Beijing Capable of Hosting Olympic GamesChina has made remarkable achievements in social, economic and cultural fields over the past 22 years since reform and opening up. With its GDP approaching US$1,000 billion in 1999, China's comprehensive national strength has been greatly enhanced.Beijing has also achieved great progress, with its total annual output value reaching US$24 billion, and its economy will maintain an annual growth of 10 percent in the coming decade. Therefore, Beijing is economically capable of hosting the Olympic Games, says Liu Jingmin, Vice-Mayor of Beijing and Executive Vice-President of the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games Bid Committee (BOBICO). Liu noted that Beijing is fully confident of meeting the financial needs of hosting the Olympic Games when compared with the economic strength of many previous sponsoring countries at the time they hosted the Games. Beijing has a wealth of experience in hosting large-scale international activities. For instance, it successfully sponsored the Asian Games in 1990 and the Fourth World Conference on Women in 1995. It has also held the International High-Tech Week annually over the past several years. Moreover, it will host the 21st Universiade this year. While rapidly advancing toward the status of a modern international metropolis, Beijing enjoys a stable social climate. Statistics show that Beijing is one of the safest capital cities in the world, with the lowest crime and traffic death rates and the least occurrence of fires. Beijing is a famous ancient cultural city, with a history of 3,000 years. It served as a capital of ancient dynasties for 800 years and is now the cultural, educational and scientific research center of modern China, encompassing nearly 100 institutions of higher learning. Mayor Liu Qi said the Olympic Games bid will offer Beijing an opportunity to present to the world its rich culture, its social morality of modesty and courtesy and its pioneering spirit. Beijing ¡®s abundant tourist resources will be a strong support in its bid effort, which will in turn promote further development of the city¡¯s tourist undertakings. Beijing will be more attractive with a harmonious combination of its ancient and modern aspects. Liu Qi admitted that hosting the Olympic Games will stimulate the nation ¡®s economic development. For Beijing, it will help accelerate the city ¡¯s environmental construction and economic development. A city¡®s infrastructure is undoubtedly of great importance for its success in bidding for and hosting the Olympic Games. At present, Beijing is devoting great efforts to large-scale infrastructure construction in order to improve its standard of municipal modernization. The 2008 Olympic Games is expected to have 28 sports. Since mid-October last year, Beijing has received officials from 26 international sports federations, who came to Beijing on inspection tours. The international football and weightlifting federations did not send their officials to Beijing for on-the-spot inspection, but they have acknowledged reports submitted by BOBICO and issued authentication certificates. This means that BOBICO has obtained the required certificates from all the 28 international sports federations. According to the rules of the International Olympic Committee, the 28 international sports federations must evaluate the reception capacity and transport, telecommunications and sports facilities of a candidate city and issue authentication certificates to it if they deem the conditions appropriate for the Olympic Games. These certificates are essential documents that should be contained in the application reports of candidate cities. Traffic management directly affects the success of various events in the Olympic Games. Beijing is speeding up the construction and renovation of such transport facilities as circular express roads, subways, light rail transit and overpasses so as to upgrade the urban traffic network. It is also making efforts to expand the capacity of airports and increase public transport capacity and the number of taxis. After inspection, many officials from the international sports federations said they were impressed with Beijing ¡®s modern traffic control system, advanced traffic control information system and scientific dispatching system, as well as the traffic safety publicity system. In particular, they found Beijing ¡¯s experience in traffic arrangement for large-scale activities and its plan for smooth traffic during the 2008 Olympic Games to be very convincing. International telecommunications undertakings have developed rapidly in recent years. The coming of the¡°digital era¡± has narrowed the distance between various countries. Digital information transmission is an important means of guaranteeing information exchange and real-time transmission during the Olympic Games and thus is one of the major aspects for evaluation of the qualifications of candidate cities. China¡® s digital technology matches advanced international standards and has convinced international sports officials that there will be no problem with communication and information transfer during the Olympic Games if the event is held in Beijing. They were also told that by the time of the 2008 Olympic Games, live broadcasts through hand-held phones will be possible. Beijing's bid effort is centered on three themes: "green, humanity and science." All stadiums and gymnasiums will be renovated and constructed in accordance with the requirements of various international sports federations. And sports venue selection, design, construction and use after the Games will all reflect the concept of Beijing¡¯s bid themes. According to BOBICO's master plan, there will be 37 venues for the 28 sports of the 2008 Olympic Games as well as 58 training fields and gymnasiums. Of the 37 venues, 32 will be located in Beijing and the rest will be in other cities. Of the 32 sites, 13 are now available, 11 will be renovated and eight new venues will be constructed specially for the Olympic Games. Sports venues in Beijing will be distributed in one central area and three sub-districts. The central area is in the Olympic Park (called Olympic Green) close to the northern section of the Fourth Ring Road. It covers an area of 1,215 hectares, with 760 hectares set aside for woods and grass, 405 hectares for the International Exhibition and Sports Center and 50 hectares for the Chinese Nationalities Museum. The area will contain 14 sports venues, an Athletes Village, a reporters village, a news center and an international broadcasting and TV center. The three sub-districts are the University District, Western Community and North Tourist Spot. BOBICO Vice-President Jiang Xiaoyu said that traffic convenience has been given full consideration while arranging the Athletes Village and other sports venues. |
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