With the arrival of the new year, attention will begin to shift to Beijing, where the Summer Olympics will be staged in August. Regardless who scoops up the most medals during the games, Beijing will never be the same. Planning and preparations have hit a frantic pace as the city readies itself for the influx of athletes, media and spectators.

At one time speaking and learning English was frowned upon in Communist China. Now people are queueing up to take English immersion courses. Despite the surge in interest in learning to speak English, visitors who stray off the main Olympic map will still find it almost impossible to order a meal or book a hotel room without an interpreter.

With 1,000 new cars being registered in the capital every day, the authorities have a serious pollution problem. There are now three millions cars on Beijing’s streets. The authorities are expected to take one million of them off the streets during the games through licence plate restrictions. Despite rising expenditure on pollution control, Beijing is facing increasing problems as its booming economy never slows its pace.

But the International Olympic Committee admits it may have to postpone endurance events like the marathons or cycling road races if pollution levels are too high. This is a city with more ring roads than there are Olympic rings.

Pollution and human rights will likely to be the two main issues on which the world’s media will focus next summer. The officials in the Beijing organising committee are going to need those newly-acquired English skills to explain the intricacies of both.

During her fact-finding visit to Beijing recently, the UK’s Olympics Minister Tessa Jowell said it was crucial that foreign journalists are given the right to report freely from the games, both during the games and beyond.

The Chinese authorities say they have established a special military unit to provide security for the Beijing Olympics next year. The unit, drawn from the army, navy and air force, will confront terror threats and help in the event of any disasters.

A senior official from the unit, Tian Yixiang, said the games’ organisers faced a complicated security situation. He told military attaches from 54 countries that Beijing had to be fully prepared for unconventional terror threats of a kind China had not experienced before - including chemical and biological attacks. Tian said the special military unit would be better equipped and have greater capabilities than the security forces at the Athens Olympics in 2004.

Beijing has also issued further rules to make sure taxi drivers present a good image to foreign visitors. The city authorities have issued rules banning taxi drivers from shaving their heads or growing beards. In April the drivers were told not to eat, spit or smoke in their taxis and women drivers were warned to keep their hair tidy and avoid extravagant earrings.

Even Chinese meteorologists said they had plans in place to prevent it raining during key Olympic events by using aircraft to carry out cloud seeding.

There is a lot more at stake during the games than gold, silver and bronze. Beijing’s Games could generate up to $16m USD in profit, according to state media. Since the Los Angeles Games, most hosts have struggled to break even as costs have soared.  But efficient Beijing marketing chiefs have deals with 10 domestic sponsors and 11 global companies.

A spokesman for the Games says “We would like to see $1bn in sponsorships but there is much to do to reach that figure,” Los Angeles set a record profit of $220m when it hosted the 1984 Olympics. Beijing’s forecast operating budget is about $2bn, owing to heightened security concerns. But Chinese organisers and the International Olympic Committee (IOC) are confident that sum will be more than clawed back, and have set a profit target of $16m.

Profits from sales of products bearing the recently released five mascots of the Beijing Games, the “Friendlies”, could reach as high as $300 million. To stage the last Olympics, Athens set a budget of $2.4bn, but ended up spending more than nine billion euros, making the 2004 Games the most expensive in history. Beijing has vowed to come in below Athens’ operating budget, but is likely to have to spend far more - about $40bn - to get the Chinese capital’s infrastructure ready to host the Games.

In subsequent editions of UAEasy.com we’ll look at some of the Olympic venues, and feature some of the athletes who will likely figure prominently in the Beijing games.