City seeks upgrading through organization of global event

Paradise on Earth taking shape to be a sports gala in the future

A bird's-eye view of the main stadium for the Hangzhou 2022 Asian Games. CFP

Hangzhou should seize the opportunities brought by the 19th Asian Games Hangzhou 2022 and the 4th Asian Para Games Hangzhou 2022 to upgrade the city in an all-around way, said a top official of the city.

Zhou Jiangyong, Party secretary of Hangzhou, the host city of the Games, made the remarks at a meeting on April 17.

Hangzhou in East China's Zhejiang province won the bid to host the Asian Games in September 2015, becoming the third city in China to host the quadrennial continental event, after Beijing in 1990 and Guangzhou, capital of Guangdong province, in 2010.

The Hangzhou Asian Games will be held in the city from Sept 10 to 25 in 2022 and the Hangzhou Asian Para Games are scheduled to take place from Oct 9 to 15, 2022.

By organising the international sports event, Hangzhou will speed up the building of a world-renowned city with distinctive features, according to the official.

An overall plan stating the detailed arrangements for the upgrading of the city from eight perspectives was also released at the meeting. Zhou said the plan, aiming to push forward with the city development, is necessary for Hangzhou to make high-level preparations for the Games, to shore up the confidence of people and to improve global competitiveness and influence.

In general, he noted that to host the Games, Hangzhou will be more amiable with city functions improved, more civilized with every resident having etiquette, more livable and smarter with intelligent and green technologies adopted in the event organization and more open with global exchanges and cooperation activities held.

Hangzhou plans to organize more than 1,500 events and activities each year and construct about 30 new sports venues for the public, according to the plan. Moreover, each district and county in the city will build a park themed on the Games.

To promote Hangzhou's global development, the city is striving to attract headquarters and branch offices of international institutions, sports organizations and transnational corporations.

As the integrated development of the Yangtze River Delta region has been elevated to a national strategy, Hangzhou pins more hopes on the interconnections with other areas in the delta region, such as Shanghai, for further development.

Hangzhou, along with other co-hosting cities of the Games, will design a service system for integrated rail transportation and provide more convenience for people to get to Shanghai Pudong International Airport, one of the busiest airports for international flights in China.

As stated in the plan, a batch of public spaces for outdoor activities, including match watching, will be authorized to operate citywide.

Hangzhou is a city boasting a country-leading digital economy. When designing opening and closing ceremonies, and building sports venues and the Asian Games villages, advanced technologies such as 5G, artificial intelligence and blockchain are expected to be applied to empowering the event digitally, according to the plan.

Also, as a home to a myriad of time-honored cultural items, Hangzhou hopes to display its long history and profound culture via an exhibition hall, the plan stated.

Through the international event, Hangzhou hopes to showcase its culture of harmony and civilization to the world, which makes the government include citizens' etiquette into the plan of upgrading the city for the Games. The culture of the Asian Games will be promoted at schools, communities as well as villages, and institutions and companies.

As many as 100 schools featuring sports education will be created in Hangzhou, according to the plan.

In addition to the overall plan, a detailed action scheme about the construction of a barrier-free environment was released on June 4, noting that by 2022, the city, which is home to 500,000 handicapped people, will have a world-class and barrier-free environment with complete policies, standards and facilities.

Sheikh Ahmad al-Fahad al-Sabah, president of the Olympic Council of Asia, inspects venues for the Hangzhou Asian Games in November 2018. CHINA DAILY

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