China races to go green for Games

BEIJING — With the Olympic Games to start in less than three weeks, Beijing on Sunday cranked up anti-pollution measures by yanking cars off the roads, expanding mass transit and staggering work hours in a bid to meet its pledge of a "green" Olympics.

Under rules that will last from July 20 to Sept. 20, owners of 3.3 million private cars may drive only on alternate days, based on whether the last digit of their license plates is even or odd.

Those in violation face a $14 fine, a significant amount for most Chinese.

Buses, taxis, emergency and diplomatic vehicles will be exempt.

Beijing also has staggered work hours, added 2,000 new buses, reorganized bus routes and extended the opening times for mass transit and shopping malls.

Over the weekend, the city also opened a new $2.3 billion subway line linking the northern Zongguancun area, the capital's high-tech neighborhood, with its central business district.

Beijing, which adds 1,000 new cars a week and often is wrapped in acrid smog, also announced a partial test of a second subway line that would feed directly into the main Olympic Village area.

Security has increased sharply in recent weeks, however, and that line will not be open to passengers without Olympic tickets or accreditation.

A light-rail line between the airport and the new Beijing transport hub of Dongzhimen also is opening.

According to the Washington, D.C.-based Worldwatch Institute, 16 of the world's 20 most-polluted cities are in China, making the environment a priority in the government's bid to pull off the perfect Games.

Beijing has gone on a spending spree, relocating factories, seeding clouds, retiring old vehicles, planting millions of trees and halting building construction amid concerns that athletes and visitors could suffer breathing problems.

The prospect of competitors wearing masks during events has spurred authorities to set a goal of 256 "blue-sky" days this year, up from 100 in 1998.

World-record-holder and asthma sufferer Haile Gebrselassie, of Ethiopia, has opted to pull out of the marathon and concentrate instead on the 10,000-meter event. Other teams are training for as long as possible outside China.

The new traffic rules will be enforced by police and up to 10,000 cameras and high-tech scanning devices.