As one of the few Chinese mainland cities to be granted the
honor of holding sporting games for the 2008 Olympics, everyone in
Qingdao is getting ready for the sailing competition, Vice Mayor of
Qingdao Zang Aimin told China.org.cn on Monday.
According to Zang who is also vice chairman of the Sailing
Committee of the Beijing Organizing Committee for the Games of the
XXIX Olympiad, the sailing facilities in Qingdao are the best in
Asia and among the best in the world.
However, the city needs more experience in holding a large-scale
regatta, especially one of international standard. "We are now
getting ready for the 2008 Beijing Olympics. We hold great
confidence in this," she stressed.
During the past three years, Qingdao has worked hard to deal
with the challenges, including increasing publicity for the sailing
sport and sending staff to study abroad.
"Qingdao didn't have one single venue for formal regatta events
until just two years ago. The organization staff still needs to be
trained in staging an international regatta and local residents
must increase their knowledge about the sport of sailing," she
said.
"In addition, we will have difficulties in August because in
this month the wind speed, sea current, and tide range are adverse
to holding an international regatta of high level. Despite this,
our technicians will find appropriate solutions."
The International Olympic Sailing Center, built on the docks of
a decaying shipyard that looks out onto the dark emerald-blue
waters of Fushan Bay, was christened in June last year at the
national windsurfing championships.
Although the Olympic village has not been finished, the 45
hectare (111 acre) site, which can berth up to 800 yachts and is
surrounded by new luxury apartment high rises, sparkles with the
best equipment money can buy.
The sleek glass buildings molded in the shape of sails, the
media, athlete and logistics centers, along with an expansive
breakwater complete with energy-saving windmills and shaded picnic
tables will allow for thousands of spectators.
She told China.org.cn that a national sailing school and an
Olympic museum have also been established and will be opened soon.
"All the venues will be completed by the end of June 2007. Three
years ago I was nervous, but I'm not nervous now."
Qingdao is a hilly coastal city facing the Yellow Sea on the
east and south; a downward slope from south to north characterizes
its topography. It is embraced by three major mountain ranges: the
Daze Mountain, the Jiaonan Mountain, and the Xiaozhu Mountain. It
has a northern temperate zone monsoon climate with the
characteristics of a marine climate, such as moist air, abundant
rainfall, and four distinctive seasons.
The city of 7 million, known in Chinese as "Green Island," has
also had to take on board major security and emergency initiatives,
enlisting 1,000 police and safety personnel and training 900
volunteers unfamiliar with the sport.
A major environmental cleanup of the harbor's filthy waters,
which officials described as "badly polluted," was also
undertaken.
All this has come with a hefty price tag for the city that until
now has been better known for its beer, Tsingdao, and a German
colonial past that bequeathed it a legacy of red-roofed
Western-style homes and pine-bowered streets.
According to the vice mayor, the government has poured a total
of 3.28 billion yuan (US$410 million) into the facilities that
include the latest high-tech seawater filtering as well as the use
of wind and solar energy for heating systems and street lights.
Despite the costs, most of which have been defrayed to private
investors who formed a consortium to develop the marina and the
adjacent sites, officials are confident that post-Olympic plans
will pay off.
She said that the local traffic control department launched an
activity aimed at solving problems that concerned most of the
people, upgrading Qingdao's public transport service and creating a
first-class traffic environment for the 2008 Regatta.
In the course of the activity the traffic control department
worked out 12 safe driving promises for drivers and 5 ethics and
courtesy training textbooks and selected 300 taxis as model taxis
for welcoming the Olympics. The traffic department will upgrade
over 400 buses, standardize the English and Chinese language on the
bus depot boards, and install facilities to assist blind people. In
addition, 7 more parking lots for over 1,500 city buses will be
built this year and GPS systems will be installed on 1,800
buses.
(China.org.cn by staff reporter Wang Ke in Qingdao, May 31,
2007)
