The preparations for the Olympic Games even included the toilets. Beijing launched a three-year campaign -- with a 400-million-yuan (about 59 million U.S. dollars) investment -- three years ago to modernize its public toilets.

With 1,000 new public toilets being built and renovated each year, the fetid back-street privies are being replaced with clean, well-maintained flush toilets.

In addition, 1,500 temporary toilets were installed in Olympic venues and nearby.

Now, Beijing is flushed with pride that all the 5,333 public toilets, boasting standardized white male and female figure signs, are available within a five-minute walk of any downtown location.

Beijingers were also encouraged to learn English, queue for buses, stop spitting and use correct translations for restaurant menus.

China has also been opening up to international media. The government issued a series of regulations at the end of 2006, which stipulated foreign journalists could conduct interviews in China as long as they had consent from the intended interviewees.

"China's open door to the foreign media will not close after the Games," said Liu Binjie, the General Administration of Press and Publication minister.

With this policy, the international media reported China's preparations for the Olympic gala, and the violent protests in Tibet, Zhejiang and Guizhou, as well as other scandals.

The open-door policy has shown the confidence of the Chinese government, who now believes negative reports, seen in every country, cannot negate what China's achievements over the past 30 years, said Yin Yungong, a Chinese Academy of Social Sciences senior journalism expert.

China's gross domestic product (GDP) exceeded 1.3 trillion yuan for the first half of the year, and is expected to hit 2.6 trillion yuan when the year ends, compared with 1.1 trillion yuan in 2001 when China was selected to host the 2008 Olympic Games.

Li Meiying, a 67-year-old retiree, greeted foreign photographers with smiles at a downtown plaza, where she dances for daily exercise.

"Welcome to China watching Olympic Games!" Li told the photographers in English, while Chinese were often regarded as shy in front of strangers.

Samir M. Janakat, head of the sports edition of Jordan's leading Arabic daily Al-Ra'i, wrote in the newspaper, "When asked who will be the winner on the Beijing Olympics, I immediately gave the answer of China."

A successful Olympic Games could erase the misunderstanding and hostility some countries hold toward China, and build a new image of China -- a China of prosperous, rich and opening-up, said Janakat.

(Xinhua News Agency August 6, 2008)