Laixi limbers up for leisure events

Laixi, a county-level city of Qingdao, aims to use the World Leisure Games 2015 in September to boost its urbanization and environmental protection.

The city is 100 kilometers from downtown Qingdao and boasts attractive natural scenery with lakes and creeks.

The 1,568-square-kilometer city is in the heart of Jiaodong Peninsula and has a population of 738,000. With a number of highways and railways linking the city and the rest of the country, it is a significant transport hub in Shandong province.

In 2014, the city's fiscal revenue reached 4.27 billion yuan ($690 million), a 19.7 percent annual increase. The revenue generated from its tourism sector broke the 3 billion yuan mark, rising 22 percent from 2013.

Laixi's urban and rural residents saw their incomes grow by 8.7 percent and 11.9 percent to 32,881 yuan and 16,990 yuan last year.

Currently, more than 500 foreign companies, including 13 Fortune 500 companies, have operations in Laixi.

The city is known as an agricultural products processing base for many food industry giants including Coca-Cola, PepsiCo, KFC and McDonald's.

Today its industrial landscape is dominated by six pillar sectors, including textiles and clothing, machinery and auto parts manufacturing, rubber materials, circular economy and new graphite materials.

The city's ample water resources shape its landscape with four rivers and more than 60 lakes.

Dagu River, known as Qingdao's mother river, flows southward through Laixi for 74.4 km and has a drainage area of more than 1,480 sq km in Laixi before it enters Jiaozhou county.

Laixi Lake, the largest in Jiaodong Peninsula, has an area of 56 sq km, with water volume of 402 million square meters. The 13.33-sq-km Jiangshan Lake and its neighboring area constitute the largest wetland in the peninsula.

The 15-sq-km Daqing Mountain Forest Park boasts forest coverage of 95 percent.

The local government has made efforts to prepare the city's infrastructure for the 2015 World Leisure Games and has integrated it with the urbanization of Laixi and environmental protection.

To provide an eco-friendly living environment for its residents, Laixi has developed a 40-sq-km new urban area with greenery coverage of 44.3 percent.

Fourteen water treatment projects are under construction in Laixi, including a 61-km sewage treatment network in its rural area and a water quality improvement project for 11 tributaries of Dagu River.

The Dagu River project will create 40 sq km of water surface and a 46-sq-km riverside park. A 4-meterwide bike track has also been built along the river.

Four dilapidated urban communities and houses in 98 villages have been renovated.

Construction of a light railway connecting downtown Qingdao and Laixi is underway and when complete the journey will take 30 minutes.

Construction of the venues for the leisure games is well underway.

Laixi Cultural Center has been completed, the athletes village is being decorated and the World Leisure Games Park is due to open by the end of June.

A group of 1,600 volunteers will provide services for athletes, spectators and tourists during the games and their training has started.

City planners have worked out how the sports facilities will be used after the event to ensure Laixi will remain a popular destination for tourism and leisure.

huqing@chinadaily.com.cn

(China Daily 06/04/2015 page12)