Chinese in Russia Back Olympic BidBeijing's pervasive enthusiasm in its pursuit of the Olympic Games had spread abroad, with an overseas Chinese delegation from Russia arriving in Beijing yesterday to convey their support to city's bid committee.In addition to the whole-hearted wish, the delegation also brought the committee a number of banners inscribed with the autographs of thousands of compatriots living in Russia who signed their names on the banners during an recent colossal gathering in Moscow, the place where the host of the 2008 Olympic Games will be named on July 13. Delegation head Wen Jinhua said supporting Beijing's bid has become popular among local Chinese and the gathering was one of the main activities. He said the signing campaign, started in early January, had reached other former Soviet Union nations including Belarus and Ukraine and more and larger activities are yet to come. "Beijing's bid for the Olympic Games makes us very excited and proud," said Wen. Jiang Xiaoyu, vice-president of Beijing bid committee who represented the committee to receive the banners, called the wide support from the Chinese people whether overseas or at home is one of the reasons why Beijing should be awarded the Olympic Games. The high public support had been the strongest part of Beijing's bid. According to a poll carried out by US-based Gallup, 94.9 per cent of Beijing citizens support the city's bid. In the past months, the public have displayed their support by organizing various activities including a national tree planting campaign. Jiang said he believed the Olympic Movement will be significantly enhanced if Beijing hosts the Games. "This is the aspiration of 1.2 billion people," he said. Beijing outlined a series of measures it is taking to make the city fully capable of hosting the Olympics in its bid report. Its key segments include a huge Olympic village covering 1,215 hectares and a 46-billion-yuan (US$5.75 billion) investment over the next three to five years for improvement of the environment. Jiang gave his assurance that Beijing will do what it has committed itself to do to the International Olympic Committee (IOC). "We promised and we will do it," Jiang said. He said Beijing's ability to keep its promises has been evidenced by the three-day inspection tour last week by a supervision committee from the International University Sports Federation delegation, who made quite positive comments on Beijing's preparation for hosting the 21st Summer Universiade slated for August to September this year. The Universiade will be the first global multi-sports event held by Beijing. "The inspectors said that Beijing performed even better than they had promised," said Jiang. The IOC will vote for the venue of the 2008 Games in its Moscow session on July 13. Beijing, Paris, Toronto, Osaka and Istanbul are in the race for hosting the Games. Source: chinadaily.com.cn |
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