"Staff in the commercial areas have been required to provide 'squat-style' service for customers in wheelchairs, so that they can talk to each other at a parallel level," said Deng.

For the convenience of the disabled athletes, only the first three floors of the village's 42 apartment buildings, which have six to nine floors, were put into use, she added.

Village accommodates over 7,000 athletes, officials

By Sept. 14, the Beijing Paralympic Village had received 7,379 athletes and officials from 147 countries and regions, 1,736 of whom are wheelchair users, Deng told the press.

The village has already provided 147,349 bottles of water and replaced in all 30,806 bed sheets, pillowslips, quilt covers and 54,729 towels and bath towels for the residents.

The athlete's dining hall has served a total of 224,315 meals. As the Muslim's holy month of Ramadan started from Sept. 2, the dinning hall made special arrangements to cater to the need of the Muslim athletes, serving food to them after sunset and till 3 a.m. the next day.

When China's traditional Mid-Autumn Festival fell on Sept. 14, the dinning hall also provided the village residents with mooncakes of different flavors, as well as written introductions of this Chinese festival in three languages of Chinese, English and French.

To date, the village clinic has provided medical treatment for 2,899 persons from 137 countries and regions, and the religious service center in the village has received 1,665 persons from 61 countries and regions, Deng said.

"While serving the Paralympians whole-heartedly, our staff were also deeply moved by the optimistic attitude and unyielding spirit of the disabled athletes," Deng noted.

"We hope that the athletes will go home not only with medals, but love and affection from all Chinese and foreign staff in our village," she added.

(Xinhua News Agency September 15, 2008)