'Green' fencing hall for Olympics

(BEIJING, September 13) -- The Olympic Fencing Hall is ready to host the fencing and shooting (10m air pistol) events of the 2007 Modern Pentathlon World Cup Final on September 15.

76 athletes from 19 countries and regions including China, USA, Russia, Germany and France will participate in the competitions.

As one of the eight temporary venues for the 2008 Olympic Games, the hall will host Olympic fencing competitions and the fencing and shooting part of modern pentathlon. It is also the venue for Paralympic wheelchair fencing and boccia events. After the close of the Olympics, it will be turned into a convention hall with a capacity of 6,000 seats.

With a floor area of some 6,400 square meters, the hall has a roof spanning 81 meters. Its temporary seats can be moved away easily after the Games, and it can become a convention hall just second to the current Great Hall of the People, said chief engineer Lu Jian.

Power and water-saving is a primary feature of the hall. A subsided garden seven meters bellow the ground level will be opened at the National Convention Center, where the fencing hall is located, to replace air conditioning by current convection, thus saving an estimated 380,000 kwh of power yearly.

Like the eaves of a traditional Chinese building, the corners of the convention center's roof curl up, with a bridge-typed curve beneath, making the 60,000-square-meter roof an ideal rain water collector for grass irrigation around the center.