Olympic Village to ensure athletes feel at home
Scene of the press conference
(BEIJING, March 5) — The Olympic Village will provide the best quality of service possible and make the athletes feel at home, a relevant BOCOG official told the press on Wednesday.
Yu Debin of the Olympic Village said that during the Beijing 2008 Olympic and Paralympic Games, the Olympic Village personnel would send appropriate greeting cards to medalists and to those whose birthdays fall within the timeframe of their stay at the village.
The venue will have a courtyard shaped commercial area, in addition to banks, shopping facilities, teahouses and coffee shops. A commercial facility in the shape of the traditional quadrangle residential courtyard – Siheyuan – will also be tailored to the site.
During the Games, various art performances, including various traditional Chinese art forms, will be staged at the flag-raising square in the international area. Chinese Taiji boxing and martial arts will also be staged to give athletes a local treat.
The Olympic Village
Covering an area of 66 hectares, the Olympic Village joins a number of cultural relics such as the Palace Museum (formally known as the Forbidden City) and the Temple of Heaven on Beijing’s central axis, with the Olympic Forest Park to its north and the major Olympic venues to its south.
The Olympic Village consists of three areas: the residential district, where 205 delegations will reside; the international district, the region that provides business services, including banking; and the operational district, the area that provides support services such as logistics and communications.
In the south of the village, the apartment buildings for athletes cover an area of 27.55 hectares and a floor area of 524,000 sq m. They include 20 nine-story buildings; 22 six-story buildings; three “super resident centers”; nine resident centers; and such facilities as the Polyclinic and the Casual Dining Hall. Each athlete’s apartment is equipped with broadband Internet access, infrared theft-proof alarm system and a high-tech fingerprint lock system.
In the north, the overlay area will offer various services, including arrival, accreditation, leisure, catering, fitness and departure, for Olympians and Paralympians from around the world.
There will be a “welcome ceremony stage,” a “village mayor office,” a dining hall, a shopping center, a logistics center and an accreditation center.
The first fire station among all the Olympic sites in Beijing has been set up inside the village.
A “Green Olympics”
The venue features a number of environmentally friendly designs and facilities. About 40 percent of the residential area has been allocated for green space and amounts to 50 percent of the entire village.
Solar power is used to light lawns, courtyards and streets throughout the Olympic Village. Meanwhile rainwater will also be collected and reused, and water saving technology will also be employed for flushing toilets.
A 6,000-sqm solar water heating system will be able to provide hot water for all apartments and auxiliary facilities in the venue. Reclaimed water from the Qinghe sewage treatment plant in Beijing’s suburbs will be used for heating and cooling systems, thus saving about 60 percent in electricity.
“Green” materials are widely adopted in the construction and decoration of the venue. Accessible facilities have also been incorporated to furnish the athletes with a people-oriented environment.
Background
Construction of the village began on June 26, 2005, and is near completion. The village will run a trial operation prior to July 8, 2008, when the lockdown will begin.
The Olympic Village will officially open on July 27, 2008, and close on August 28, 2008, and will be used as the Paralympic Village August 30-September 20.
