The Chinese ask what initial impressions Americans have of Beijing and China leading up to the Summer Games. They speak proudly of their top international athletes — basketball superstar Yao Ming and hurdler Liu Xiang, both of whom were on hand to welcome the Olympic torch to Tiananmen Square last week. They routinely cite the Beijing Olympics theme of "One World, One Dream."

The questions then become more serious — questions that suggest that oneness may be just a dream.

The Chinese wonder why protests in Tibet and around the world have to detract from the Olympic prelude. They hope for quick and peaceful resolutions. They question why the United States Olympic Committee eschews the offered Chinese food services for athletes and will instead import its entire food supply. They don't understand the USOC's worries of a possible steroid-tainted meat supply and the comforts to an athlete of a regulated, routine diet.

The human-rights concerns and other controversies accompanying Olympic headlines outside of China differ from the attention given inside China to another Western worry — environmental concerns, particularly the area's notoriously poor air quality.

China's government has made efforts of late — planting massive tree breaks in northwestern Beijing to help diminish the sand-filled summer winds coming in from desert areas, decreasing the number of 2008 construction projects, limiting taxi and public transportation traffic and planning similar restrictions on the driving of private cars later this summer in hopes of cutting down air pollution.

But it may not be enough — especially when an estimated 50 percent of the city's air pollution is projected to come from neighboring provinces.

Still, Beijing's air-quality efforts are all part of the "Green Olympics" movement — a host city that boasts of environmentally friendly efforts ranging from "green" hotels trying to conserve energy and water resources to "green" organic food supplies.

To help move the huge influx of Olympic visitors, Beijing has more than doubled its subway system and late last month opened the dragon-shaped Terminal 3 at Peking Capital International Airport, with the new international terminal to handle some 60 percent of the airport's passengers, including the bulk of international visitors.

The city still has plenty of Olympic-venue and Olympic-support projects to complete in the coming months before August's Games. The high-profile Olympic Green area still seems to be more than four months away from completion.

But a nation whose history claims building and rebuilding the 4,000-mile-long Great Wall certainly seems like it would possess the manpower and willpower to complete major construction projects in timely fashion.

2008 Beijing Summer Olympics

• Awarded: July 13, 2001
• Opening Ceremonies: Aug. 8
• Events: 302 in 28 sports
• Athletes estimate: 10,500
• Foreign journalists estimate: 20,000
• Closing Ceremonies: Aug. 24
• Trivia: Because the number 8 is considered lucky in Chinese culture, opening ceremonies are set for 8:08 p.m. on 8/8/08.

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