Press conference: Operation of Olympic Village

Related story: Beijing Olympic Village etches a place for itself in Olympic history

Date/Time: 10:00 a.m., Friday, August 15

Venue: Main Press Center (MPC)

Wang Hui, the host

Wang Hui

Good morning friends from the media. Welcome to join our press conference in the main press center. This is the 7th day of the Olympic Games. We are happy to have Ms. Deng Yaping, the table tennis champion to brief us on the briefing of the Olympic Village. She won many gold medals in the world games. She is a four-time Olympic gold medalist. She is also a very popular sportswomen in China. At present she is an official of the Olympic Games Village. Now I would like to invite Ms. Deng to brief us on the operation of Olympic Village.

Deng Yaping gives the speech

Deng Yapping

Ladies and gentlemen, good morning. I'm very happy to be here the second time as the Olympic spokeswoman to brief you on how things are going in the Olympic Village. On July 25, we held the first conference. This is the second one since then. I would like to brief you how the Olympic Village has been operating since its opening.

With the support of BOCOG and the IOC, the efforts of all the staffs of the Olympic Village and the officials of all the different delegations and with the support of the media, it is going out very well. Almost all is placed. Since the beginning of the Olympic Village, we have to make an effort so that we can provide better for the athletes for them to prepare for their performance.

Since August 13, 14,268 athletes and officials from 204 countries and regions have been received in 9,993 guestrooms of 42 apartments in the Olympic Village. With the effors of all the Olympic staffs, all these sportsmen have comfortably settled down.

As for the catering, so far, we have already provided catering services to 273,627 person-times. We have been handling well the laundry. On August 12, the laundry handled 12,003 bags of clothing at the same time in order to satisfy the needs of all the delegates and sportsmen. Standard daily hours services extended from 15.5 hours to 18 hours from 6 a.m. to 24 p.m. Express laundry services have also been provided. Since the very beginning of this Olympic Village, we have also started the religious services. So far we have already provided services for more 600 people in religious center. The transportation has been improving all the time.

For example, we have provided concentrated services in the areas where there are more sportsmen and more officials and make sure the athletes and officials can get to the venues on time, so that they can start the competitions on time. It is regarded as one of the most efficient. In additional to this, we have a lot of cultural activities. So far, we have already received athletes, coaches and officials of 3000 person-times with daily visitors exceeding 200 person-times in the exhibition in the commercial cultural street. And the Chinese learning area, there are also a lot of visitors mounting to 1100 person-times.

In addition to this, we have also had lots of performances in the flag raising square. We have provided 11 performances attracting audiences more than 7,000 people. Then I would like to say a few words about the Olympic Village itself.

We stick to the principle of people centered. We hope that everyone can feel at home so we make some special arrangements. For example when an athlete won a medal, we write a card of congratulations, and also give them a panda doll dressed in Chinese style long gown that contains the hand-embroidery characters of Beijing Olympic Village. And for each delegation, whenever they settled in, our service will help them hang their national flags.

As everyone knows, there are many dignitaries, in order to receive the heads of state well, we also provided them help. We have received a lot of praises and so far we have already got 49 letters of praise from different countries and regions with numerous compliments and best wishes. As to catering, we have been emphasizing quality and a variety of food. We have contracted world famous catering services. In the past we have 300 Beijing ducks, which are very welcomed among the athletes so we have increased to about 600 Beijing roast ducks.

So far we have already purchased 960 tons of materials, made 181 quick inspections of samples of the raw materials of 100% qualification right. The catering service is reliable and safe. We have also had a lot of colorful cultural activities in the Chinese learning center. People are very interested in the Chinese names. So far there are 350 athletes who have received Chinese names.

A lot of distinguished guests have visited the Olympic Village, such as Governor General from New Zealand, Princess of Thailand, Premier from Guinea and President of Mauritius.

There are also music performances including rock and roll and traditional Chinese music. The number of audience watching the performance at the Olympic Village club on a daily basis rise from the initial 87 to 600-800 persons. To promote the atmosphere in the Olympic Village, we also provide religious services, with 69 professional services volunteers in the Olympic Village. The religious service center provides around the clock services in English, Arabic, Italian, French, Korean and Hebrew. We have already held three worship Sundays and 3 masses.

On August 8, Salat al-Jum'ah was observed and 85 people including officials and athletes from 12 nations went to the religious centre for services. And I would like to especially mention, on August 3, three visitors with grave facial expression came to the religious center, because the mother of one of them passed away before that day and they hope that they could get some religious services. After we knew what the requirement was, our religious service provider held the praying ceremony for these athletes in order to satisfy his needs. And everybody stood up and prayed for his mom. He felt very touched. When he left the religious center, he felt very much soothed. And he would never forget the care and love he got at the Olympic village.

I would like to brief on some of the things we have been doing so far. Since its opening, more than 20 days have already passed. What distinguished this Olympic Village from the previous Olympic Villages. I think there are 4 important characteristics. I think the Beijing Olympic Village has created foremost in the history of the Olympic Games.

Firstly, the main dining hall for athletes served the most guests in one day in the history of the Olympic Games. According to statistics, from 10:00 to 19:00 on August 8, the opening day of the games, 18,634 person-times dined in the main dining hall, far exceeding 9,876 served the during the Games period of the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games, and 10,515 served at the Athens 2004 Olympic Games. Because of good preparation, we have done it well and we have won one praise from the International Olympic Committee.

The second, Beijing Olympic Village has received the most international dignitaries in the history of the Olympic Games. They are at very high level and came at the peak time. People joke that when you turn around, you can probably meet a dignitary standing behind you. By August, 62 leaders have visited, including the French President Nicolas Sarkozy, Russian President Putin, Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda as well as the Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, the President of International Olympic Committee Jacques Rogge and his predecessor Mr. Samaranch visited the Olympic Village and Mr. Rogge lived in the Village for 3 days. And Mr. Rogge also has a habit of doing exercise everyday. So whenever he met those athletes in the morning, they greeted him and thanked IOC for providing such a good Olympic Village. All the dignitaries visited the Olympic Village thought highly of it. Mr. Rogge said that the Beijing Olympic Village is not only for the Chinese people, but also for people of the world. President Kasper of the Swiss Confederation said the Beijing Olympic Village, which is not an easy task, is well built in terms of environment protection, technology, etc. and the athletes live a happy life here.

Thirdly, Beijing Olympic Village is the most "Green" Olympic Village in the Olympic history. US Treasury Secretary Paulson granted the Village the Gold Award of leadership of energy and environment design, and said the design of the village is not only environmental friendly, but also a model of energy efficiency in China. In terms of daily refuse and treatment, I would like to give you some explanation. We adopted the most advanced technology system to treat the daily refuse. The capacity is 6 tons. Everything we deliver outside 52 tons of daily refuse. The waste resource treatment rate is 93%. Hot water is supplied via the 6000 square meters of centralized solar water heating system, which can save 5 million kilowatt per year of electricity. One thing worth mentioning is the micro energy consumption building, which is in the service center of the Village. 80% of the energy come from the wind power, solar power, thermal energy and geo-energy. After the event, it will be delivered to a kindergarten for future use. That shows in the history of the entire Olympic Games, in terms of energy conservation, this is the first that we've been awarded with the environmental protection design award.

Lastly, the holding reception of each delegation in the Olympic Village is excellent for every county. This is very important event for every country. By 20:15 of August 9, when the Nicaragua delegation came to the village, the 13-day-long of celebration had come to an end. During the 13 days, we provided 62 receptions for 204 NOCs. The most daily holding is 11 receptions for 51 countries. Attendance of the journalist reached 1500 person-times. The most daily reception of the journalists is about 400 person-times. The organization is orderly and smooth. All the flags and anthems were conducted very accurately, which has met the recognition all the delegations. All the staff have made painstaking efforts in their jobs and overcome a lot of difficulties. And in the end, we have accomplished what has been expected. That is zero mistake task. Just because of this preparation and painstaking efforts, Beijing Olympic Village has won the recognitions of officials. And Mr. Rogge said the Village is the most beautiful one, and the Chinese people have done a great job and should be proud of that. The head of the Switzerland delegation said he has never seen such a beautiful Village. The deputy chief of the Netherlands delegation said that the Beijing Olympic Village is the most beautiful he has ever seen. That shows the beauty of China and also a mixture of culture, making them at home. And athletes including Phelps also said Beijing Olympic Village is very advanced, very comprehensive in service. All these praises show, in terms of Olympic spirits, Chinese people's sincerity and honesty. Starting from 2001 until 2008, seven years has passed. We learned, and we explored. Staring from Athens to Beijing, we went across two continents to understand, to progress. In Beijing, in 2008, from every staff, every volunteer's behavior, you see everybody within BOCOG is doing their own jobs, and is making their own commitment to show excellent Olympic Games to the world, to allow the world to know a new China. That brings me to the end of the overall briefing of the Olympic Village since the starting of it until now.