Is China Ready for the Olympics?

This is NOT about China and human rights; that's been extensively covered. (Actually, not really. The protests about the torch relay has been covered, but the real issues haven't gotten that much attention. And they won't here today.)

My question is about whether China can handle all the foreigners who will descend on Beijing. When I taught in Beijing in 2004 I was impressed with how much had been prepared already for the Olympics. I'm talking about venues that were already built or being built back then. Though I wasn't impressed by the lack of consideration for pedestrians and traffic patterns as neighborhoods were leveled and huge housing developments were being put in.

But a new issue arose that raises other questions. We got J's Thailand ticket through mileage from United Airlines. Her return flight is Chiang Mai to Bangkok and Bankgok to Beijing on Thai International. Then Air China from Beijing to LA. (She'll get back to Anchorage on a separate Alaska ticket.)

So a couple of weeks ago I started trying to get her seat reservations on the return. United says to contact the partner airlines. Thai International was no problem. But the Air China part was. We could find her reservation, after some difficulty, on the Air China website, but there was no way to make the seat reservation.

I emailed and explained my problem. I got an email back a week later with two Beijing phone numbers to call. Luckily I have skype so it's reasonable. I got a recording on the first number. And the second number. They are open 8-5. It was 11am, but a Sunday. Monday I tried again. I got someone who gave me another phone number, and that was a recording. I tried both numbers several times and got recordings, but couldn't get people.

I emailed two former Chinese students who are at universities in the US. They both tried through Air China phone numbers in the US and were given the same number I had in Beijing that they couldn't get through to. Fortunately, one contacted another former student who is in Beijing who eventually was able to get through to someone who says J now has an aisle seat on that flight.

But if getting a seat assignment on the namesake airline of China is so difficult, this doesn't bode well. Their website also had special deals - except they were for 2007. And even though I chose the English option, when I got sent to the next page, it would sometimes change back into Chinese. I realize that frequent flier tickets are not the norm, but tickets issued by other carriers will be common for travelers to the Olympics. How will they handle this with phone numbers that don't work after 6pm or on weekends, or at all?

Is this an anomaly that means nothing? Or is this an early warning signal? Let's wait and see.