BEIJING, Sept. 2 (Xinhua) -- With the Paralympics
starting on Saturday, Beijing organizers are striving to make the host city
handicap "friendly" by installing barrier-free facilities in buses, taxis,
subway stations, shopping malls and hotels.
More than 600 Paralympic vehicles have been made handicap friendly, and 2,000 low-chassis
barrier-free buses were purchased and are currently operational.
At least one exit of each subway station, 123 in all,
is equipped with facilities to lift wheelchairs. Staff have also been trained to
give assistance to disabled passengers.
In addition, 70 specially-designed taxis with bigger
interiors, enough to hold a wheelchair, hit the road on Monday. The passenger
seat of some of the vehicles can be turned 90 degrees, making it convenient for
disabled people to get in and out.
Parking lots exclusively for the disabled have also
been planned along the 39 trunk roads.
A total of 188 barrier-free rooms are being offered
at 16 hotels serving the Paralympics. The hotels have gone through renovations
to remove any barriers to the handicapped in guest rooms, elevators and
bathrooms.
For instance, the space below a typical sink is kept
empty to make room for wheelchairs; elevators are installed with buttons at a
lower position for those in wheelchairs or with Braille signs for the blind.
Beijing tourist attractions, including the must-see
Great Wall and Forbidden City, have also been made accessible to the disabled.
Over the past few years the municipal government has
invested about 67 million yuan (10 million U.S. dollars) in building
barrier-free facilities at 60 tourist attractions. About 12,028 square meters of
wheelchair ramps were built and 3,183 meters of handrails installed.
Badaling, the most famous part of the Great Wall
around Beijing, has been equipped with two lifts and a wheelchair ramp to allows
for one of the best views of the man-made wonder meandering along mountain
ridges.
At the 600-year-old Palace Museum, or the Forbidden
City, a 1,000-meter barrier-free pathway allows wheelchair visitors to go along
the central axis of the palace.
The city's 235 large- and medium-sized shopping
centers have also been made accessible with barrier-free facilities such as
wheelchair ramps and Braille signs.
Silk Street, the popular clothing market, now has a
160-meter blind road leading to the entrance and 16 parking spaces for disabled
shoppers.
Tang Xiaoquan, the Beijing Organizing Committee for
the Olympic Games executive vice president, said the barrier-free facilities
were not for the Paralympics alone. "We mean to get the city's nearly 1 million
handicapped population more involved in public life."
Wang Jing, a Xuanwu District volunteer among the
44,000 serving the Paralympics, said the disabled needed to be understood as
well as helped on top of the barrier-free facilities.
"I bring paper and a pen with me in case a
hearing-impaired person would ask me for help."
Beijing enables barrier-free shopping and touring atop Great Wall
BEIJING, Aug. 30 (Xinhua) -- Beijing's must-go tourist attractions have been turned accessible for the disabled, as the city woos athletes and visitors to the Paralympic Games and fulfills its pledge to give normal life to its 1 million disabled population.
"We saw more disabled people make shopping here recently, as the Paralympics drew near," said Zhu Maimai, a saleswoman at the Silk Street Market in Beijing. Full story
Paralympic Games makes Beijing more accessible
BEIJING, Aug. 28 (Xinhua) -- The Paralympic Games has accelerated the construction of disabled-access facilities in Beijing, an official said here on Thursday.
"Beijing has done a lot of breakthrough work in the build-up to the Paralympic Games. Those work enables the disabled persons from home and abroad to learn more about the social progress of Beijing," said Tang Xiaoquan, executive vice president of the Beijing Organizing Committee for the Olympic Games (BOCOG). Full story
