday announced that the city had an output of 772 billion yuan ($99.3 billion) last year, 12 percent more than in 2005. This means it had a per capita gross domestic product (GDP) of $6,210, 8.8 percent more than the previous year.
     
Deputy bureau chief Yu Xiuqin said that according to the Work Bank's classification, Beijing's per capita GDP puts it in the "upper middle-income economies".

She told a press conference that the economy maintained a stable and healthy development last year, and an important driving factor was the work for the 2008 Olympic Games.

"Hosting the Olympics has had, and will continue to have, a profound impact on Beijing's economy."

Though she couldn't give the exact amount that the preparations were costing Beijing, she said that last year 93.5 billion yuan ($12 billion) was spent on infrastructure, 53.2 percent more than in 2005.

In addition to the infrastructure bill, there's a budget of about $2 billion to run the Games, excluding building of the 31 Olympic venues, local media have reported.

Responding to fears that Beijing's, and even China's, economy could see a reverse trend after the Olympics investment frenzy is over, Yu said the Games were just one of the factors behind the fast growth.

Foreign Tourists In Beijing Spend US$4 Billion In 2006

BEIJING, Jan 25 (Bernama) -- Beijing received 3.9 million foreign tourists last year with more than 7.5 per cent of them spent a total of US$4 billion (US$1=RM3.50) , a spokesman of the Municipal Tourism Administration Fang Zehua said Thursday.

The boom can be attributed to Beijing's promotion in major source countries, he said adding that the record showed tourists spend US$1,033 each.

Tourists from Japan, the United States and the Republic of Korea accounted for about 40 per cent of the total number, Xinhua news agency reported Thursday.

Overseas arrivals from Russia, Sweden and Australia also saw a rapid increase, Fang said.

Some 132 million Chinese visitors from other parts of the country came to the capital and spent US$19.1 billion, 14 per cent higher than in 2005, he added.

Beijing to mark countdown with 10,000 paddlers

BEIJING: Ten thousand Beijingers will play table tennis on 1,000 tables in Tiananmen Square to mark the one-year countdown to the 2008 Olympics on Aug 8, local media reported yesterday.

After trials held in each of the city's districts and counties, the chosen players will compete in front of the electronic countdown board outside the China National Museum, Municipal Sports Bureau chief Sun Kanglin told Beijing Radio.

Table tennis, known as ping pong, is China's national ball sport with participation levels far outstripping those of soccer or basketball.

Beijing Olympic organisers have not yet revealed their plans to mark one-year before the opening ceremony but a million Beijing citizens performed traditional Tai Chi morning exercises in the city's parks to mark the two-year countdown last year. – Reuters