Happy Village Life Awaits Athletes

Immediately north of the village is the Olympic Forest Park and to its south, the major Olympic venues of the Games.

The 525,000-square-metre Olympic Village, whose construction is to be completed by the end of 2007, contains residential and international sections. The 370,000-square-metre residential section contains 22 six-story and 20 nine-story apartment buildings.

Chinese Totems

The apartments are divided into four areas represented by four traditional Chinese totems, a vermilion bird, a pixiu (a mythical creature), a fish and a dragon.

Totems can be found on the outside walls of the apartments, so people can easily tell which area they are in.

The four areas in the village present the landscapes in different parts of China, southwest, northwest, southeast and northeast.

Considerate Designs

To ensure the athletes' rest and good sleep, each bed has been designed to be 2.2 metres long. A special stool can be added to the end of a bed for giants like Yao Ming, who is 2.26 metres tall.

Special materials are used in the apartments' windows and floors, which will greatly reduce noise inside the apartments.

Each balcony has two parts: an enclosed part for a storage space and an open part.

Barrier-Free Facilities

Among the 7,000 athletes with disabilities, 2,000 are wheel-chair users. So all the facilities in the village are barrier-free, meeting international standards for people with a disability.

Gao Hao, director of the Olympic Village Construction Project, gives some examples. “There are two washing rooms in every unit, with one specially designed for the disabled. Wheel-chair users can move easily in the spacious area. Special lanes and handrails are also designed in all the apartments and facilities in the village. Elevators are wide enough for  wheel-chair athletes.”

Environmentally Friendly

All the building materials used in the village are environmentally friendly and pollution-free. In addition, recyclable materials are used. For example, balustrades on balconies are made of recyclable plastic boards which are also good natural ventilators.

“The Olympic Village’s solar-powered heating system will supply hot water to all the village’s 16,800 residents. Solar panels (6,000-square-metres each) will be installed on roofs of the apartments. These can be used throughout the year. Some of the village’s lighting will also be solar powered,” Gao said.

The village’s modern heating and cooling systems cause no harm to the environment. It is also estimated that 40 percent of the electricity will be saved by using recycled water in the cooling system of the 42 apartments in the village. Materials used in building the walls can help prevent heat loss in the winter.

During the construction of the Olympic Village, 3,000 tons of waste steel materials from the Capital Steel and Iron Group were used to create a two-kilometre roadbed.

Clean Water for ‘Villagers’

Tap water in the rooms will be drinkable.

The recycled water supplied to the Olympic Village will go through one of the most stringent procedures in the world.

Wang Hongchen, chief engineer of the Qinghe Water Reclamation Plant, said, “The water reclamation system we will use is more advanced than those used during previous Games.”

By the end of 2007, a second water treatment plant will be opened to provide additional supplies to the Olympic Village, and this water will be as clean as tap water.

A rainwater collection and reuse system will also be installed, and all the village's toilets will use water-saving technologies.

Comprehensive Facilities

The Olympic Village will feature a fully-staffed medical clinic, 24-hour restaurants, a multi-functional library, an entertainment centre, swimming pools and tennis courts.

Each room is equipped with broadband networking, telephones, cable-TV connections, burglar alarms and fingerprint-reading locks. Athletes can surf the Internet free of charge.

The 20,000-square-metre Olympic Village Square in the international area will be the most eye-catching spot: this is where the flags of the member committees of the International Olympic Committee will be raised. Other activities like exhibitions and performances will also be held there.

The village is scheduled to be completed by the end of 2007 and will be opened to receive athletes two weeks prior to the start of the Games on August 8, 2008.

Transportation Services

There will be 50 lithium battery-powered buses to serve the Olympic Village and the Media Village during the 2008 Olympic Games, according to Feng Xingfu, vice-general manager of the Beijing Bus Company.

The health conditions of athletes, their equipment and other factors were taken into consideration when designing and making the vehicles, which will also be equipped with GPS systems.

Around-the-clock shuttle buses will carry athletes from the Olympic Village to their competition venues.