Preparations for the construction of four venues for the 2008
Beijing Olympic Games have been completed and work is scheduled to
start before the end of this month. This marks the beginning of the
three-year Olympic venue construction project.
The first group of venues to be built include the National
Stadium, the National Swimming Centre, the Beijing Shooting Range
and the Laoshan Velodrome, according to sources with the Beijing
Organizing Committee for the Games of the XXIX Olympiad
(BOCOG).
Construction of earthwork and infrastructure facilities will be
the focus of the initial work, with actual construction of the
venues getting under way next year, said Ping Yongquan, director of
BOCOG's Venue Planning and Construction Department, who noted that
the projects are expected to be completed by 2006.
As the main stadium for the 2008 Games, with an investment of
over 3 billion yuan (US$360 million), the National Stadium will no
doubt attract the most attention among the four venues.
The construction workers and equipment are now ready at the
site, which is located in the Olympic Green, in the north of the
city and east of its north-south axis line, Li Aiqing, chairman of
the Beijing State-owned Assets Management Co Ltd, said in an
interview.
Li's company is responsible for the investment, construction and
operation of the National Stadium and the National Swimming
Centre.
"The construction site for the stadium has been cleared and the
division lines have been marked. The removal of trees and stumps
has been completed. The electricity supply will be in place before
the ground breaking," he said.
So far, the National Stadium Co Ltd, which was jointly
established by Li's company and the China International Trust and
Investment Corporation (CITIC) Consortium, has completed the
company registration documents and submitted them for approval,
said sources.
The State-owned assets company has organized four symposiums
over the past months on the steel structure of the National
Stadium, the so-called birds' nest, and on the inner environment of
the stadium and the National Swimming Centre, to invite advice from
experts.
"I am so happy to see the active participation of society in
construction of the venues to bring the city the best-ever
Olympics," Li said.
As one of the results of the symposiums, a working team
organized by Jiang Yi, an academician of the Chinese Academy of
Engineering, is now involved in the work for the swimming
centre.
(China Daily December 13, 2003)