BEIJING CITIZENS SPIT LESS, QUEUE MORE THANKS TO OLYMPICS

By Tham Choy Lin
BEIJING, Oct 31 (Bernama) -- Citizens in Beijing are spitting less at will and are less prone to jumping queues, thanks to the Olympic Games hosted by the city in August.

A Renmin University poll of 13,200 people, including 1,200 foreigners
living in the city, showed that the politeness index has risen 10 points to
82.68 on a scale of 0 to 100, China Daily reported Friday.

"The government's efforts since it won the right to host the Games and
local residents' willingness to be polite hosts have been the main reasons,"
Liao Fei, a sociology professor with the Beijing-based university, told China
Daily.

The percentage of respondents who spat "wherever and whenever" dropped from
2.5 per cent last year to 0.75 per cent, the report said.

Queue jumpers also dropped, from 1.5 per cent to 0.67 per cent.

The city had distributed 2.8 million pamphlets on etiquette and polite
behaviour to households to prepare its citizens to welcome the world for the
Games.
-- BERNAMA