Olympics Games are international games that are held after every four years. China emerged as the country that would host the Olympic Games in the year 2008. The Olympic Games were to be held in Beijing. This is a memorable event which went down to the history books, this means that getting an opportunity as a nation to host such event is not only a privilege but luck since many nations want to host the same event. The city of Beijing is found in the north east corner of China. There are many things that we ask ourselves concerning what Olympic is. It is such an important event in the world that attracts interest from the various nations worldwide. One of the important aspects as to why the Olympic is an important event is the economic impact that it brings to the host nation. For instance, the preparation of the Olympics in China was approximated to have costs China up to $40 billion in building the infrastructure only from the year 2002 to the year 2006. Other than this economic impact, there are other importance that ranges from environmental, growth of the country’s advertising, television, internet, mobile phone, clean energy, and sports sectors. However the impacts are usually both negative and positive; the Beijing Olympics was no exception (Theodoraki, 2007).
Basing on the economic impact that was brought by the Olympics to China, there existed other benefits that arose from the game and also negative impacts that affected the economy of the hosting nation at large. As a matter of fact, the Olympics games take a short period that may last for a month or so but its benefits maybe turned as short run or long run. There is the economic benefit that is seen to be in the long run since its effect start from the day the Olympics organization accepts the bid of a certain country to host the tournament. Long-term economic impact that was experienced in China was a lot since China was given a chance to host Olympics in July 2001. Due to the opportunity that was granted to them, China had about seven years to prepare for the event. This meant that enough accommodation was required for the participants and the cheering squads who were seriously waiting for the upcoming event. China had all it takes to improve the infrastructure in their country specifically around Beijing where the big event was to take place. China also had enough time to market their country since Olympics is a worldwide event and people around the world were converging to Beijing or watched the event in their screens back at home. In doing so, they had an opportunity to know what China offers and in one way or another, they got a chance to sell themselves to other countries which had little knowledge about what they produced. China had also enough time to develop the attractive destination for the case of the people who would tour their country during and after the event. This preparation ensured that China had improved their economy greatly; the time that was stipulated for preparation was adequate for them to put most things in order; for Beijing to host the big tournament. The short run economic advantages were also realized since the Olympics event took about a month, people from China developed enough businesses to run during this event. One of the short run impacts is that the government employed many of its citizens into the security forces and also hospitality management to foresee the event during the period of Olympics, a step that reduced unemployment. Even though the event took a short period of time, the people of China benefited in many uncountable ways in the Beijing Olympics 2008 event (Brownell, 2008).
Positive economic Impacts of the Beijing Olympics
Beijing city expected an increase in the number of tourists in the form of spectators, athletes and the media fraternity which increased the spending in their economy. Besides this being a short term effect, they also expected some long term boost due to the number of tourists who were willing to make return visits. This was quite significant since the tourism industry in China was largely underdeveloped. There was an estimation that Beijing would receive an approximate of 600,000 foreigners and 2.5 million local visitors during the Olympic Games. The annual growth was also approximated to be about 8-9 percent for the next decade following the occurrence of these games. In 2007, Beijing had 3.8 million foreign visitors which marked an increase of 11.8 percent as compared to the year 2006. China’s foreign visitor arrivals were 42.4 million in the year 2008 up to 20.8 percent Over 2006 (China National Tourism Administration) therefore, the Olympics were very significant in boosting China’s economy in the tourism sector in which bed occupancy almost doubled the other years that china had foreigners in their country. Apart from the bed occupancy that gave them a source of revenue, China was in a position of marketing their major attraction that usually looked unnoticed by the other countries for example; cultural tourist had a chance to meet various cultures in China. Thus after the Olympics, some tourists increased their stay while others planned another visit to China which meant that they would spend more money there. Eventually when they left, they had contributed immensely to the growth of China’s economy. All these were as a result of the Olympics Games (United Nations Environment Programme, 2009).
When China won the chance to host the Olympic Games, the hotel ownership restrictions were reduced. In the year 2002, foreigners were allowed to own majority shares in hotels and in 2006, foreigners could wholly own the hotels. This opened a whole extensive expansion of foreign owned hotels and many other facilities for the tourists. The foreign ownership benefitted the economy of China since those infrastructures remained in China and are still there up to date. Those investments meant a lot to the city of Beijing since such dreams could have not been realized if the Olympics were not held there. In addition, the investment could not have attracted foreign investors In Beijing at all if the Olympics were done elsewhere.There was also an increase in the investment of infrastructure for example the transport system, sports facilities etc, which led to an increase in the productive capacity in the long run. The then president Li Qi ordered the plan for building stadiums and facilities for the stadiums and in addition ensured the city of Beijing underwent a complete makeover shift. Sporting facilities were among the projects that China invested in. With the help of foreign architects they were able to put up 32 buildings in Beijing; 13 refurbished and 19 new buildings. There were also other Chinese cities that acted as sailing centers in Qingdao and stadium for soccer in Tianjin, Qinhungdao, Shenyang, and Shangai. There was also a construction of 59 training centers and infrastructure projects that were meant to serve Paralympics games. These facilities were very important since they are still in use long after the Olympics games were over. The Beijing municipal development commission spent an amount of $1.1 billion on infrastructure improvement, like extending and building the Beijing subway system, completion of the city rail light system, refurbishing and construction of more than 318 km of city streets; 23 roads were built in and around the Olympic sites, high- tech traffic control system, 2 ring roads going round the city. A big airport terminal situated at the Beijing capital International Airport was made wider all the way to the airport (Dorman, 2010).
The five year plan, that was for the year 2006-2010, planned to use an amount of $200 million to put down old housing and build urban buildings; renovate 25 historic areas, including old streets, four corner residence of beauty that dates the imperial time and restoration of the many historic places that Beijing had for example the forbidden city. There was also a plan to digitalize the city of Beijing by 2008 with the use of widespread wireless transmitters, digital and broadband telecommunications and other sorts of technology which are termed as ’intelligent’ for example the use of smart cards.
The big inflow of investment that supported the Olympic Games had an important effect on the economic growth not only in Beijing but also in the areas around the capital. The funds spent on the Olympics has led to an increase of 2.5 percent per year to Beijing’s overall economic growth since 2002 (Beijing bureau statistics) .The recruitment of partners, sponsors, supplies and many other companies as a result of the Olympic that wanted to take the chance of Olympic ‘catharsis’ helped very much in boosting of the economy especially through advertising. The spending on advertising in China, 42.5 percent normally focuses on television; this was expected to rise from $14.7 billion in 2007 to about $18.4 billion in 2008. On the other hand, spending to advertise on the internet was expected to rise as much as 30 percent (Zenithoptimedia World Advertising Expenditure Forecast) .The consumption of china sports industry was also expected to go up. As compared to Europe and the USA, China still has a small market but it has the potential of growing. Among the factors which will accelerate its growth in sports were the women world cup held in the year 2007 and the 2010 Asian games held in Guangzhou (Gold, 2010).
Before the athletics, Beijing was suffering from environmental challenges. The quality of air especially in the summer was less than the usual required. Beijing in a bid to improve air quality ordered that such things as coal-burning power plants to reduce emissions thus it was a beginning of an environmental cleanup which would not have been done if the Olympics were not held in Beijing.
It is evidenced that a great impact that is seen when a city is granted an opportunity to host a high profile event like the Olympics is that positive perception of publicity that is usually given to the host city. For instance, Beijing nowadays is ranked among other developed cities like London because its economical status is rated with other big cities in the world. The publicity that is experienced here is advantageous to attract investors to invest and as a result Beijing competes with other cities that are found in Europe. In addition to the general perceptions it is evidenced that the hosting city of the Olympics games improves its business profile which is seen as a catalyst for the economic, social and cultural change. This effect is usually associated with the whole event of bidding, staging the game and preparing it at large. This was seen to be a major benefit to the host cities like Beijing China (Martinez, 2011).
Transport and communication sector increased immensely due to these Olympics. This was seen among the long term economic improvement that was seen taking place between 2004 and 2008 with an addition of 5 metro lines. This was a contribution of over 50 new stations and 13 lines which were eventually completed. This acted as a major economical improvement to Beijing and entire China as a country. Transport sector was seen to have improved after the Olympics. There were railway transportations that were done by the municipal who built up to 116.6km in Beijing city and also 82.1km in the nearby suburbs. This was estimated to have cost the Chinese government up to 63 billion Yuan. Highways in Beijing were constructed that took up to 30 billion Yuan and accounts for about 15,400 km constructed in the city and also connected nearby suburbs. In the communication sector, there was an improvement since broadcasting was improved and the entire press. Beijing offered a world media which was seen as first class working. The communication was then boosted by the freedom given to the journalists who were coming from the various parts of the world to witness the event. Hosting more than 17,000 members or the famous world media was not only challenging to the communication sector in Beijing but also a boost. Therefore, experience that was brought about by the Olympics in Beijing was great in the transport and communication sector. Eventually, this enhanced the economic development in Beijing and the entire economies of china (Street, 2008).
Employment factor was another economic importance of these Olympics games done in Beijing. Beijing was in need of many expertises to take part in the preparation of the event, these ranged from professional to untrained individuals who provided skills and labor respectively. The cost of living was seen to be reducing because people were getting income from the preparation of the event. It is believed that the disposable income for the Chinese people raised up to 19,978 Yuan in the year 2006 and the net income for rural per capita was seen to be 8,620 with price fluctuation consideration. There was a great saving which also evidenced the impact of Olympics on employment situation. This saw Renminbi saving balance on deposits in financial institution in China rising up to 2.5 times basing on 2001. It is approximated that banks attained up to 870 billion Yuan, and per capita deposit was 2.2 times greater than that in the year 2001 that was about 560 Yuan. Therefore, employment which is a macro-economic element was fully addressed here with the help of the Olympics games in Beijing. This is seen as a major economical step that really benefited Beijing and the entire China as a country (Li, 2008).
Positive economic impact of the Olympics Games in Beijing seemed to have created importance to the development of economies of China which up to date is seen amongst the giant economies in the world. China’s economic growth is increasing immensely since China marketed their product and now competes with the likes of USA in the exporting industrial goods and services. At the moment, Beijing is a tourist destination, for any person on earth. Since it bears the history of having hosted the Olympic Games, it gives the city international pride and recognition since few cities have hosted Olympics successfully the way Beijing did.
Negative economical impacts of Olympics
 Beijing is situated in the periphery of China, in the north eastern part of China, thus it was not a major economical benefit to the entire country but to Beijing city alone. There was no even distribution of resources since there was a need to give a priority to the city because of the Olympic event. Up to now, the most developed part of china is Beijing and this has left the other cities struggling.
The vast spending fueled inflation which was already a problem in the Chinese economy which led to some localized inflation. Fuel is a commodity that changes the economic pattern of a country. There was a great demand of fuel which acted as a source of energy during preparation of the Olympic Games thus forcing China’s republic to spend more than usual for the purpose of buying fuel. Inflation which was seen as a problem in the country was boosted by the visitors who increased the money in the circulation affecting the local majority of Chinese community suffering. This was seen as a localized inflation also since a small portion of China, Beijing, was crowded by visitors (Jarvie, 2008).
Exchange rates normally goes high when there is an influx of people seeking to change their currency, the Chinese Yuan was highly affected by the increase in the visitors which caused further increase in demand. China is known for its vast regional imbalance and inequality, the hosting of the Olympics in Beijing even worsened the situation, it’s the northern regions of China which need investment growth not the south and Beijing. There are regional disputes because other parts of China stopped developing because they wanted to contribute towards a successful event; the Olympics. This caused imbalances in the region and benefited few citizens of China in Beijing.
The initial investment of the $ 40 billion that the Chinese government injected is still not known whether the amount has been recouped back. In addition, when such events arise, the country is forced to invest on an event that is seasonal and may not be repeated in the near future. The government of China was forced to borrow from other economies’ in order to meet the standard requirement of hosting the Olympic Games. Because China was not in a position of giving their citizens enough loans to invest on the various businesses, foreigners were forced to come in. This led to other countries benefitting from this event that was held in Beijing. The event was supposed to benefit the people of China but to some extent it did not. China also developed other infrastructure that does not benefit them at present them, building a lot of stadiums and hotels which now have no use and could be viewed as a waste of resources and also effect to the entire economy (Nafziger, 2011).
Beijing Olympics also brought other extra expenses like hiring and training many soldiers and security personnel to enable in making sure that the event runs smoothly. Such events usually attract a lot of terrorist whose motives are that of destroying so there was a need for the government of China to invest more on the security of the Beijing by employing all kind of security guys for the sake of hosting a safe event.
People moved from other parts of China to Beijing because they were seeing opportunities over there, this led to congestion in the area. These people migrated from their location in order to invest in the city of Beijing. This had an effect on the economic distribution and left other places without any labor to develop.  The environment was also affected because many people went to Beijing. This led to congestion and also an environmental disturbance because the city’s expansion meant that they disturbed the environmental setup. The increase of human population leads to high emission due to the use of energy by either motorist or factories which increases the cost of production and entirely affects the economy.
The Olympics that were held in Beijing were successful because of the economy of China that boosted the event right away from its preparation to the day the event occurred. This gave a major recognition to China and Beijing city at large. This gave a major challenge to other cities like London who are planning to host the next Olympics because they will know the advantages of hosting the event and also learn from other events in order to improve from loosing economically due to the leakages that arise. The Beijing Olympic was a massive boost to the development of Beijing and entire China.