China makes final preparations for Olympics

Tue, 06/03/2008 9:50 AM  |  Sports

China has been gearing up for the Olympic Games on Aug. 8-24 the third to be held in Asia. To let everyone know more about the preparations, People's Daily and Tianjin News Daily Group invited journalists from Japan, South Korea and Southeast Asian countries, including The Jakarta Post's Primastuti Handayani, to attend the 10+3 Second Media Cooperation Forum in Tianjin and to meet BOCOG officials in Beijing, from May 18 to May 23. Following is her report.

 

In two months, the world will witness the tough, much-anticipated rivalry between China and the United States when Beijing hosts the 29th Olympic Games.

WATER DROP: Tianjin Olympic Stadium, dubbed the Water Drop, will host 12 soccer matches during the Olympic Games. (JP/Primastuti Handayani)

China, which has convincingly lifted its position from being an "also-ran" participant to a strong threat to the domination of Western countries, is pinning its hopes on world-famous athletes such as men's hurdler Liu Xiang and men's basketballer Yao Ming to help take the country to the top of the medal tally.

The world's most populous nation is hoping for full support from its citizens. The devastating earthquake in Sichuan province has not dampened the Chinese fighting spirit. Rather, the tragedy has strengthened their solidarity in wanting to see the whole nation rise from the calamity.

"The quake boosted our feelings as one country, a great nation," Li Changchun, head of media and communications at the Politburo Standing Committee, said at the 10+3 Forum in the Great Hall of the People.

The enthusiasm of the Chinese people for holding the "green Olympics, high-tech Olympics, people's Olympics" has been reflected in their enthusiasm for grabbing tickets. Some four million tickets -- about 60 percent of the total -- have been sold in the domestic market.

The high demand even brought down the computer system of the Beijing Organizing Committee for the Olympic Games (BOCOG), its deputy director for media operations, Xu Jicheng, revealed.

"You know our system crashed on the first day of the first phase when we opened online ticket sales," he said.

"The Olympic ticket sales website is supposed to be able to support one million page views in an hour. But during the first day of the first phase, the ticket selling system received eight million requests in just an hour. In the first hour of the third phase, there were 27 million requests but we have not encountered any more technical problems," BOCOG vice president Jiang Xiaoyu said.

In a move unprecedented for the Olympics, tickets for the opening and closing ceremonies are embedded with a microchip containing the bearer's photograph, passport details, addresses, e-mail and telephone numbers, Associated Press reported last Wednesday.

Microchips are embedded in all tickets, but only opening and closing ceremony tickets contain the photos and passport data. The intent is to keep potential troublemakers from the 91,000-seat National Stadium, dubbed the Bird Nest, for the high-profile ceremonies. Tickets for the Aug. 8 opening ceremony are the most expensive of the games, fetching up to US$720 each.

People's enthusiasm could also be seen in all the Olympic stores on every corner in Beijing from the newly built Terminal 3 at the international airport to the Forbidden City. Souvenirs ranging from key chains to gold-plated model stadiums have become must-have items for Beijing residents and their visitors.

Olympic Park

During the forum, attended by 30 journalists from Japan, South Korea and Southeast Asian nations and dozens of reporters from China, many questioned China's preparations for welcoming the 10,500 athletes, coaches and officials coming for the 28 sports and 302 events and the 21,600 journalists covering the tournament.

The Olympic Park, located in the north of Beijing, is near completion, with the Bird Nest standing elegantly in the front of the compound. The park remains closed to the public, including to the journalists who attended the forum. People could only take pictures from afar as workers were seen busy racing against time to "green" the complex.

Jiang told the forum participants the construction of the venues and facilities was running smoothly.

WATER CUBE: The Beijing Aquatics Center, better known as the Water Cube, will host aquatic sports competitions including swimming and diving. (JP/Primastuti Handayani)

"The Olympics will use 37 venues in Beijing or other co-host cities -- Qingdao, Tianjin, Shanghai, Shenyang and Hong Kong. The National Stadium and the National Aquatics Center or the Water Cubic have won praise and admiration from around the world for their innovative design and advanced construction techniques," he said.

"Ninety percent of the Beijing Olympic Green project has been finished."

Some renovations also took place in Tianjin, where the Tianjin Olympic Stadium, better known as the Water Drop, will host 12 soccer matches. The stadium was host to last year's FIFA Women's World Cup.

The 66-hectare Beijing Olympic Village will accommodate 16,000 athletes and officials and will be ready to welcome its guests on July 27.

Deng Yaping, a four-time table tennis Olympic gold medalist who is now in charge of the village, explained that to ensure guests' comfort, the village would even provide custom-made beds.

"We have ordered longer beds of 2.25 meters, mostly for basketball players, including Yao Ming," she said.

To support this year's motto of a high-tech and green Olympics, the village management is using solar power for the dormitories and electric shuttle buses.

Air pollution

Despite the all-out efforts inside the village, Beijing is facing environmental problems as the capital remains smoggy much of the time.

"Owing to the theme of green Olympics, the air and water quality has been continually improving during the past nine years. In the first season this year, 73.6 percent of days had blue skies, the highest in the same period over the past nine years," Jiang explained.

"Beijing is taking measures to control air pollution to improve the environment. It has implemented the State-Four standard, the equivalent of the Euro-Four, since March. The international air quality supervisory organization estimated the quality of Beijing's air in August would be good enough during the Olympics and would not harm the athletes," he said.

Last week, the Beijing Environmental Protection Bureau said on its website (www.bjepb.gov.cn) the air quality in the capital was rated as "heavily polluted" because of a sandstorm from Mongolia.

Beijing's pollution has already proved to be a major concern for athletes, with two-time Olympic champion Haile Gebrselassie, who suffers from asthma, pulling out of the men's marathon out of concern for his health, Reuters reported.

In addition to shutting down high polluters within the city limits, Beijing has demanded five surrounding provinces scale back or stop production to ensure blue skies over Olympic venues during the games.

As the third city in Asia to host the quadrennial event -- after Tokyo in 1964 and Seoul in 1998 -- Beijing expects more than a million of tourists to flock to the city and four billion more to watch the games on TV.

GAMES SOUVENIRS: The Beijing Olympic Store — selling merchandise — is open at the Beijing International Airport’s Terminal 3. (JP/Primastuti Handayani)

But with less than three months to go before the opening, hotels are far from full with four-star hotels reporting just 44 percent of rooms are booked for the games.

"Some travel agents have not yet got Olympic tickets, which is causing problems for some tour groups," director of the Beijing Tourism Administration Zhang Huiguang said, as quoted by Reuters.

"If they don't have tickets, some people will also choose not to come as room and car prices will be higher than normal," she added.

Sky-high prices are unlikely to help.

The average price for a four-star hotel during the Olympics will be 2,226 yuan (US$320.3) -- triple that of the same period last year, added Zhang's deputy, Xiong Yumei.

One five-star hotel is charging almost 8,000 yuan a night.

BOCOG, however, remains tight-lipped on the budget spent for the Olympics.

"The budget for the Olympic Games is a business secret. We forecast the revenue would be US$1.625 billion, the expenditure would be $1.6 billion and the profit would be $16 million," Jiang said.

"Our revenue is higher than we expected, as is the expenditure. We will be able to maintain financial security and keep it in balance. The aim of getting $16 million in profit as we promised can be realized.

"But our expenditure will not exceed that of the Athens Olympics. Of course, after the Olympic Games, the Auditing Office of China and the IOC will audit the budget and the result will be announced."

Despite all the figures, Southeast Asian journalists questioned China's openness to foreign journalists.

"The Chinese government has issued a new regulation for those who come to Beijing to cover the news during the Olympic Games. It has clearly explained the related policies and rules for covering news during the Olympics. There is one rule which is very important: if you get permission from the interviewee, you can carry out your interview directly," Jiang said.

With all the preparations at home near completion, Liu Xiang has nothing to worry about while carrying the burden of defending his title before a home crowd.

"I feel like there's a lot more pressure than four years ago because people know me right now," Liu told Reuters last Thursday.

"They recognize me and call out my name. They expect me to win the gold medal so there's a lot more pressure."

Liu said Yao, who is ranked alongside him as China's most popular sportsman, would share some of the home-country focus.

And when they perform, the Chinese fans will fly the flag and chant "Chaiyo... chaiyo..."

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