Apartment buildings of the Beijing Universiade Athletes’ Village will be turned into student dorms after the games, said Liu Zhaowu, deputy director of the physical and aesthetic education department of the Beijing Municipal Education Commission.
Mr. Liu said that the site of the Village was taken near Beijing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics (BUAA) because BUAA is right in the center of the city’s university area. After the Universiade, the 3,000 standard apartments in the Village will become dormitories for students from BUAA and other universities around.
According to Xing Dengjiang, co-director of the physical education and training department of BUAA, the university has postponed the registration date for freshmen to October 5, one month later than usual, so as to leave some time to refurnish the rooms after the games.
The increasing enrollment in BUAA and other universities is giving an ever greater pressure on housing, Xing said. The Universiade Athletes’ Village is expected to alleviate the pressure. However, he said, the Village appartments-turned dorms will cost more dearly than conventional dorms -- about three times the current rent, which may be a burden for students from poor families. It will be up to the newly enrolled students whether to live in the new or the old dorms, he said.
(21dnn.com 08/21/2001)
