China: Sinking roads and choking smog are some of the troubles besetting China's capital as it prepares for the Olympics, writes Clifford Coonan in Beijing
People in Beijing are fiercely proud of the fact that their city will host the Olympic Games in 2008, but a breathtaking reconstruction project, choking smog, sclerotic traffic and rapidly rising living costs are getting on Beijingers' nerves.
The latest incident to beset Beijingers was a huge hole - 20 metres long, 10 metres wide and 10 metres deep - in a busy section of one of the ring roads encircling the capital, which has a population of 14 million.
"Filthy water leaked out of the pipe and poured into a section of the subway line that is under construction," was how the Beijing Evening News reported the hole, which opened just a week after another incident in the southern district of Xuanwu, where a burst water pipe caused the road to sink.
Such holes are the talk of the town, with the city's noodle bars and chat rooms abuzz with indignant comment.
A recent survey by a Chinese consulting firm added insult to injury, when it showed that Beijing has plunged to 15th place from fourth in an annual ranking of China's most livable cities. Fewer people want to live in Beijing because of its bad traffic, high housing prices and heavy pollution, the China Daily reported.
The northeastern port city of Dalian topped the 2005 list, followed by the southeastern port of Xiamen. Traditional rival Shanghai was ranked seventh.
With large holes emerging in Beijing's expansion plans and its status taking a battering, city planners are building 11 new cities on its outskirts to deal with the population overspill. The cities currently house 2.5 million but ultimately they will accommodate 5.7 million people, said Beijing's chief planner, Chen Gang.
"The population is far too dense in Beijing. In some areas the number is 20,000 people per square kilometre. We project the population could top 5.7 million in the future, but this is the limit. Too great a population will cause imbalance in the environment and we will hold to the limit."
China's love affair with the car has done much to clog Beijing's arteries. Where once the bicycle reigned supreme, the car is now king. There are 2.5 million cars on its streets these days and bikes are relegated to a second-class mode of transport.
In the new satellite cities, the emphasis will be on public transport, accounting for 60 per cent of all transport, and a light rail transit system. The towns will be fully equipped with hospitals, schools and colleges, shopping centres, museums and recreational centres, and at least 18 square metres of green space will be provided for every resident.
The capital is fitting out 50 of its buses with experimental braking systems it hopes will cut fuel use by 30 per cent and help clear its smoggy skies.
There is already a trial fuel cell bus on the streets of Beijing and some newer buses run on gas, while the city is also experimenting with high-speed bus lanes.
Other plans include moving some of the coal-fired power stations that supply the city's energy needs further away from town. One of the biggest steel plants in the city is due to move to nearby Tangshan at some stage, though no date has been set.
The skies over the nation's capital were blue for 234 days in 2005, the municipal environmental protection centre said at the end of the year, which could be a sign that things are slowly beginning to change.