Smart and Sweet Public Services in Beijing Captivate Foreign Social Media Influencers

A visit to a community health center and the citizen hotline center provides new feelings and perspectives to a group of Internet influencers from Colombia, Croatia, Egypt, France, Italy, Switzerland, South Africa, UK and the U.S. 

Being part of the the 2020 Silk Road Rediscovery Tour of Beijing's New Development, the foreign social media influencers were invited to Fangzhuang Community Health Center in Fengtai District and Beijing 12345 Citizen Hotline Center, to capture the new development of the municipality.

Foreign social media influencers communicate with staff of Fangzhuang Community Health Center. [Photo by Qu Yi]

Fangzhuang Community Health Center in Fengtai District is China's first established community health service center. It rolls out an optimized and coordinated mode of intelligent family doctors in order to provide residents with elaborate health management and basic health care services. 

Brett Lyndall Singh from South Africapandemic, said, "Other countries, cities and communities can adopt such a mode. I want people in my country to know that this service mode is successful." Brett, a healthcare expert himself, is recognized as the Outstanding Foreign Volunteer in a meeting to commend role models in China's fight against the COVID-19.

Harald Simeon Buchmann from Switzerland asks questions at Fangzhuang Community Health Center, Fengtai District, Beijing. [Photo by Qu Yi]

At present, the service is accessible to 85,000 residents at the precinct and over 38,000 have signed up for the service. "The data shows Fangzhuang Community Health Center did a great job. The local government has encouraged every unit and the public to take an active part in preventing and controlling COVID-19. I think this method can also be employed by other countries," said Harald Simeon Buchmann, an economic and political commentator from Switzerland.

Rachele Longhi from Italy has an interview with a journalist from CRI Online. [Photo by Qu Yi]

Foreign social media influencers pose for a group photo at the operation office of Beijing 12345 Citizen Hotline Center. [Photo by Qu Yi]

Beijing 12345 citizen hotline is really international and convenient to foreigners living in Beijing, the Italian vlogger Rachele Longhi said during their later visit to Beijing 12345 Citizen Hotline Center. She was amaze by the fact that the hotline provides services in 8 languages, namely English, French, German, Spanish, Russian, Japanese, Korean and Arabic. “Italy also has citizen hotlines, but the hotline doesn't reach everyone in our country. I think other economies can consider developing a multilingual hotline." 

Harald stated that technologies, like Big Data and AI, are newly adopted in the hotline system, which is quite innovative. He believed that such a way of service with various forms and channels is worthy to be promoted in other cities.