SECURED: A 3m-tall fence has been put up around the Bird's Nest National Stadium. -- ST PHOTOS: CHUA CHIN HON

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Events such as the five-yearly Chinese Communist Party Congress and the Sino-African Summit in 2006 were held under tight security and elaborate traffic restrictions.

However, the upcoming 29th Summer Olympiad is set to top them all, with a massive security net stretching from Beijing to the borders of six neighbouring provinces, and also over the waters off coastal Qingdao city where the sailing events will be held.

'Security is the precondition and basis for hosting a successful Olympics,' the official Xinhua news agency reported last week, citing minutes from a major meeting on Games security.

'Without safety assurances, there will be no successful Olympics, and no national image to speak of.'

Details of the overall security plan are sketchy, though one operation, widely referred to in media reports as 'Project City Moat', could indicate what lengths it could go to.

The codename, the reports suggest, is a reference to how six provinces and municipalities neighbouring Beijing - Tianjin, Hebei, Liaoning, Shanxi, Shandong, and Inner Mongolia - will tighten their screening for 'dangerous goods and people', hence acting like a 'moat' for Beijing.

Complementing this external security filter is another major operation dubbed the 'triple lines', where hundreds of police checkpoints form three defence rings around the city to screen vehicles and passengers.

The first ring targets major expressways and roads on the border of Beijing, while the second involves the city's six main suburban districts. The innermost ring covers the eight districts in the city where all but four Olympic competition venues are located.

Separately, the Chinese military has mobilised its land troops, air force, navy, and special forces from Beijing and three other regional commands to, among other things, enforce no-fly zones and patrol the waters of Bohai Rim about 250km away from Beijing.

At the sprawling Olympic Green, where the main stadiums and media centres are located, the authorities have fenced up the entire area with 3m-tall fences, and set up security cameras at all key junctions.

And to the surprise and bemusement of some Beijing residents, several batteries of ground-to-air missiles had also been set up in a field about a kilometre south of the iconic Bird's Nest stadium, which will host the opening and closing ceremonies of the Games.

Chinese soldiers were seen guarding the missiles when The Straits Times visited the site last week, though several retirees were still allowed to fly their home-made kites near the military installation.

'Well, we have to be careful. If our kites get too close, the soldiers might shoot them down with the missiles,' said retiree Zhao Gang jokingly, when asked if the soldiers had ever tried to shoo him away.

However, not everyone has reacted so good-naturedly to the unprecedented security lock-down.

Combined with the tough new visa restrictions introduced in recent months, these measures have prompted some critics and residents, both local and foreign, to label the city 'Fortress Beijing' and the upcoming Games the 'Killjoy Olympics'.

But such criticisms may have exaggerated the situation as much of the city continues to function normally, with most of the security forces kept away from the public eye. But they do add to a growing public disaffection with an event that was intended to generate good cheering and a festive mood.

Taxi driver Wang Jun said he was not the least bit impressed with the blanket security plan, which caused him to be stuck in a two-hour traffic jam last Tuesday when he returned from the northern port city of Tianjin.

A barrage of complaints from frustrated drivers like Mr Wang forced the police to scale back their 'triple lines' checks just one day after it went into operation last Tuesday.

When The Straits Times visited two checkpoints last week, one near the border with Hebei and the other with Tianjin, the police were seen checking only the trucks ferrying goods into Beijing, instead of every single vehicle as they initially planned to do.

Passengers on long-distance coaches, however, said their identification papers and luggage had been checked at least three times before they reached the Beijing border.

'If you ask me, this excessive security is a sign of the government's insecurity,' said Mr Wang. 'If they had the full backing of the people, they wouldn't need to do this because every Chinese would be their eyes and ears on the ground.'

A straw poll of a dozen Beijingers, however, found more sympathy for the government. To a man, they agreed with the need for tougher security, though some wondered if the current measures would actually work.

'You are not going to find a real terrorist this way,' said Mr Deng Zuo, manager of a local IT firm, echoing views expressed in online forums here that no serious saboteur would drive straight into a police checkpoint.

Truck driver Ning Jizhou, whose truck-load of ice-cream from Tianjin to the Chinese capital was checked at the Daxing toll booth last Thursday, said he was worried about rumours that such deliveries might be completely suspended in the weeks ahead, due to heightened security concerns.

Indeed, there is growing talk among Beijingers that they would be better off leaving the city during the Olympics as supply disruptions, security checks and car bans make daily life difficult.

Mr Joerg Wuttke, president of the European Union Chamber of Commerce in Beijing, said it was commendable that the Chinese authorities were going all out to ensure a safe Olympics, but added that this had to be balanced with presenting the image of 'an open city with a friendly face'.

'A strait-jacket can also be very safe,' he quipped.

chinhon@sph.com.sg

ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY FENG YUN AND TRACY QUEK IN BEIJING