BEIJING, March 26 (Xinhua) -- With five hundred days left to the opening of the Beijing Olympic Games, ordinary Chinese became more concerned over the lingering bad habits than anything else, worrying that improper manners like spitting, queue jumping, littering and so on would damage the national image. "I hate people smoking in the public places and squeezing their way into the subway, totally ignoring those who need to get off," said Sun Peining, a clerk in China Council for the Promotion of International Trade. "The good thing is that people start to get on buses in line." "I don't want visitors to see us as a rude country. Hopefully Chinese can remove those habits when the Olympics come," said the 28-year-old, who rides subway to work everyday. "There is more than one year left for us to make a difference." Xiang Hui was especially disgusted by the unhygienic habit of spitting. "I see little improvement on the problem of spitting although most people know that it will do harm to others' health and give the streets a disgusting look," said the structural engineer. "Bus stations and train stations are the worst places," he added. "I believe we have enough resources to stage a great Olympics. Just don't let little things ruin all the efforts we have done," he said. Wen Deyuan, 84, knew little about the concept of "national image" but stressed that improper behaviors would make the Olympic host "lose face". "If people litter, China will give foreigners a bad impression.Everyone should behave themselves. In contrast to the past, Beijing is so much beautiful and clean now. But the city needs to be even cleaner," said the Beijing resident. Beijing citizens' concerns were also what weighed on the minds of delegates in the recently-concluded annual session of the national committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) During the session, a member of CPPCC listed a new "four pests",namely spitting, queue-jumping, smoking and bad language as compared to flies, mosquitoes, rats and bed bugs in the 50s. "Compared with the remarkable construction of the Olympic venues in the city, good manners and proper behavior in public drag far behind," Zi Huayun was quoted by English paper China Daily two weeks ago." Although those 'new four pests' seem to be tiny things, they are stubborn diseases that stain the image of the capital city." Zi urged to work out relative regulations to impose a fine for such improper behavior, which were echoed by some Beijing residents. "Anyone with such improper behavior should be punished, such asa fine," said Liu Yanhui, a student from Beijing Union University."The fine should be heavy enough to make them remember." Some, however, agreed to adopt a slow yet lenient way -- education. "TV and newspapers should constantly promote good manners. This is not just for the Olympics, but for a better future life in China," said Sun Peining. "I think Olympics offer us a great opportunity to give people's awareness of good manners a huge lift." Middle school teacher Zhang Xiaomei believed that education will be the final way out as adoption of good manners is going to take a long time, maybe a generation, to realize. "It is not a job accomplished in an action. It will take time. We stress public etiquette to school children, who are expected to grow up well-behaved," she said. "Our students have kept promoting ideas of public etiquette in nearby communities for three years," she added. "Education will make the difference." Liu Jingmin, vice-major of Beijing, said the organizers were discussing with the Health Ministry to set aside special smoking areas in the Games venues to ensure most areas are smoke-free. To reduce queue jumping, they assigned the 11th day of each month as the "queuing day", urging citizens to stand in line to get on bus, subway or buying tickets. Eighty thousand garbage cans were added to the inner city of Beijing. Posters and slogans everywhere called on people to do their parts for a successful Olympic Games.
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