Back to the Future: China Gets Beijing and Shanghai Ready for the 2008 Olympics and 2010 Expo

IN AN EFFORT to prepare Beijing and Shanghai for the upcoming 2008 Olympics and 2010 World Expo, China is modernizing both cities. But the Chinese government is also reverting to 'old-style' political and social etiquette campaigns that are reminiscent of the early twentieth century.

CHINA'S ECONOMY IS booming like never before and its social fabric is being ripped apart and knit together in novel ways. State-of-the-art sports stadiums, a renovated airport terminal, and a new financial district have been built or are under construction in pre-Olympic Beijing, where there's even been talk of seeding rain clouds to limit pollution.

Yet amidst the cacophony of the new the historically minded can often hear curious--and sometimes disturbing--echoes of the past. Even the most seemingly futuristic phenomena turn out to have surprisingly old-fashioned aspects. This is certainly true of both the Beijing Games and the Shanghai Expo. Each will open a new chapter in Chinese history: one will be China's first Olympics, the other its first World's Fair. But some preparations underway for both are throwbacks to patterns dating to the 1900s—or even the 1800s.