In order to make Beijing truly accessible to visitors from all across the globe, the authorities must make sincere efforts to ward off the tag associated with the city that it is ‘English unfriendly’. Interpretation techniques help the visitors in understanding what Beijing has on offer, but its effectiveness depends upon a number of factors. For example, it is widely believed that Chinese is a difficult language and for Chinese people English is equally difficult to pick up. But as efforts are being made to bring China nearer to the western world, more such efforts can be seen taking shape in the country. Interpretation is effectively ‘a constant to-ing and fro-ing between different ways of thinking and cultural universes’ (AIIC, 2008). Interpretation can help in bridging the cultural gap and increasing the levels of understanding between two or more concerned parties. The Chinese characters have evolved over a thousand of years from early pictographs to the calligraphy of the day. In the early years of computer age, fears were expressed that the little drawing like characters in Chinese will not be compatible with computer age, but times have proved all such fears unfounded and today Chinese language is as computer friendly for Chinese people as English is for US or UK. Interpretation itself has evolved over the years and today even software is available which help in interpreting Chinese into another language or vice versa. Beijing has continued to take a leading role in the resurgence of Chinese economy. The economic indicators for the period January to August 2007 have registered an upward movement of more than 10 percent. During this period the real sector investments increased to a whopping 90.2 billion yuan (US$11.7 billion), registering an increase of 13.1 percent over the same period in 2006. The Olympic movement is not only helping the mainline Beijing city in terms of investments and tourism prospects, but the city is also witnessing an equally impressive emergence of a peripheral city in the Shunyi District located about 30 kilometres northeast of Central Beijing. This place is to host a number of aquatic events, particularly the canoeing and kayaking competitions and give away 32 gold medals as well. In the coming years Beijing tourism is bound to prosper in the light of the following support factors:
- The capital city is being spruced up to take a leading role in the business and economy of the country once the Olympic Games are over.
- China is busy setting up an infrastructure at par or even better than any world class city to showcase its prowess its relevance in the world polity.
- More and more people are getting used to the Chinese hospitality and tourism sector and with world class interpretation techniques available in hotels, conference venues, institutions, MNC corporate office complexes etc. the language barrier is bound to have minimal impact.
- Since Beijing administration has a leading role in organising the Olympic events, special resources and powers have been conferred on the city administrators to dress up the city and make it capable of hosting millions of people at a time. Therefore the city administration has been making good use of the opportunity and dressing it up for years to come.
- The fact that in 2007 the average price of properties in Beijing shot up by more than 40 percent over that of 2006, despite frequent interest-rate hikes is a testimony to the demand of the city, which is bound to translate in windfall of opportunities when more of the MNCs decide to open up their corporate office in Beijing.
- Well, there are differences in cultural values and traditions amongst China and other nations, which proved to be a roadblock for better understanding for many years but now with the organisation of events like the ‘Cultural Year of Greece in China’, which officially began on October 17, 2007, in Beijing, such differences are bound to become less severe. Such cultural exchanges help in creating a better mutual understanding amongst the countries.