Sang Lan calls for a more accessible Beijing

(BEIJING, September 6) -- Former gymnast Sang Lan hopes that Beijing's public places will soon be as accessible as the Summer Palace.

During a recent exploratory trip to the famous tourist resort, the 26-year girl, who is confined to a wheelchair since 1998, went everywhere without any difficulty, she told the official website of the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games in an interview on the occasion of the one-year countdown to the Beijing Paralympic Games.

But things turned out to be slightly less idyllic last month in Shunyi Olympic Rowing-Canoeing Park, where she was sent as a journalist to cover the Good Luck Beijing sport events: "I did find some positive things there, you know, such as an even terrain and electric cars for the disabled and the press, but the fact is that the cars ran once in a blue moon and the journalists grumbled that there wasn't a lounge. These are not trifling matters, I'm afraid," Sang says.

Sang has been bound to a wheelchair ever since she suffered severe spinal injuries during the Goodwill Games in New York in 1998. She has never given up her desire to remain active: in 2003, she became a TV sport anchorwoman owing to her being a student of journalism at Peking University; recently she was awarded the title of "accessibility ambassador."

A torchbearer for the 2004 Athens Olympic Games, Sang believes that the Paralympic torch relay is as important as the torch relay for the Olympics for conveying the Olympic spirit to all people.

"Everyone will encounter difficulties and setbacks in their lives; the optimism disabled people show despite their physical handicap is well worth imitating," she says.