On the Scene in Beijing -- Paralympic Opening Ceremony

Tickets on the Shelf

A total of 2.1 million tickets are available for the The supply of tickets for events in the Water Cube is tight, says BOCOGEVP Wang Wei. (Getty Images)Paralympics, but only about half have been sold, according to BOCOG executive vice president Wang Wei.

And to fill the empty seats, Beijing may deploy more volunteer cheer squads like the ones that appeared en bloc during the Olympics.

"For Paralympic competition, we must be aware of the difficulty of filling all the stadiums," Wang said during a press conference, attributing the difficulty to the duration of the competitions. He predicted that spectators will take breaks and drift out during the sessions.

"People organizing the Paralympic Games are doing what we can to make the look of the Games very positive," Wang commented, but without specifying if stand-by volunteers would be sent to warm the empty seats.

Competition tickets retail for $4 to $12. Beijing originally planned to sell only 1.6 million tickets, but then decided to open the third tier of the Bird's Nest, which added 500,000 tickets to the total.

Some 400,000 tickets will distributed to young people as part of an educational program, Wang said.

"I think there will be a lot of young people at the stadiums watching the competition and helping to create a sound atmosphere for the competitors."

Torch Reaches Beijing

The president of the International Paralympic Committee and the mayor of the next Paralympics host city join the 2008 Paralympic relay on the first day of a two-day tour of Beijing.

IPC president Philip Craven and several of his colleagues took a turn with the torch, as did Vancouver mayor Sam Sullivan, who was sporting a Canada jersey. The relay began at the Millennium Monument and finished with a circuit, then a cruise, of the lake at the Summer Palace.

The final day of the relay begins at Chaoyang Park and finishes with the Paralympics opening ceremony evening of Sept. 6.

Games of Equal Splendor

A member of Beijing's lobby for people with a disability says that the city's promise of a Paralympics of equal splendor means an opportunity for his constituency.

"My federation has seized the opportunity," says Wang Jingkui, a liasion to BOCOG from the Beijing Disabled Person's Federation, as he reels out a list of improvements that have come since the city made its equality promise.

Some 2,400 barrier-free busses are on the road, subways are more accessible, 1,500 km of sidewalks feature bumps and grooves to guide the visually impaired, there's a new on-call taxi service for people with disabilities "It is fair to say that throughout Beijing, the overall environment is at unprecedented level for creating convenience for persons with disabilities," says Wang Jingkui. (ATR)and 5,000 families have received accessibility upgrades for their homes.

Wang says over 70,000 Beijingers have received job training, like the 1,700 visually impaired people now working as masseuses.

The BDPF and city of Beijing provide those services and others like recreational opportunities or even help sourcing groceries through so-called "Sweet Homes", community centers for people with a disability. Wang says 150 Sweet Homes have been built this year.

The Federation concedes that there are not yet enough Sweet Homes to accommodate the population in Beijing; even as construction continues, that target won't be hit until 2010. According to official statistics, nearly 6.5 percent of Beijing residents, some one million people, have a disability.

And BOCOG statistics confirm that service gaps remain. Of the 123 subway stations, only 64 are fully barrier-free, according to statistics given at a BOCOG press conference. And sidewalk cuts and wheelchair-accessible road overpasses and underpasses have yet to reach the entire city.

"I'm not going to say that we've fully satisfied every individual with a disability but we are doing our best," BOCOG EVP Wang Wei says.

But within China, media coverage of the Games has "done a great deal to support the cause of the disabled," Wang from the BDPF points out.

Indeed Chinese media make up the largest tranche of Games reporters: more than half the 6,325 accredited media come from the mainland.

Beijing Briefs

Paralympics organizers will conduct 1,100 in-competition drug tests, according to BOCOG EVP Wang Wei. The number is a 70 percent increase over Athens tests. There are 480 anti-doping officials on duty and WADA is monitoring the process.

Opening ceremony organizers completed a dress rehearsal in the Bird's Nest last night, minus fireworks but with spectators. As the sun set on Sept. 4, people streamed out of the subway stop on the Olympic Green toward the Bird's Nest entrances, tickets in hand. One volunteer told ATR that the tickets were sold online; a Games staffer said he got a ticket at work.

Three Beijing parks designated as protest zones during the Olympics will continue that function during the Paralympics, says Liu Zhi, deputy secretary general of the Beijing municipal government. None of the 77 protest permits filed during the August Games were approved.

ATR Coverage of the Beijing Paralympics is Proudly Presented by Rio 2016.

Written by Maggie Lee in Beijing.Your best source for news about the Olympics is www.aroundtherings.com, for subscribers only.