Beijing Olympics 2008

Quoted prices for hotel stays in Beijing during the summer Olympics has jumped up by four to ten times higher than normal, said China’s biggest online booking provider Ctrip.com International Ltd.
The travel booking company said on Friday that its online hotel reservation data show that standard hotel rooms in four and five star-ranking hotels during the August Olympics have been nearly booked out.
“Only some 20 hotels in Beijing still have rooms available for reservations by foreign tourists during the period. However, mostly probably, only luxury suites are left for them to choose,” said Tang Xiaofeng, senior hotel business development manager of Ctrip.com.
The website provides updated hotel-room reservation information of 500 of Beijing’s total 800 star-ranking tourist hotels. Nationwide, it has links with 2,800 hotels.
A receptionist at the Jinlun Hotel, a four-star hotel seated by the side of Beijing’s east-west axis Chang’an Avenue said that all of the hotel rooms have been booked out during the Beijing Olympics with the daily price for a standard room quoted at 6,000 yuan (833 U.S. dollars), as compared to 1,008 yuan (140 U.S. dollars) at present.
Tang said that most hotels in Beijing require hotel bookers to pay full price in advance for staying during the event. Hotels would not refund the money if customers changed schedules or canceled reservations.
He said as hotel rooms in Beijing are getting hotter, many hotels only receive customers who prepare to stay longer than five days in August.
Beijing is gearing up to accommodate about 500,000 foreigners during the Games, along with huge numbers of domestic tourists.
Besides tourist hotels and public lodging houses and inns, Beijing will also provide 1,000 officially designated “Olympic Family Hotels” to accommodate the visitors. The cost of each “Olympic Family Hotel” is 50 to 80 dollars per night.
The Shanghai-based Ctrip.com also found the hotel price in Beijing Olympics’ co-host cities, such as Qingdao and Shenyang would rise by 30-40 percent during the event. The east China coast city of Qingdao, which is also a popular beachside resort city in summer, will see price rises of 50-100 percent higher than normal days during the Games.

from: xinhuanet.com

A English-Chinese edition of first aid guidance has been issued to help athletes and tourists at the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games.
The pamphlet translates medical expressions on different types of allergies, diarrhea and fever, and contains a map of hospitals and first aid centers in the Chinese capital.
In case of emergency, the brochure can also be used as an SOS sign, as the bright red color of its cover is easily seen.
Sources claim other seven-foreign-language versions of the pamphlet will be released during the Beijing Olympic Games in this summer.
Beijing has launched a series of campaigns to ensure food safety and the health and personal security of foreign athletes and tourists for the Games.
From January to May this year, local police will beef up campaigns against organized crime, robbery, murder and other severe criminal offenses as well as collect illegally-held explosives, guns and ammunition, and strengthen control over bows and crossbows.
The police will also step up surveillance of entertainment venues to fight pornography and gambling, and remove safety hazards within 200 meters of Olympic venues.
The city expects to welcome more than 500,000 visitors from overseas during the games, with the largest daily visitor-inflow estimated at 300,000. It has 806 star-ranking tourist hotels offering 130,000 guest-rooms or 220,000 beds. Other public lodging houses and inns will serve another 646,000 beds.
Beijing is also expected to solicit around 1,000 local households as “Olympic Family Hotels” to receive foreign visitors in effort to increase the city’s guest room supply.
Also, it is estimated that 450,000 tickets for this summer’s Olympic Games have been allocated, accounting for about a quarter of the tickets available for sale in the second phase.
More than 700,000 orders for 4.2 million tickets were received, but only 123,000 bookings were confirmed after a computerized random draw.

Tourism authorities here are looking for welcoming households to provide rooms for foreign visitors during the summer Olympics.
Xiong Yumei, deputy director of the Beijing Tourist Bureau, said that the bureau would recruit about 1,000 households as “Olympic Family Hotels” to increase the city’s guest room supply for the event. More than 500,000 overseas visitors are expected during the summer Games, with the largest daily inflow estimated at 300,000.
Xiong said that Beijing has 806 star-ranked hotels that have 130,000 rooms with 220,000 beds. Other lodging houses and inns have another 646,000 beds.
“The guest room supply may still fall short of demand, especially for hotels close to the sports venues,” said Xiong.
She said that the bureau would choose among households’ applications in March. “Families should own the apartments that they plan to offer and be able to provide foreign guests with spare rooms, good ventilation and sanitary conditions,” said Xiong. She added that at least one person in each household should be able to communicate in English.
Homestays are popular in Western countries but relatively new to China. Other requirements set by the Beijing Tourist Bureau include changing of bedding, appropriate dressing by household members and a willingness to help guests find their way around the city and the Games.
The charge for homestays will be US$50 to 80 per day, less than most hotels. Xiong said that the price might be adjusted to reflect market fluctuations.
The cost of a five-star hotel room during the Games is forecast to be about 2,960 yuan (US$411) per night. For four-star hotels, it is forecast at 2,320 yuan; for three-star rooms, 1,600 yuan and for two-star accommodations, 1,200 yuan.

from: chinadaily.com.cn 

Relying on a first-class drug testing laboratory, equipment, personnel, and strict procedures, BOCOG intends to provide a fair and clean competition platform for the athletes, a BOCOG official told the press on Tuesday.

Dai Jianping, vice-director of BOCOG’s Games Services Department, said a 6,000-sq-m drug testing center for the Beijing Olympic Games has been built, and elite experts from China and other countries are employed for the mission.
The specialists “have abundant anti-doping experience at large-scale international sport events,” he added.
To ensure the speedy delivery of samples from the test stations to the laboratory, BOCOG will entrust a professional security company to escort the samples all the way. Test stations will be set up at all Olympic venues to gather either urine or blood samples. The clinic of the Olympic Village will also dedicate a floor to doping tests, Dai said.
According to Dai, every doping control officer must undergo strict professional training and examination, and the trained officers are now taking part in the Good Luck Beijing sport events to enhance their anti-doping experience.
Doping control and testing cover all Olympic venues in the co-host cities, including the venues for football, sailing, and equestrian, said Dai.
Meanwhile, BOCOG has attached great importance to anti-doping communication, stressing the work to persuade youths to stay away from stimulants, to pursue a healthy lifestyle, and to keep sports and the Olympic Movement clean.

click image to enlage

Penny Xiang, another BOCOG official, talked about the menu for the Olympic Village in 2008. She said the menu would be set according to the requests of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and the practice of the previous Olympic Games, with western food as its major component, combined with a certain portion of Asian food. Positive reactions to the initial menu and suggestions have come from related specialists after taste testing. The catering service providers are modifying the menu and will submit it for approval in January.
“We have taken into consideration the catering needs of different clients from various countries with different beliefs,” said Xiang.
Regarding hotel prices, she said the rates of standard rooms are within the limits of the bid promise, and the average price falls below the bid promise. For instance, a standard room at a five-star hotel was pledged to be 370 US dollars, roughly 2,960 yuan with the exchange rate at that time, and now, the price of a contracted five-star hotel room is only 2,800 yuan, on average.
She said Beijing has sufficient hotel and guesthouse rooms to meet the Games-time needs, and the room rates will become reasonable as the demand and supply set a clearer market scenario.

from: beijing2008.cn

Hotel room rates for tourists during next year’s Olympics will not be as high as previously reported by Chinese media, officials from the Beijing Organizing Committee for the Games of the XXIX Olympiad (BOCOG) said Tuesday.
Local media reports earlier this year said hotels in the capital were planning to charge non-official visitors eight to 10 times their usual rates. Xiang Ping, deputy director of the BOCOG’s Games services department, said some hotel owners had announced high rates to see how the market would respond. She said prices would likely drop, however, once the supply of rooms increases.
“It is just a game between hotel owners and the market,” Xiang said. “Hotel owners have been getting a lot of room inquiries, signaling that demand is extremely high, so they released high rates.
“The exorbitant rates are mainly a sales strategy, and reasonable deals are still available if buyers haggle,” she said. Xiang said very few hotels have actually signed contracts with clients, and those that have are not that expensive.
The BOCOG has signed contracts with 120 hotels to accommodate the “Olympic Family”, which includes visiting Olympic officials, media professionals and sponsors. The prices of 30,000 contracted rooms are lower than those previously quoted by the BOCOG.
“The average price per night at a five-star contracted hotel is just over 2,800 yuan (380 U.S. dollars). We had previously said 2,960 yuan,” Xiang said.
“About 80 percent of those rooms have been booked.” She said that although the government will not intervene to stop owners of tourist hotels hiking prices, she was confident the market will lead to reasonable prices as the Games approached.
Some 500,000 foreign visitors and 1 million domestic tourists are expected to pour into Beijing for the Games.

from: xinhuanet.com