The Olympic Village in Beijing is now open, well ahead of the upcoming Summer Games. Anyone who has visited say it is a delight and environmentally friendly design although, sadly, the loos are Asian rather than Western style. Apart from that the technology could be a model for future residential developments across China.

These apartments in the 2008 Olympic Village will be home to the athletes competing in Games during their stay in Beijing.

Liu Rong from the construction firm, Guoao Investment and Development, says the Olympic Village is unique because of its environmentally friendly design, He said, ‘The harmony between culture, architecture and the environment has been achieved through the green residential area — the village with its world leading technology, as a showcase to the world, the distinguishing characteristic of the high level Olympic Games.’

Solar power will be used to generate at least some of the lighting and hot water production in the Olympic Village. It also says there will be a system for collecting and reusing rain water. And all toilets will be equipped with water-saving technology as soon as they have been changed to European style.

Parts of the Olympic Village are still being built. Officials promise large green spaces in the residential area, and they are counting on the design to spur similar construction projects across China.

Jeff Ruffolo, who is a senior official with the Beijing Olympic Organizing Committee, said, ‘People will be looking at the Olympic Village and the Olympics throughout this country as the blueprint and the model to continue on throughout the nation.’
Souce: VOA News

Beijing is confident it will be able to stage an Olympic Games in a comfortable environment, said the Games organizers in Beijing.

During a video meeting (how times change) with the International Olympic Committee, Liu Qi, president of BOCOGsaid the environment kept improving, which filled the organizers with confidence of holding a Games with good air quality.

Liu Qi said, ‘Until Nov. 22, Beijing had 226 days of good air quality (air quality level II or better) this year, nine days more than the same period last year.

‘Take August as example, we had 28 days of good air quality, including two days of level I air quality and 26 days of level II.’ He added that the level of sulfur dioxide and inhalant particulate matter in the air also dropped to a new low. The illustration is a genuine one of blue skies in Beijing.

Beijing has spent RMB120 billion between 1998 and 2006, more than 3% of its GDP, on environmental protection.

The Chinese capital has urged citizens to take public transportation instead of private cars by reducing ticket prices and building subway lines as vehicle exhaust emissions became a major source of the city’s pollution.

The city has also limited the use of small coal-burning stoves and urged natural gas as the clean energy alternative.
Source: English.eastday.com

3.6 million jobs were created in preparing for the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games.

Beijing Vice Mayor Liu Jingmin, who is also the executive president of the Beijing Organizing Committee for the 2008 Olympic Games (BOCOG), said at least 600,000 jobs were created every year following the start of work in 2001.

The jobs ranged from management positions to unskilled labor in all facets of development including urban planning, construction, cleaning and greening of the environment, tourism, transportation and communications.

The region also recorded significant increase in gross domestic product (GDP) reaching 12.1% and RMB770 billion ($102.7 billion), a per capita figure at $6,300.

Thirty more parks will be built on the outskirts of Beijing by 2008, as part of a green belt construction plan. This will be part of the legacy of the Olympic Games.

The 30 new parks, with a combined space of 1,340 hectares, will be built every three kilometers along the northeast section of the 5th Ring Road and the southwest section of the 4th Ring Road.

A spokesperson said, ‘We plan to set up another 30 parks by 2008. By then, these parks in the city will make up more than 4,000 hectares.’

The parks on the outskirts will have more green areas with few entertainment facilities. The parks will not charge an entrance fee. The park illustrated is a current park, not one of the new ones planned.
Source: China View

All over the world the reporting on preparation for the Beijing 2008 Olympics is a hot topic for every newspaper. Reading the reports one senses a slow change from downright hostility to something approaching reason. Perhaps before too long the press will become Beijing Games 2008 boosters. Or perhaps that is too much to ask.

This report from Nova Scotia states China will be on target to host arguably the most spectacular, competitive and expensive Games in history.

Beijing is spending a record $34 billion to build and renovate 37 competition venues and construct hundreds of miles of new highways and subway lines.

(It is difficult to separate the figures out. What is normal improvement to the country’s superstructure and what is special efforts from the Games? Frequently the publicity fuzzies the picture but the figure quoted seems, on the face of it, to be an over-estimate.)

This report takes a slightly negative stance: ‘While the country’s Communist Party governance may be adept at meeting schedules, officials may be unable to clear Beijing’s air and prevent gridlock during the 16-day-long Games.’

In fact, Beijing has already demonstrated it can prevent gridlock by just banning a lot of cars from the roads and, now, making a lot of bicyles available.

Pollution is another matter but the government has already started pushing polluting industry away from Beijing while others will be closed down for the duration of the Games.

A study of 15 large Asian cities released in January by the Asian Development Bank found Beijing suffered the dirtiest air, with 142 micrograms of pollution particles per cubic metre. That was five times New York City’s average and more than seven times above the World Health Organization’s target for large cities.

Sun Weide, deputy director for the Beijing Organizing Committee for the Olympic Games said that to improve air quality during the Games, Beijing will force vehicles with substandard emissions off the roads, restrict production at factories in Beijing and surrounding areas and increase parkland. He said 28 million trees were planted in and around Beijing last year.

Beijing has kept construction on schedule. The 91,000-seat National Stadium and all other venues will be completed by March.

To smooth the way for as many as 1.5 million tourists expected to visit Beijing during the Olympics, Beijing is building a $3.6 billion airport addition that will more than double its size.

And the attitude towards visitors will be improved. Sun Weide said, ‘The Olympic Games will provide lots of opportunity for education. We’re trying to encourage the public to use elegant language, provide good service and of course to refrain from all kinds of spitting or cutting in line.’

The sudden world attention during the Olympics will be a ‘catalyst’ for positive change, according to International Olympic Committee President Jacques Rogge.

He said, ‘I am convinced that as much as the Games will enable the people of China to develop a new vision of their own society, they will help athletes and visitors gain a fairer perspective on China.’
Source: ChronicleHerald