BEIJING: The atmosphere in Beijing is already building and those predicting next month’s Olympics will be the “no fun” Games were unaware of the level of security that always attends the event, an IOC official said on Wednesday.

A rash of bar closures, visa restrictions and security checks on vehicles and public transport have caused some media to predict that Beijing will lack the usual party atmosphere expected in an Olympic city.

“I think the people have just arrived and maybe they’ve never been at the Olympic Games because it’s always like this before the Games when they put in place the security,” Gilbert Felli, the International Olympic Committee (IOC)’s Olympic Games executive director, told reporters.

“But I would say it’s running very smoothly. If you go along to the Olympic Green in the evening you can hardly move because so many people are stopping to take pictures, so I can see some atmosphere and that’s 10 days before the Games,” he explained.

“For this country you can see that it really means something,” he added. “It always means something but here it’s even more than other places.”

Beijing Games security chief Liu Shaowu said the measures put in place, including the anti-aircraft missile batteries around the main venues, were in line with practice at previous Games.

“We do want to have a festive atmosphere at venues and we don’t want to interrupt the daily life of society,” he told a news conference.

“(But) international terrorist groups will follow such large-scale gatherings so we must upgrade security levels,” he warned.

Felli, who was also a member of the IOC inspection team that has visited Beijing regularly since China was awarded the Games, said he was also surprised by the improvement in air quality.

IOC chief Jacques Rogge has said some endurance events at the Games would have to be rescheduled to prevent potential harm to the health of athletes if the air quality was too poor.

On Sunday, Beijing put into place a raft of measures, including traffic restrictions and factory closures aimed at reducing air pollution for two months around the Olympics and September’s Paralympics.

“I’m very surprised because I thought it would be different but it’s much better, much better,” said Felli. “You don’t feel bad when you breathe so it looks good, I’m confident,” he said.