More than 4,200 athletes from 148 countries and regions will attend the 2008 Beijing Paralympics, said Tang Xiaoquan, executive vice president of the Beijing Organizing Committee for the Olympic Games (BOCOG) on Sunday.

In addition, more than 2,500 referees and more than 4,000 journalists and media technicians will gather in Beijing for the event, said Tang at a press conference. She added that there will also be 30,000 volunteers working for the games.

More than 480,000 tickets were sold for the games, which has a total of 1.66 million tickets available for selling. About 16,000 tickets of no-barrier seats are available for handicapped people and the same number for their companions.

Tang said that Chinese Paralympic team was established on July 17th, with 547 members, 332 of whom are athletes. All of them are amateur athletes from all walks of life. They will compete in 295 events of 20 categories at the Paralympics.

It will be the first time for the Chinese team to attend equestrian, wheelchair rugby and basketball, rowing, sailing and other four events.

She said Beijing has made five of its sports venues including the National Stadium, or the Bird's Nest, reach the world's level in terms of no-barrier facilities.

The Paralympics will use 20 game venues, and six training venues, all of which were used for the Beijing Olympics, she said.

Beijing has opened 16 special bus lines with 400 no-barrier vehicles for the games. All the 123 stations of eight subway lines have at least one entry-exit which can be used by passengers in wheelchairs, she said.

Tang said the city also built 109 elevators for handicapped people, and organized the first no-barrier taxi team. Tourist attractions such as the Great Wall and the Forbidden City have installed no-barrier facilities.

The organizing committee has designated 22 hospitals and 16 hotels for the attendants of the Paralympics. The committee has also published guidance books for no-barrier service and will offer wireless hearing aids and video sign language translation service for the games.

Tang said to provide convenience to blind people traveling in Beijing, the municipal government issued rules to allow blind people to take registered guide dogs to all the Paralympic venues, training centers and public facilities.

She said two Chinese and two Portuguese blind people have already registered their guide dogs in Beijing.

Zhao Chunluan, head of the Beijing Disabled Persons' Federation said that Beijing will continue to improve no-barrier facilities and other services for its one million handicapped people, or 6.49 percent of its total population after the Paralympics.

(Xinhua News Agency August 24, 2008)