IOC Team Inspects Facilities, Venues and Communities in Beijing

IOC Team Inspects Facilities, Venues and Communities in Beijing

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On a foggy Thursday, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) inspectors set their feet to the proposed venue for 2008 Olympic Games women's soccer final and tried their skills on a world record-breaking bowling alley in Beijing, which is bidding for hosting the 2008 Games.

The IOC inspectors also visited a prestigious high school and listened to "green angels" singing about making their hometown city clean and beautiful.

After spending the whole morning hearing presentations by Beijing's Olympic bid campaigners, the IOC team came to Beijing's largest waste-water processing facility "Gaobeidian Sewage Treatment Center". The visitors watched with intense interest goldfishes swimming in a glass bowl filled with water already treated in the center.

The Gaobeidian facility is a major environment project with a daily processing capacity of 1 million cubic meters, 40 percent of the Chinese capital's total sewage discharge. The plant undertakes waste-water treatment covering a total area of 9,661 hectares, ranging from the downtown section to the eastern suburb to serve a population of more than 2.4 million.

At their next stop, the IOC team arrived at the 70,000-seat Workers' Stadium, which is under a major facelift as one of the proposed Olympic venues for the 2008 Games. It's expected to serve as the arena for the final of the women's soccer tournament, a popular sport among the Chinese people.

A 100-lane bowling alley west to the Workers' Stadium was included in the Genesis record book as "the world largest". Former Russian world record-holder pole vaulter Sergi Bubka, who, as a member of IOC's Executive Board, is also on the inspection team. Failing to resist the temptation, he came down the lane to try his bowling skills.

They found their next destination in Beijing's No.4 Middle School, a well-known high school with history of academic excellence and sporting pedigree.

A female student recognized Bubka and told him she wished to meet the famous vaulting Czar in Beijing in 2008. "Good luck," the Ukrainian replied. "Everything depends on you," he added.

In their final leg of today's tour, the IOC inspectors met with Beijing residents in a community in the western Beijing.

A group of schoolchildren performed as "green angels", singing songs which expresses their wishes to make Beijing more environmentally friendly.