Wednesday, September 20, 2000, updated at 16:08(GMT+8)
Sports
Beijing to Invest Heavily in Environment and Traffic for 2008 Olympic Bid
Beijing is reported to invest heavily in 50 key projects to improve urban traffic and environment for 2008 Olympic bid.
The 50 key projects involve chiefly Beijing's traffic and communication construction, environment protection and gas and fuel supply. To add to its 53km metro there will be a new 82.5km subway and a large track line to be built to extend into Zhongguancun, China's "Silicon Valley". With this, 86.4km of roads and 41.25km highways will be constructed and upgraded. For an improved environment, natural gas supply is to replace all possible coal burning throughout Beijing. Experts say from this there will be an annual cut of 7,200 tons of chimney discharges and over 2,000 tons of carbon dioxide from the air of Beijing. Meanwhile, river dredging and tree planting will be carried out on a large scale. Currently, 31 projects have been or will be started before the end of the year in a gigantic effort to build Beijing into a beautiful world metropolitan city.