The Los Angeles Times

To understand why San Diego-based Cubic Transportation Systems has made China a top priority, take a look at the to-do list for the 2008 Summer Olympics. It includes a $1 billion plan to add at least 60 miles of track and 60 stations to Beijing"s subway system.

For Cubic, which produces high-tech fare-collection systems, that job alone would be comparable to outfitting the entire Los Angeles subway system.

As Salt Lake City winds up its Olympic debut, companies such as Cubic are looking ahead to the grand prize: Beijing 2008. Even in the hyped-up world bound by the five interlocking rings of the Olympics, China is big very, very big. China"s $23-billion budget is more than seven times as large as Salt Lake City"s and Sydney"s in 2000, more than five times the projected spending for Athens, Greece, in 2004 and 32 times what Los Angeles spent in 1984.

The differences in costs are Olympian because Beijing, unlike the other cities, has so far to go to provide the basics. To win the coveted Olympics bid, Chinese officials agreed to spend more than $20 billion just on infrastructure, building an Olympic village with an 80,000-seat stadium, tripling the miles of the city"s expressways and cleaning up one of the world"s most polluted cities.

To fulfill those lofty ambitions, China has agreed to turn its capital into a giant construction zone. The $480 million Olympic village designed by Baltimore urban design company RTKL is one of 37 Olympic venues spread between Beijing and five other cities. China is spending billions of dollars to divert water from southern China to parched northern China, relocating thousands of polluting factories from Beijing to the hinterlands, adding 400 bus lines and investing $3.6 billion in high-tech gadgetry, including a digital network capable of HDTV transmission for all Olympic venues.

For months, the Beijing Olympic Organizing Committee has been entertaining a stream of foreign delegations. The best opportunities for foreign companies appear to be in project management, construction, transportation and services such as financing, tourism and environmental technology.

"China is making all the right moves trying to spur international competition," said Steve Shewmaker, a senior vice president at Cubic.

"The time to start talking with Beijing about the Olympics is now, not in three or four years," said Patrick Powers, director of China operations for the U.S.-China Business Council, who met with Beijing Mayor Liu Qi, also head of the Olympic Committee , last fall. "They"re moving forward with their plans the first half of this year, and there is already significant competition for the committee"s attention from major corporations and governments."