Beijing Welcomes The Disabled as China Never Has

"If I want to go to the supermarket, the blind sidewalk cannot help me. Among my blind friends, no one depends on the blind path to go out," said Zhang Liang, 35, a blind massage therapist who like many sightless Chinese was forced to take on this profession. He lives in a back bedroom of his first-floor two-room clinic near the Eastern Third Ring Road. "Traffic in Beijing is so complicated and dangerous, I can't deal with it independently."

Near the Chang'an Theater in downtown Beijing, Wang Jianguo, 38, said he lost his left leg because of inflamed blood vessels. Xing Shengyou, 56, lost both legs in a car accident more than 10 years ago. Both men now eke out a living offering passersby rides on their specially modified motorcycles, which like all motorcycles are illegal in downtown Beijing. They ride during off hours, hoping to reduce the chances of getting caught by police.

"We ride in the street randomly," Xing said. "If we meet customers, we make 40 to 70 cents per ride. Although our life is hard, it's better than being a beggar. We have to depend on ourselves. What else can we do?"

Last month, Zhang Yuncai and his parents took his two brothers, who are largely paralyzed, to the nearby city of Tianjin. At the railroad station in Tianjin, a ramp for the disabled was blocked by bicycles. When Zhang tried to move the bikes, railway staffers argued with the family.

"My brothers love to go out. If they stay at home too long, they feel low," Zhang said. "I hope that after the Paralympics, more people will understand and care about the disabled."

Today's education campaigns may be having some effect. Bus drivers, who sometimes fail to stop at rush hour for wheelchair passengers, have become friendlier and more likely to stop during the Olympics and Paralympics, a special period for which city officials tried to train the entire city to be polite to its guests, many disabled people said.

Beijing has also trained thousands of volunteers in sign language and taught security guards how to search the disabled while respecting their privacy. But old attitudes linger: An official manual distributed to 100,000 Olympic volunteers sparked outrage this year by describing the disabled as "stubborn and controlling," as well as "defensive with a strong sense of inferiority."

Many disabled people here said that in sum, the Paralympics, which begin Saturday and last 11 days, are of limited value for the average Chinese citizen.

"Athletes who attend the Paralympics can benefit from it," said Zhang, the massage therapist. "When I was in school, there was only one major. I had no choice. Now, the blind can also choose music or literature, but only a small number can find work in their major. I recently met two blind people who studied computer science but they still have to work as massage therapists."

Limits in education mean an inability to find work, and that is one of the main reasons for the disparities, according to a former secretary of the China Disabled Person's Federation.

"Society should fit the disabled, instead of expecting the disabled to fit into society," said Ding Qiwen, a researcher with the federation. "China has done a lot in trying to make up for this, in education and in providing work skills training, but for most of the disabled in China, these things are still unreachable. The disabled in western and poor areas of China are still struggling to survive."

News researcher Zhang Jie contributed to this report.