Should Beijing be chosen host city for the 2008 Summer Olympics, suburban tourist resorts and universities will be among the Olympic venues.
Three stadiums and gymnasiums are scheduled to be built in the northern suburbs of Beijing in an area that includes some popular tourist spots, including the Great Wall of China.
Another four venues will be located in a district where China’s most prestigious universities are located.
Jiang Xiaoyu, head of the Olympic committee’s Publicity Division said the above areas were two of the four in which Olympic venues will be focused.
The Olympic park will be located at the north end of Zhongzhou Road, which forms an axis running through the ancient city of Beijing, and other venues will be built along the western stretch of the Second Ring Road.
Jiang said “the committee wants to keep all of the venues close together, but not crowded. We chose the above four areas on the basis of this”.
Beijing will be the location of 32 of the 37 competition venues; soccer games will be held in Shanghai, Tianjin, Shenyang and Qinhuangdao, and sailing will be in Qinhuangdao.
A number of major sports sites in the city are being renovated, including the Capital Gymnasium, the Workers’ Stadium and Gymnasium, and the National Sports Centre, and new ones are in the planning stages.
