The real Fog City

By Matthew Plowright

Last Thursday, a PR executive I had arranged a meeting with was one and a half hours late. When she eventually arrived, she was extremely apologetic, recounting with horror her two hour cab ride from Zhongguancun, Beijing’s IT district in the north-west of the city to her firm’s HQ in Jianguomen, on the east side of the Chinese capital. “Oh, it’s not a problem,” I assured her. “I know what Beijing traffic can be like.” “Yes,” she replied. “I feel like I spend half my working day stuck in traffic on the third ring road.”

Anyone who has lived or worked in Beijing is likely to feel the same way. With thousands of new cars clogging the city’s overstretched roads every week, travelling to and from work or meetings has become an incredibly slow and frustrating experience for the city’s business community. But for Beijing, which is keen to promote itself as a global business centre, and for firms based in the Chinese capital, the consequences are potentially more serious than a few frustrated businessman stewing in the back of sweltering cabs. It’s a horribly clichéd old adage that “time is money,” but if business people are regularly spending three to four hours a day stuck in Beijing traffic then clearly their time is not being put to profitable use.

In addition to this, there is the pollution factor. Much has been written, both online and in the print media, about Beijing’s fume-filled air. The authorities are acutely aware of the potential negative publicity “foggy” days could attract during next summer’s Olympics and have pledged to make next summer’s games a “Blue Sky Olympics.” Seasoned Beijingers are entitled to feel more than a little skeptical about the accuracy of official meteorological readings, however. The Beijing Air blog has some interesting things to say on this subject. Pollution is a big problem for multinational firms too – although ironically, many of these multinationals are among the worst offenders in terms of contributing to atmospheric pollution in the first place. Hong Kong business leaders have warned on a number of occasions recently that the city’s polluted air is making it harder for the city’s firms to attract international staff, prompting a number of the city’s businesses to consider relocating to more fragrant climes – Singapore, for example. It seems that multinational execs don’t want their kids growing up choking on fumes and are increasingly kicking up a fuss. The same could be said about Beijing. I, for one, certainly wouldn’t want to bring my kids up in a city where you can count the number of substantial parks on one hand and where, a couple of days a week, I struggle to make out the apartment block across the street because it’s shrouded in “fog.” By the way, being a Londoner by birth, the fact that many Chinese people refer to London as “fog city” always amuses me greatly. You want to see a real fog city? Take a good look around.

All of which makes the authorities’ belated attempts to invest in Beijing’s public transport infrastructure – as the city’s party secretary Liu Qi announced today all the more imperative. The opening of the new north-south subway line earlier this month and the construction of two new lines, which are due to open next year, are positive moves. However, building new lines and lowering prices alone is not enough to entice car-crazy Beijingers off the roads. The public transport infrastructure in Beijing is a mess. Bus stops are often spaced more than a kilometer apart. Poor planning and a complete lack of integration in many cases means that switching from bus to subway or simply changing lines can take the better part of half an hour. It’s not just investment that’s required, it’s an urban planning shift from North American-style car-based city planning to a more European-style model in which public transport plays a much larger role.

This is not just an issue for the hundreds of thousands of tourists who will flock to the city for next summer’s Olympics. Beijing’s clogged highways are a potential major turn-off for businesses as well. And if businesses become fed up with their employees spending half their day stuck in traffic, it’ll be a black day indeed for Beijing’s economy.