Beijing Confident of Offering Best Facilities for 2008 Games

Compared to other candidate cities bidding for the 2008 Olympic Games, Beijing is not shy away of the fact that it falls short of enough existing sports facilities.

But it stressed that if the 2008 Games are landed in the Chinese capital, Beijing can offer on time a string of state-of-the-art stadiums and gyms to make sure a best ever Games.

"All the other candidate cities are in developed countries and have built a lot of stadiums to host events," Lou Dapeng, Sports Director of Beijing 2008 Olympic Bidding Committee, said at a website on Sunday night.

"We have now less ready facilities, but Beijing will have a bigger advantage in terms of modernization level for the stadiums we'd planned to build," Lou said.

Beijing has promised to apply the most sophisticated technologies to the facilities if it is chosen to host the 2008 Games. Other candidate cities are Paris, Osaka, Toronto and Istanbul.

The Chinese capital has also pledged that stadiums, whether planned or existing, will all feature with advanced technologies for environmental protection. Three major existing stadiums in Beijing, including the Worker's Stadium, Capital Gymnasium and Olympic Sport Complex, have all had water-saving and energy-efficient equipment installed during their renovation.

Beijing's promises are solidly grounded as the city has vowed to make a massive investment of more than 20 billion U.S. dollars in its infrastructure, one of the largest projects ever since the construction of the Great Wall, which dated back to some 2,000 years ago.

Among 37 competition venues and 59 training sites planned for the 2008 Games, 32 will be located in Beijing and five in cities including Qingdao, Tianjin, Shenyang, Qinghuangdao and Shanghai.

Of the competition venues in Beijing, 13 have already been completed and 11 are being planned or under construction. In addition, eight venues will also be built if the International Olympic Committee chooses Beijing in July to stage the Games.

Lou said that all these venues will be built or renovated fully in accordance with the requirements of the international sports federations.

"Beijing will also invite bids from home and abroad on the designs of the facilities to make sure that they be of best quality," he added.






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