All six co-host cities are ready

All six co-host cities are ready


All six co-host cities are ready for the events of the Beijing Olympic Games, their respective officials told reporters at a press conference here on Friday.

Qingdao and Hong Kong will host the Olympic sailing and equestrian events, while Shanghai, Tianjin, Shenyang and Qinhuangdao will all hold football preliminaries.

Zang Aimin, deputy president of the Qingdao Olympic Sailing Committee:

Over 400 athletes from 65 countries and regions have confirmed participation in the sailing events from August 9 to 23 to vie for 11 gold medals. The Paralympic sailing events in September will attract 80 athletes from 30 countries and regions.

Qingdao has everything in place. With an investment of 3.28 billion yuan, financed mostly through marketing, the 45ha sailing venue has been inaugurated and delivered. The 400-room Qingdao Olympic Village will open on July 27. All 201 mission boats and more than 10,000 pieces of equipment are available.

For the first time, Qingdao has set up spectator stands to accommodate more than 10,000 spectators, in addition to six spectator boats. Ticket sales have been promising. Medical and transport services are ready. Over 2,000 Games-time volunteers and 10,000 civil volunteers have been trained.

Press centers for accredited and non-accredited media, two media hotels and 29 media boats are available.

All-round coastal, land, air and underwater security arrangements have been made to ensure "safe sailing events."

Lam Woon-kwong, member of the Hong Kong Equestrian Committee and CEO of the HK Equestrian Company:

A total of 204 athletes and horses from 42 countries and regions will attend the Olympic equestrian events in Hong Kong; a record number in the history of the Olympic Games.

In two and half years Hong Kong has built two high standard equestrian venues with air-conditioned and environment-friendly horse stables, first-class race courses and a country race drainage system.

The first batch of horses will be arriving via air freight and will be housed in the Shatin venue stables which are kept at a temperature of 23 degrees Celsius, a temperature suitable for the horses.

Icy water and mist spray fans will be used to cool horses following their training and competitions.

Three hotels have been designated to receive athletes from around the world.

Media facilities at the Shatin venue will open to 564 accredited media members who will benefit from buses shuttling between the venues and hotels and wireless online services. Another press center was set up in the urban area for non-accredited media.

Free medical services for athletes and officials will be offered by 300 doctors and over 1,000 medical workers at three designated hospitals.

Selected from 16,000 applicants, a total of 2,400 well-trained bilingual volunteers are ready to welcome guests.

As to ticketing, some 90 percent of tickets for equestrian events have been sold out, with the remaining being sought online.

Xie Delong, chief of the office of the Tianjin venue:

Tianjin's Olympic venue has been completed and equipped with standard functional rooms, required materials and competition equipment.

Accommodation arrangements have been made and a smooth communication system has been set up between the airport, railway station and the organizing office.

The expanded Tianjin coastal international airport was put into service this April and the Beijing-Tianjin Intercity Railway will be operational beginning August 1. Free transport will be offered to ticket-holding spectators as the city has opened 20 special Olympic bus routes.

The organizing office of the city will be transformed into a command center with deputy secretary of the CPC municipal committee Xing Yuanmin as commander for the Olympic events in Tianjin. Xing will oversee such matters as Games operations, security, city logistics and media operations.

Tianjin has made meticulous preparations in landscaping, sanitation and hygiene, public transport, power and water supply as well as food safety provisions.

Chen Qiwei, director of the Media and Communications Department of Shanghai Municipal Government:

One of the four co-host cities for football competitions, Shanghai is the only venue to hold semi-finals and quaterfinals for men's football.

There has been a boom market for tickets to the Shanghai venue, which has seen a total of 440,000 tickets sold out thus far.

The Shanghai Stadium, including its related training facilities, has been rebuilt, examined and accepted by BOCOG and FIFA. The functional areas and operational procedures of seven client groups have been approved by BOCOG. The Games-time operational system has taken shape with 115 detailed schemes.

To guarantee security, the stadium will be safeguarded by a vertical defense pattern, including a core guard area, a security check area, a policy cordon area and a traffic and evacuation area.

The press centers for accredited and non-accredited media have been established and will open on July 25.

Xu Jianmin, chief of the Information Office of the Sehnyang Municipal Government:

In Shenyang, the newly-built Shenyang Olympic Sports Center Stadium is capable to contain 60,000 spectators.

The international women's football competition one year ago tested the stadium's organizational, operational and security capabilities, and FIFA officials gave it a thumbs-up due to its conformity with Olympic standards.

Mayor Li Yingjie is designated to lead the organizing work with another five lead officials heading the teams for competition organization, media and communications, security and logistics.

Based on the test event last year, the organizers have improved accommodations, medical services, transport, media operations and volunteer services.

Zhang Jianjun, chief of the Information Office of the Qinhuangdao Municipal Government:

Qinhuangdao will hold 12 football matches, many of which are notable, including a match between the female Chinese team and its Argentinean counterpart on August 12 and another one – the Chinese men's team versus the Brazilian team on August 13.

The Qinhuangdao Olympic Sports Center Stadium is the only sports complex in China that was built along the coast line.

Inaugurated in 2004, the 800 million yuan facility has a capacity of 32,000 spectators. At the moment, four training fields and one back-up field have been made ready for use in the Olympic events.

Based on the experience of a number of international competitions, the stadium's 600-strong organizing team and 2,200 volunteers are making their last preparations ahead of the Olympics.