China tells citizens to behave for Olympics

Beijing officials have been working hard to prepare the public for what is probably the biggest international event ever held in China.

Slogans, posters and information sheets have been put up across the city, telling people how to behave.

There have been numerous campaigns to get rid of habits foreign visitors might find unsavoury - spitting being the most obvious example.

Beijing, July 5: With Olympics barely a month away, China has asked its citizens to display good manners and improve professional ethics to create a "sound social environment" for the games.

Local governments, especially of host and co-host cities, including Beijing, Shanghai, Tianji, Qinhuangdao, Shenyang and Qingdao have been asked to step up efforts to promote "civilised manners" and "social volunteering".

"They should also improve public order and both urban and rural environment", the publicity department and office of spiritual civilisation development of the Communist Party of China central committee said here, according to official Xinhua news agency.

Conscious of presenting a good image of its cities during Beijing Olympics, China had launched a series of programmes including publicity campaigns for social volunteering, a knowledge contest for promoting good manners, public-interest advertisements and finding role models for good ethics.

The organisations also called for more training courses in professional ethics to be introduced for workers in service industry and greater efforts to be made for making the urban and rural environment clean, green and safe, Xinhua said.