Spring City welcomes the 11th National Games

By Cao Qingqing (chinadaily.com.cn)
Updated: 2009-10-16 17:45

On the evening of Oct 16, athletes and spectators will gather to watch the lighting of the main torch at the Jinan Olympic Centre stadium for the country’s 11th National Games.

Huang Sheng, deputy director of the organizing committee of the Games and the vice Governor of Shandong Province, said "The 11th National Games, which are being anticipated by so many people, will soon be held. We, the Shandong people, will make it a special, peaceful and satisfactory event with our high spirit and passion.”

Liu Jianming, a citizen of Jinan city’s Lixia district and volunteer at the Games, said "Together with over 200,000 volunteers, I will show the kindness and hospitality of the Shandong people with smiles and warm service. It is my honor to show my commitment to the Games."

According to the organizing committee, Jinan has invested over 140 billion yuan on the National Games. The money has been spent on 80 key engineering constructions and 90 key renovations. The city has undertaken enormous change.

Taking the opportunity of the National Games, Jinan sped up the establishment of a municipal fitness network and supporting projects in counties and urban areas with the aim of building up the level of local fitness facilities. Parachute tower, Daming Lake, Flowers Garden and other municipal fitness centers have been established. Yanshan Fitness Square, Zhongshan Park and five other fitness centers have been renovated.

With the help of public welfare funds, Jinan carried out rural fitness engineering. To continuously improve farmers’ fitness conditions, basketball courts, table-tennis, workout paths and other fitness facilities have been constructed in the 4,543 administrative villages of the city. In recent years, focusing on the improvement of people's overall physical condition, the city has organized a various sporting events.

In the past three years, the city has organized over 300 demonstrations of excellent nationwide fitness programs and over four million people have participated in the activities.