2008 Beijing Olympics: A walk in the park for 30,000 tourists

2008-07-08

A walk in the park for 30,000 tourists

Updated：2008-07-07

Inside Olympic Forest Park (Photo credit: Li Wei)

"Bird's Nest" (Photo credit: Li Wei)

(BEIJING, July 7) -- In the northern part of Beijing lies China's largest city park – Olympic Forest Park, which hosted its first batch of visitors, 30,000 guests, recently.

Tourists can perch on the large artificial rocks scattered throughout the park to catch a glimpse of the 17 Olympic venues in the area, including the "Bird's Nest" and "Water Cube."

Olympic Forest Park covers 12 square kilometers of land. Sitting between North Fourth and Fifth Ring Roads, the park is divided into three sections: north, center, and south. During the Games, the park will host the opening and closing ceremonies, as well as 15 major competitive events.

From Olympic Forest Park, guests can get a close-up view of the IBC. (Photo credit: Li Wei)

View of Olympic Forest Park (Photo credit: Li Wei)

Lines 8 (Olympic Lateral), 10 and 5 will get tourists near the park. In addition, during Games-time, bus stops will be established on all four sides of the park, allowing 37 regular bus routes and 17 specific Olympic lines to deposit and pick up guests conveniently. The 17 Olympic lines will be free to ticket holders, and are divided into 8 regular lines and 9 express routes.

7 years after Beijing was awarded the honor of hosting the Olympics, all of the city's bid promises to clean up the environment have been fulfilled.

For example, in 2000, Beijing's green coverage rate was 41.9%; in 2007, that number reached 51.6%. Also, a 23,000 hectare green belt now runs through the city.