BEIJING -- Taxi driver Wang Xiancheng thought his English language level urgently needed improving, as the summer Olympics in his home city of Beijing is just one month away as of Tuesday.
"My English is still not good enough for a chat," said Wang, who learnt the language mainly from tape recordings, while driving.
However, he considered the best way to learn is to speak face-to-face with English-speaking passengers.
Beijing authorities launched an English learning campaign for the 90,000 taxi drivers in the city in 2005. With this effort, many drivers now have enough English for a small chat with their passengers.
After three years of construction, the Main Press Center (MPC) and International Broadcasting Center (IBC) of the Olympic Games were opened on Tuesday, kicking off the media service for the event, which is expected to draw 30,000 foreign media people.
In the one month run-up to the Games, the Olympic host city is gearing up security forces to sweep 90 sports venues, 110 Olympic contracted hotels, 700-km sports tracks, the Olympic athlete village as well as 2,000 sites for Olympic-themed activities, to eliminate any security loopholes in the city.
The city has built an anti-terrorist force of nearly 100,000 commandos, police and troops on high alert for attempted terrorist attacks.
National-level anti-terrorist drills have been launched to test the reactions against chemical attacks, hijacking and other possible contingencies.
