Host City

Asian Games Town ready for November sports gala

By Zheng Caixiong (China Daily)
Updated: 2010-09-21 08:18

With more than 8,000 apartments, Asian Games Town in Guangzhou - built in the style of south China's Lingnan culture - is complete and has been formally handed over to the Guangzhou Asian Games Organizing Committee.

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After more than two years of construction, Games Town in south Guangzhou is ready to accommodate the expected 40,000 athletes, coaches, technical officials and members of the media from around the world expected to arrive for the 16th Asian Games that will run from November 12 to 27.

In addition to an athletes' village with 13 apartment buildings, the Games Town includes a media village, technical officials' village, international broadcast center and the main press center.

Xu Ruisheng, vice-mayor of Guangzhou and executive deputy secretary-general of the organizing committee, said the town with strong Lingnan features and top quality buildings is now a community.

"The coming Asian Games will serve as a showcase for China's Lingnan culture that thrives in Guangdong and other parts of south China," Xu said.

Former Japanese Olympian Yuko Arakida praised The Games Town as "great and fantastic".

"I think the facilities for the athletes at the Asian Games are much better than at the Beijing Summer Olympic Games. There is lots of green and it is a very good environment for the athletes," Arakida said after she visited in early September.

Arakida was a member of the Japanese gold medal-winning women's volleyball team at the 1976 Montreal Olympics.

An Asian Games traffic lane is designed to significantly reduce travel time to competition and training venues during the Games, she added.

Riverside communities and tropical trees help give the town an ambience typical of south China.

Constructed on the banks of Pearl River tributaries, the 2.73-square-kilometer town is more than 63 percent covered in greenery.

Tropical trees and fruit plants are now being planted to meet the goal of a green and eco-friendly Asian Games.

Organizing committee officials have promised to offer their best service to all athletes, officials and other personnel during the Games.

"The Guangzhou Asian Games will make every guest feel at home with the best service and the most hospitable reception," said Tang Ruping, director of committee's service department.