High-tech Olympics

Incorporating 387 Olympic projects, the High-tech Olympics is a citywide and a Beijing Olympics-wide plan designed to promote the development and employment of leading technologies for use in the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games.

 

Thirty-one competition venues in Beijing that will be used as venues for 26 of the Olympic sporting events of the 2008 Beijing Games have been confirmed under the principle of "safety, quality, construction time, function and cost." Most are under construction or will be by the end of 2005. Other Games venues include Qingdao, sailing competitions, and Shanghai, Shenyang, Tianjin and Qinghuangdao, football competitions. In addition, on July 8, 2005, the International Olympic Committee announced that equestrian events of the 2008 Games will be held in Hong Kong.

 

Of the 31 competition venues in Beijing, 11 are new; 11 will use existing facilities, which will be renovated or expanded; nine will be used temporary only. 41 training venues and five facilities that are directly related to the Olympic Games will be needed. To ensure easy access to the Beijing venues, 59 roads and three bridges will be built or renovated.

 

Construction of 14 venues, including eight new competition venues, two renovated venues and five temporary venues will begin in 2005. Some venues will have to be finished by the end of 2006 to hold international competitions, and by the end of 2007, all other venues and related facilities will be finished to hold "test" events.

 

The construction of eight new venues is in full swing in Beijing. They are the National Stadium, the National Aquatics Centre, the Beijing Shooting Range Hall, the Laoshan Velodrome, the Wukesong Indoor Stadium, the National Indoor Stadium, the China Agriculture University Gymnasium and the Beijing University of Technology Gymnasium. The remaining three will be launched in the third quarter of 2005.

 

Organizers of four of the five Olympic facilities, the National Convention Centre, the Digital Beijing Building, the Olympic Village and the Olympic Park, have held foundation-stones-laying ceremonies. Construction of the Media Village will begin during 2005.