This is Beijing-Beijing English blog

A new call center that will primarily serve non-Chinese athletes and tourists during the Olympics is set to open in Chaoyang District. Folks who dial 9602008 will be able to access translation and information services in nine languages, reported Xinhuanet.

The plan was revealed at a meeting on Wednesday and serves as part of Chaoyang District’s contributions to a volunteer action plan put forth by the Civilization office of the CPC Central Committee.

The call center will also provide language support for City Volunteer service booths in Chaoyang.

With the Olympics approaching, Beijing will be facing probably the heaviest tourist flow. To ensure that travelers can find restrooms when they need to “answer the call of nature”, the capital is city planning to publish a regulation for managing public toilets.

In the regulation that will become effective on July 1, travelers can dial a hotline for directions if they need to find the nearest WC, said the Beijing Times.

“In addition to setting up guideposts indicating the way to nearby WCs, we will publicize their locations by latitude and longitude on related websites, city maps and traveling brochures,” said Ma Kangding, an official from the Beijing Municipal Administration Commission.

Beijing now has 5,333 public toilets and 270 mobile ones. The commission is working on locating each toilet using the Global Positioning System, Ma said.

The commission will open a hotline as soon as the location work is done and residents and travelers can be directed to the nearest lavatory with references of their positions.

A total of 761 mobile toilets will be installed in Olympic venues and 800 more will be distributed in nearby areas.

The regulation also poses a fine of up to 30,000 yuan for those who destroy or close public toilets without permission.

Local residents and travelers are also called to help maintain a clean and healthy environment when using public WCs.

More than 1,000 Beijing sports fans, led by minister of General Administration of Sport and president of the Chinese Olympic Committee Liu Peng, took part in a distance run for the “Olympic Day Run” activity at the Beijing Sports University on June 22.

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) set June 23 as “Olympic Day Run” in 1987 and called on the national Olympic committees to organize fun runs around the day, aiming at participation of all people. China has observed the day since 1987.

The first lesson William Heathershaw learned in Beijing as an Olympic volunteer was how to use chopsticks.

Beijing started to train the first group of 292 overseas volunteers in media operations for the Olympics with a week-long course on Chinese culture at Tsinghua University here on Monday.

Twenty-four students, including Heathshaw, from the University of Iowa in the United States will learn about China’s history, culture, environment, economy, media and ethnic minorities and tour the city. Tibet is on the list of their lecture topics.

“This program will help the volunteers know more about China before they get to work for the Olympics,” said Xu Mengyao, who worked with media operations at the Beijing Organizing Committee for the Games of the XXIX Olympiad (BOCOG).

As a warm-up, the volunteers held discussions with Tsinghua students on Monday and had lunch at the school canteen, where many found it hard to use chopsticks.

A business management major who studied Chinese for two years, Heathershaw said he had always enjoyed the Olympics and was expecting to experience cultural shocks in Beijing and see a totally different world.

“I’m so glad I’m here,” said Heathershaw. “When we landed, I was like ‘Wow, I’m in Beijing.’”

His classmate, Daniel Libman, said they applied for the volunteer work out of a passion for writing and sports and expectations of a good travel and work experience.

“It’s such a rare opportunity, as the Olympics is held just once in four years,” said volunteer Elizabeth Tuttle, who told Xinhua it was the first time that the University of Iowa had sent students as Olympic volunteers.

Andrew Bassman, also a volunteer, was surprised by the air quality of Beijing. “The weather here is good. Many talked about pollution in Beijing but the sky here is so clear.”

One has to see a country to really know it, and the Olympics is a good opportunity for people from all around the world to get together, improve understanding and make friends, he said.

The Iowa volunteers were picked after three rounds of tests by BOCOG, including story writing and role playing, said Sterling Bacher, study abroad coordinator of the university.

After taking the Chinese culture course, the students will join the other 268 overseas Olympic volunteers in the training and serve for media operation during the Games.

The volunteers will work at the Main Press Center or the International Broadcast Center or with particular sports such as tennis and wrestling, said Executive Director Li Jing of the Zijing Volunteer Organization at Tsinghua, who worked with the training program.

Those working at the venues will watch games, make records and collect quotes from athletes for use by reporters, said Tuttle.

The BOCOG started consulting with 10 overseas colleges starting in 2006 about recruiting media volunteers. Seven teams were sent for interviews at universities in countries such as the United States, Britain and Australia in February and March, said Xu.

Beijing’s main religious venues are making preparations to offer better service during the August Olympiad when the city is expected to see an unprecedented influx of foreigners.

The Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception in Beijing, known as Nantang to locals, has been refurbished to embrace religious followers from the world over.

“Beijing Administration for Religious Affairs allocated a special fund for renovation of the church because of the Olympics being held in the city,” said Father Han Wensheng at the cathedral. “There are new floor tiles in the west courtyard, as well as a new wall and revamped chairs.”

The Roman Catholic Church, whose foundation was established by Italian Jesuit Matteo Ricci in 1605, is Beijing’s oldest Catholic church. It is possibly the best known to foreigners as it has an English-language mass each Sunday that usually attracts 800 people.

Han said the cathedral had set up a foreign affairs group and was training volunteers in English and etiquette to better serve foreign Catholics.

Other catholic churches also offer masses in such languages as Italian, Korean and French.

The Beijing parish of the Catholic Church has recruited 17 volunteers to serve at the multi-faith religious worship center in the Olympic Village, including six priests, five nuns and six monks.

The Gangwashi church, established in 1922 and rebuilt in 2004, has emptied its front courtyard for the creation of a small square and decorated its door. It has prepared 50 multilingual interpretation listening devices for foreign followers.

The 403.5-square-meter church in bustling Xisi Street in downtown Beijing, was visited by US President George W. Bush in 2005, following in the footsteps of fellow presidents George H.W. Bush in 1989 and Bill Clinton in 1998.

Beijing has selected 12 of the city’s 70 mosques as the main reception venues for Muslims, and equipped them with Arabic signs and barrier-free facilities. Translators will work at the mosques during the Games.

Beijing Islam Association has also organized 16 volunteers to work in the Olympic religious worship center.

China’s constitution and laws protect religious rights and freedom. Ye Xiaowen, China Administration for Religious Affairs director, promised the level of religious service during the August Games would not be lower than any previous Olympiad.

With 50 days to go till the start of the Beijing Olympics, Beijing is presenting the world with many new features.

The Olympic Village’s accommodation team has seen 2,700 employees and close to 5,000 volunteers on their work positions.

The first group of overseas volunteers from Iowa University in the United States, is scheduled to arrive in Beijing in two days.

Athletes across the world are busy getting ready and China’s biggest ever Olympic contingent is doing the same.

“Every countdown day is worth celebrating, as we are seeing more and more visitors coming to Beijing,” says Liu Zhenyu, a 71- year-old Beijinger who will share his unique diabolo-tossing skills with foreign visitors during the Olympics.

The 660,000-square-meter Olympic Village, which will serve as home for 16,000 athletes from 205 countries and regions and 7,000 media members, is gearing up to open on July 27.

“Taking into account the number of clients that will be living in the 64 buildings and 17,470 rooms in the Village, our services will be as vast as the services offered by 108 hotels at the same time,” the Beijing Daily quoted Vice Director of BOCOG’s Olympic Village Department Yu Debin as saying.

“Our clients will enjoy lots of personalized services, such as welcome cards, birthday cards and contact cards, as well as multi-lingual services,” he said.

Final steps to polish up venues

The Shunyi Olympic Rowing-Canoeing Park has a three-km-long water course. Its venue operation team needs to collect data on the course every day by biking back and forth several times. “Although we have made detailed preparations, the remaining 50 days seem like a short timeframe to fulfill our task,” said Zhang Xiangdong, the team’s vice director.

To minimize the impact of indoor air movement on athletes’ performances, the Olympic badminton venue at Beijing University of Technology Gymnasium has found the best resolution: Increase the volume of low-temperature air two hours before the competition to lower the room temperature and release enough air to disperse heat from the light and athlete’s movement during the game. Repeated rehearsals have given positive results.

The northern area of the Olympic Green will hold Olympic Archery, Tennis and Hockey events over six days, when a number of staff members will be involved in the operations of three events. They have found the best way to avoid redundant work through rehearsals.

Volunteers ready to offer smiles and good services

The smiles of volunteers serving at Capital International Airport will be a constant part of the scene there through the end of the Paralympics on September 17. The volunteers’ duties require a 24-hour work schedule in order to greet visitors as they arrive and depart. They will also help with luggage, visas, ticketing, transport and other procedures in the airport’s three terminals.

In fact, the airport team has worked for more than one year, beginning with the “Good Luck Beijing” pre-Games events in early June 2007. A total of 1,474 volunteers have offered services for 42 events, greeting 26,000 passengers on over 4,000 flights, said Wang Na, manager of airport volunteers.

“The smiles of volunteers at the airport give international visitors their first impression of China. We will do more training and rehearsals before the bulk of visitors come for the Olympic and Paralympics,” Wang said.

The 24 media operations volunteers scheduled to arrive this weekend from Iowa University will take part in a week of training at Tsinghua University to enhance their knowledge of Chinese culture. The rest of the 292-member overseas volunteer media operations team in the Olympic News Service (ONS) program are to follow them shortly. The team will meet the media’s needs on various competition venues, the Main Press Center and the International Broadcast Center.

Competent Olympians eye best results in Beijing

As the top powerhouse, the United States will send a 2,000-member team to the Beijing Olympics, the biggest team ever in the history of U.S. participation. The athletes will compete in 27 of the 28 sports for the upcoming Olympics.

The U.S. team dominates in swimming, athletics and other sports and has the potential to vie for gold in gymnastics, wrestling, softball and basketball. To avoid a similar fate of the men’s basketball bronze medal in the Athens Olympics, glittering stars like Kobe Bryant, LeBron James and Dwayne Wade will be a part of the U.S. team for Beijing.

The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) team also cherishes dreams of their best performances in women’s football and judo events. The Atlanta Olympic judo champion Kye Sun Hui won bronze and silver medals in Sydney and Athens, respectively. Doubtless, her dream is to bag another medal in Beijing, this time a gold one. “The next medal will be the most precious for me,” she told the press recently.

To avoid interruptions, some teams are engaging in “secret training.” The Kenyan Athletics Association declined press interviews from their training camp somewhere in western Kenya.

Stimulus policies have been mooted in some countries. But word has leaked that Romania may give the highest ever bonuses to Olympic gold medalists this summer.

Cyprus,Afghanistan and many other countries strive to end their Olympic medal drought through the Games in Beijing. Philippine boxers endeavor to win their country the first Olympic gold medal.

Finland’s media reported that although Finnish athletes are not very much hopeful in the coming Olympics, the local people are enthusiastic about watching the Games in Beijing. All 10,000 Olympic tickets allocated for Finland have sold out.

Host country to field the largest team

China has had over 500 athletes qualify for the Olympics. It is estimated that the team could expand to 550-570 members and create a record in terms of the number of participating athletes and the number of sports.

On June 17, the Chinese table tennis squad, one of “the top six” Olympic teams in the world, announced its Olympic lineup, the first among participating teams. Chinese divers and shooters are involved in closed training. Starting June 20, China’s women’s volleyball team will bring Zhao Ruirui, Feng Kun and other players to the 2008 Grand Prix to get familiar with competitors from around the world in preparation for the Olympics. The Chinese men’s basketball team is warming up, too. Yi Jianlian and Wang Zhizhi are home and Yao Ming is expected to be back in late June.

Chinese athletics fans are still pinning their hopes on hurdler Liu Xiang, who is making final preparations.

The Olympics will see more top Chinese athletes on stage. They include diver Guo Jingjing, table tennis player Wang Hao, badminton player Lin Dan,shooters Zhu Qinan and Du Li, taekwondo athlete Chen Zhong. Like their peers from other countries and regions, they are eyeing the top platform on the victory podium.