Olympic media village officially opens
25/7/2008 16:46
The biggest media village in Olympic Games history officially opened in
northern Beijing this morning.
Zhao Jinfang, Deputy Director of Olympic
village (Paralympic Village) Operation Team, hosted a brief ceremony earlier in
the morning at the gate of North Star Media Village, also known as the Green
Homeland, to welcome the accredited journalists who will cover the upcoming 2008
Olympic Games.
"Despite the differences of colors, languages and
nationalities between us, we share the fascination and joy of the Olympic Games
with each other," said Zhao, who's also supervising the North Star which
together with Huiyuan compose the two residential compounds of the media village
for the Beijing Games.
Media delegates from Xinhua, Beijing Olympic
Broadcasting company (BOB), National Broadcasting Company (NBC) and TVB from
Hong Kong, China, representing the first bunch of accredited journalists who
checked in North Star this morning, received a special gift, a "Golden Key"
craftwork at the brief ceremony.
The Keys carry the best wishes from the
media village operating team of giving best services, striking up friendships
and sending good wills, according to Zhao.
"All things in Beijing are big and
new. It's fantabulous!" said one of the NBC staff named Susan, whose team was
given a special pass to settle yesterday in North Star before it officially
opened.
The other residential part of the media village, Huiyuan, also
welcomed its first guest this morning as a journalist from Xinhua checked in at
8:30 local time.
As the biggest-ever residential compound hosting the media
staff for Olympic Games, North Star, which is 10-15 minutes away by bus to the
Main Press Center (MPC) and International Broadcast Center (IBC), covers 10.2ha.
and has around 6,000 rooms in offer, while about 1,000 rooms in Huiyuan, just
500m away from the MPC and IBC, have been booked out by the accredited
media.
The media village has established a whole set of living facility, such
as post office, bank, supermarket, gyms, swimming pool, laundry and shuttle
buses, some of which will operate round-the- clock during the Olympiad, as well
as multilingual road signs and press workrooms were marked.
Both North Star
and Huiyuan are operated with staff from five- star hotels and with beautiful
man-made sight of lawns and streams. There's even an over 300-year-old temple
dating back to the Ming Dynasty well kept in North Star.
The media compounds
will become residential buildings after the Games.
Xinhua
|
