Foreign baseball teams have been fairly satisfied with the
field's quality and host's hospitalities but worry about
environmental pollution in an Olympic test event held in
Beijing.
The test event has been expected to test-run organizing capacity
of Wukesong Baseball fields which was built and amended under
supervision of field and stadium experts from the Major League
Baseball (MLB).
"We have no complaints on the fields which has been kept very
well by Chinese staffs," said Japanese team manager Hoshino
Senichi, the former Hanshin Tigers manager in Japanese Baseball
League.
The organizer has done their bests to maintain the fields, the
manager told Japanese press at a press conference, praising Chinese
volunteers are "well-trained and warmhearted".
French and Czech players also expressed similar compliments to
convenient arrangements in accommodation and traffic amid a traffic
control in the downtown of Beijing from last Friday to Monday.
The traffic ban removed 1.3 million private vehicles from
Beijing's perpetually gridlocked streets each day, making player's
buses arrive at the Wukesong fields without traffic jams.
The Beijing environmental watchdog said in an early statement
that particulate matter pollutions caused by construction in the
capital has been reduced by 42 percent compared with that of the
same period of last year.
However, foreign players and managers remained very cautious of
the air condition in the field.
The Japanese team has brought a large amount of mouth covers,
eyedrops and other cleaning materials with their players to deal
with an overestimated air pollution in Beijing.
The team's sanitarian told Japanese press that they felt relief
after arrival, realizing the pollution was not that bad they had
estimated.
But Japanese baseballers have been still advised to use personal
sanitary equipment like toothpaste brought from Japan and also pay
attention to the meals.
According to the China Environmental Monitoring Center, the air
quality of Beijing within the four days from August 18 had been
level II with particulate matters pollution. Blue skies rarely
appeared during the games despite sunny daytime of the
tournament.
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(Xinhua News Agency August 23, 2007)