QINGDAO: In a bid to play a significant role in hosting a successful Olympic Games, Qingdao, where the regatta events of the 2008 Games will take place, has promised to incorporate the idea of "Green Olympics" into every aspect of the Qingdao Olympic Sailing Centre.

According to officials from the Olympic Sailing Committee, the centre is built on the basis of innovative design and nature. It is based on natural landforms and seaside views and also houses a special zoological area.

As host of the sailing competitions, Qingdao has produced an action plan on environmental protection in the area that will be used for the Olympic competitions. Since 2003, Qingdao has been conducting environmental studies on the sea in the area and clean-up work has been completed in a 90,000 metre square zone in the Gulf of Fushan.

Qingdao is also expanding its tree planting and natural resource protection policies.

To ensure few chemicals are used, easy replacement and recycling, environmentally friendly materials are being used during the centre's construction.

High-quality HDPE tubes are being used, while all the inspection wells are made of concrete.

To maintain the natural scenes and terrain around Swallow Island Mountain, a unique ecological unit, original designs to set up sight-seeing towers on top of the mountain were abolished. A long tunnel was also built to replace the scheduled plan of a road on the mountain, even though the tunnel exceeded the budget by 3 million yuan.

The sailing centre has received a total investment of nearly 3,300 million yuan. It was built on the former site of Beihai Shipyard and covers an area of about 45 hectares, amid 30 hectares dedicated to various venues and 15 hectares classed as a development zone.

The necessary facilities including an Olympic branch village, athlete's centre, administration centre, venue media centre and logistics centre all lie in the venue district with a total construction area of about 138,000 square metres. In addition, there are some auxiliary facilities such as a measurement hall quay, boat parking, slipway, primary and secondary breakwater and an Olympic commemorative wall.

Original vegetation was protected during the construction of the tunnel. Some old facilities like the tower crane, dry dock and bollard have been preserved as historic objects.

After the competitions, all the facilities will be transformed to tourist sites, making the centre one of most appealing and entertaining scenes in Qingdao.

The 168 lamps in the centre run on solar and wind power.

To promote the Green Olympics, a total of 5 million volunteers have been involved in tree planting over the past few years.

More than 560,000 mu (93,333 acres) of forest has been built up, while the green belts along the sea have been extended by 116 kilometres.

Along the highways and streets, green belts have also been added.

To meet international competition standards, the city spent half a year cleaning up silt at the bottom of the competition areas.