KEY POINTS:
A year out from the start of the world's biggest sporting party, Beijing is already in its fancy dress, checking the mirror, and getting all excited about the guest list.
China has a vision of its place in the modern world, and its Government is sparing no effort in using the Olympic Games to sell that new face across the globe.
"They've got a big concept of what they're trying to achieve and they're driving it hard," New Zealand ambassador Tony Browne said.
"This is in a sense of a coming out party, this is the culmination of presenting Beijing as a truly international city, the capital of a country fully involved in the leadership of the international community."
Beijing is not boasting in its numerous "We're Ready" advertisements. There are unlikely to be stories about Beijing rushing to finish its venues, a favourite pre-Olympic yarn for journalists.
"Beijing will be ready, Beijing is absolutely determined to be ready. I have no doubt at all," Browne said.
Olympic banners adorn Beijing's massive avenues, celebrating the start of the one-year countdown to the Games opening.
Wangfujing Daije - as ritzy a shopping strip as can be found anywhere - is plastered with the "One World, One Dream" Games slogan, one billboard bearing a huge photo of New Zealand equestrian great Mark Todd.
In its Olympic superstores shoppers squirm, yell and point their way toward frazzled cashiers, keen to get their hands on a cuddly Games mascot, or some other Games memorabilia.
At past Olympics, that kind of retail action has been reserved for when the Games are actually in the blocks, awaiting the starter's gun.
Key venues are already getting their final touches, whereas at Athens in 2004 the paint was barely dry as the athletes began to arrive.
In the north of the city of 15 million, the National Stadium and the Olympic pool complex are largely complete, both boasting unique and inspiring designs.
Most spectacular is the "Bird's Nest" - the National Stadium, where the opening ceremony, athletics and football will be staged - a massive woven exterior moulded into smooth curves.
All angles and sharp edges, the gasp-inducing National Aquatics Centre is a short stroll away, looking to all the world like a cube coated in a massive sheet of water-filled bubble wrap.
In Beijing, it seems, if it isn't being built, or ripped down, it's being renovated. It's a city of skyscrapers, new four-lane highways, cranes and layers of protective building site mesh over scaffolding.
Hutongs, the narrow alleys where generations of close communities lived in cramped courtyard housing, once spanned thousands of hectares in Beijing. Now they are an endangered species.
While some traditional housing was bulldozed to make way for Olympic venues, Browne warns against thinking all change is for the Games.
Modernisation would have happened anyway; skyscrapers are now a feature of the urban landscape all over China, he says.
"The Olympics are a sort of an international statement of achievement, but you can go to a large number of Chinese cities and see the same kind of development."
However, urban areas give a false picture of China, he says. About 800 million people living in rural areas survive just above subsistence levels.
"That's the big challenge for China, it's not to see how high the skyscrapers can go, it's to raise rural incomes," Browne says.
Back at street level, average Chinese - if there is such a thing - have embraced the Olympics, well beyond having their kids pose with one of the five life-size mascots in the superstores.
When the first on-line raffle for 40,000 tickets for the opening ceremony was held, 700,000 bids flooded in - there will be no empty stadiums at these Games, with swimming and athletics expected to be the hot item.
And be prepared to hear the Chinese national anthem many, many, times, as winning medals is high on their to-do list.
"China is focusing on success," Browne says.
"Not only do they want it to be a great spectacle, they want it to be a great national statement, and part of that great national statement is to [win medals] - show the world China can do it."
In hosting the Olympics and easing restrictions on what international journalists can report, China has opened itself up to scrutiny, even though it fears a focus on contentious issues that have nothing to do with the Games.
More journalists will mean more attention on China's questionable human rights record, its control of Tibet, child labour and religious persecution.
Privately, Games officials are bemused that international reports often highlight areas of concern - such as the pollution in Beijing, but that should not be a problem with a third of Beijing's three million cars taken off the roads while the Games are on.
Easing of news media restrictions for the Games is not expected to equate to increased tolerance toward those who use the Games as a political platform.
Unfurling a "Support Falun Gong" banner in Tiananmen Square or a "Free Tibet" flag outside the Forbidden City will result in departure from China at Olympic sprinter speed, Browne predicts. But sports fans can expect a warm (and humid) greeting from a nation proud and delighted to have them in a city that is largely safe for the sensible tourist.
Hotels have been told a six-fold increase in prices would not be out of line, but New Zealand sports fans who find a bed can expect cheap yet delicious food (less than $10 a main course), practically free local beer (under $2 a stubbie), taxi fares at around 40c a kilometre, or subway tickets at about 50c a trip.
All that is needed for a perfect Games is a black singlet on the top of the podium. Beijing can't promise that, but it is on track to deliver a gold medal party.
* Kevin Norquay travelled to Beijing with the assistance of the Asia: NZ Foundation.
- NZPA
