About 160,000 to be present at Olympic opening: official
4/8/2008 17:03
About 160,000 people will attend the Olympic opening ceremony on Friday,
said a Beijing city government official in Beijing today.
About 70,000 will
be guests, VIPs, athletes and actors performing at the ceremony and the
remaining 90,000 will be the audience, staff and volunteers, said Zhou Zhengyu,
deputy director of the Beijing Municipal Committee of Communications, at a press
conference.
The authorities have tested a plan to get this huge number of
people in and out of the National Stadium, or Bird's Nest, he said.
The
guests, athletes and artists will take chartered buses and the audiences will
take public buses and the metro.
Staff and volunteers will begin working at
the Bird's Nest on Friday morning. The stadium and whole Olympic core area will
formally open to the public from 4:00 p.m. Friday.
"The rush hours will be
from 4:00 p.m. to 8: 00 p.m. and after the ceremony," Zhou said.
The two
rehearsals on July 30 and Aug. 2 tested the plan and proved it to be effective,
he said. "We will improve it according to real situations."
According to
Zhou, 28 direct non-stop bus routes will link the Olympic core area to the rest
of the city while 48 regular bus routes and three metro lines also connect the
area with the city.
When the third rehearsal is held tomorrow, the government
plans to add 40 stops along the 28 direct bus routes and extend the operation
time of metro lines, according to audience requests, Zhou said.
On Friday
evening, all metro lines will operate round the clock, except that linking the
airport.
"We are confident of providing good traffic service to the Olympic
opening," Zhou said.
Xinhua
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