Still intoxicated with the great success of the Beijing Olympics, the Chinese capital is now entertaining itself and the world with the equally eye-catching Paralympic Games.

If an Olympics means to the host country or host city an opportunity to elevate its material and spiritual civilizations, the hosting of the Paralympics, the world's second largest sport event, will transmit an important message to the whole world that disabled persons should get more care and the cause of the disabled should get more attention.

Beijing is fully prepared for the sport event. For the successful holding of the largest-ever Paralympics in the event's history, featuring 4,000 athletes from 148 countries and regions, the municipal government has added a lot of accessible facilities to some scenic spots, hotels, banks and public places or rebuilt their facilities originally not designed for disabled persons into barrier-free ones.

A worker tests the wheelchair-lifting platform at the Chegongzhuang Subway Station in Beijing, June 19, 2008. The wheelchair-lifting platform and barrow for upstairs have been installed at the subway stations in Beijing by July, 2008. [Xinhua]

To create a barrier-free environment citywide for the Games, the municipal government has also taken a series of measures, such as opening hundreds of barrier-free bus routes, installing ramps in some places for the convenience of disabled persons and allowing the use of guide dogs. The improvement or installment of such accessible facilities was beyond imagination a few years ago even in Beijing, not to mention other less developed regions.

Caring for the disabled is a reflection of social progression. According to last year's statistics, there are 83 million disabled people throughout the country, 6.34 percent of the whole population. Due to the national conditions, many of this group encountered or are still encountering different kinds of inconvenience in their daily lives, studies or employment in different degrees.

Actually, since the founding of the People's Republic of China, the government has extended great care to the country's disabled persons and attached much importance to the cause of the disabled. Especially since the reform and opening-up, a series of major measures have been taken to boost the development in this regard.

The establishment of the China Disabled Persons' Federation (CDPF) in 1988 marked the founding of a united organization nationwide for the benefit of people with disabilities. The promulgation of the Law on the Protection of Disabled Persons in 1990 meant the inclusion of the cause of the disabled into the national development program. To effectively protect their legitimate rights and interests, more than 50 laws or regulations have been put in place over the past decades.

The government has taken other workable moves to improve the living conditions of the disabled, such as strengthening their social security and poverty relief. During the 10th Five-Year Plan period (2001-05) alone, a total of 11.66 million disabled persons nationwide received government aid of different kinds and 7 million in rural areas freed themselves from poverty. Also 5.94 million enjoyed the government-provided minimum living guarantee. Many concrete polices have also been adopted to help disabled persons with medical insurance, employment, and living subsidies. Now a number of institutions have been set up nationwide to offer them services on techniques training, recuperation and spare-time entertainment.

Over the past years all Beijing districts and counties, for instance, established a kind of service center, where disabled persons can enjoy free rehabilitation services and employment consultation and even help. At the same time, work on legal aid for the disabled has also achieved remarkable progress. Now courts at all levels regard disabled persons as the chief target of judicial assistance and reduce their lawsuit expenses and even exempt them from such expenses when they are involved in legal cases.

As a result of government efforts and media publicity, the protection of the rights and interests of the disabled is now getting more and more attention from various circles of the society, and a kind of social morality of respecting and helping this special group is gradually taking shape. Different kinds of activities helping the disabled have been conducted across the country.

Due to economic development and substantial help from the government over the past years, more and more disabled persons have realized their self-value and shared the fruits of the country's development. According to CDPF statistics, more than 80 percent of the country's disabled persons of working age are now employed, and 18 million rural and 4 million urban ones have found their jobs with the help of the government.

The cause of the disabled is inseparable from that of the economy and general development of a country. Despite an enormous progress achieved in the past decades, China still has a large gap with developed countries in the work for disabled persons.

The foundation for the cause of the disabled, especially in the Chinese mainland, is still weak, as the country's polices and measures on their social security are still not very comprehensive and the network for their medical care, rehabilitation, education, employment, and participation in social activities not well established. Compared with Western developed nations, and even with China's Hong Kong and Taiwan, the Chinese mainland has not set up a developed and considerate accessible facilities for disabled persons, especially in its economically underdeveloped regions. And many mentally disabled school-age children cannot find suitable schools in many regions because of the shortage of teaching staff.

The Paralympics gives paralympians and other participants with physical disabilities a good opportunity to display themselves. It also can serve as the best platform for our ordinary people to understand and look upon this group. Most of us should still remember the bewitching Thousand-hand Bodhisattva dance performed by the China Disabled Persons' Performing Art Troupe. The marvelous choreography and harmonic motions by 21 deaf dancers, which was a huge challenge even to ordinary ones, also tell us disabled persons sometimes can do what even we ordinary ones cannot do.

We look forward to better performances in this Paralympiad. We also look forward to the Chinese government paying more attention to disabled persons after the Games and stepping up work for the cause of the disabled.