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With a human-centric design, the newly-built Athletes' Village in Beijing for the forthcoming 21st Summer Universiade is ready to provide best services for athletes from all over the world.
The village, the first ever specially built for a Universiade, is situated in the northwestern part of Beijing where most of the universities in Beijing are located.
Covering an area of 11.2 hectares, with more than 10,000 square meters of wooded area and greenery, the village includes 13 silver- gray main buildings and three squares. More than 3,500 rooms in the 10 apartment buildings will be able to house 7,000 people. Each room, 15 square meters in area, has its own bathroom, individual air conditioning unit, 24-hour hot water and telephone.
Two types of laundry services are provided in the village. The athletes may either wash their clothes at the laundromat or call a pick-up service.
Guests in the village will get quality service as each apartment building is taken charge respectively by a four- or five- star hotel in Beijing. Well-trained vocational high school students, who are supervised by experienced hotel managers, will do room service.
The athletes can enjoy a fine variety of food in two self- service dining halls, one offers Western and Chinese cuisine and the other Muslim food. The menu changes everyday of the week. More than 80 top chefs in Beijing's first-class restaurants are invited to take charge of the kitchen so that the most fastidious diners would be satisfied.
"According to nutrition experts' advice, we have designated the recipes to satisfy all tastes," said the chief chef at the village.
The 24-hour dining halls can serve up to 3,000 people at any time. The kitchen can also deliver food to designated places on request.
Athletes can buy souvenirs, fresh flowers, books and magazines, sportswear and other articles at a reasonable price in stores in the village.
There are also a bank and a post office in the village, the former offering foreign exchange, credit card and savings services, while the latter offering international express mail, fax and other services.
For athletes with religious beliefs, the village has temporary worshipping facilities, including a Catholic prayer room, a Christian chapel, a Buddhism worshipping hall and a Muslim prayer hall.
A medical center is also established in the Village. All the doctors and nurses serving the athletes are from top-level hospitals in Beijing and the center is equipped with interpreters.
A huge leisure center will allow athletes and officials to take a break between competitions. Among the facilities are an outdoor swimming pool, a gym, a discotheque, a cinema, a cafeteria, a tea house, an Internet cafe, a video game arcade, table tennis rooms, and rooms for billiards and board and card games.
A transportation service will link all the competition sites to the village. Luxury shuttle buses will take athletes and officials to competition venues from morning to night. The service will also include routes to the city's main tourist attractions and large shopping centers.
During the Universiade, travel agencies will set up a service desk in the village. Guests who are interested in going sight- seeing or attending other entertainment activities such as going to Peking Operas or acrobatic shows will be satisfied. There are also tour packages to go to other cities in China. The design of the village has taken into consideration requirements of environmental protection. It uses environment-friendly materials, energy-saving equipment and reproducible resources so as to preserve the ecological environment. For example, the buildings are installed with electrothermal heating systems instead of boilers, which will minimize gas pollution.
The village will become students' apartments after the games.
(Xinhua News Agency 08/20/2001)
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