With the 2011 Shenzhen Universiade to kick off in four days, Shenzhen will soon be in the spotlight of the whole world. As the pioneering city in China's reform and opening up, is Shenzhen ready to host such an International event? What is unique for the upcoming Universiade? And what changes have Shenzhen made in 4 years' preparations since it was named the host city in 2007? Wang Rong, Secretary Municipal Committee of the CPC Shenzhen and vice president of the Games Organizing Committee, tells us more.

Make a difference

According to Wang, Shenzhen has learned from the 2008 Beijing Olympics and 2010 Guangzhou Asian Games, and at the same time has made its own innovations in preparing and hosting the Universiade. Focusing on sports and the college athletes, the opening ceremony will be a green one instead of an extravagant one, with no fireworks displays. The closing ceremony will be held in "Window of the World" theme park, the first time ever in Sports Games history.

As for the torch relay, Shenzhen launched an online virtual torch relay, which is also the first time in international sports events. So far, the online torch relay has attracted more than 9.4 million netizens to take part.

Shenzhen also seeks to establish a complete volunteer service system made up of games volunteers, city volunteers and social volunteers in its preparations for the Universiade.

Fully utilizing the venues to serve for Shenzhen's development

Wang stated that of the 60 games venues, only 22 are newly built and the others are all existing stadiums, additionally, many office facilities in the venues are lent or borrowed from other departments, which saves a lot of administration expenses.

Direct investment from the government has declined with the utilization of market mechanism. For example, the Shenzhen Bay Sports Centre was invested and constructed by the China Resources Enterprise. Now there are full reservations for business shows to perform in the venue after the opening ceremony until the end of the year, which solves the problem of utilizing venues after the Games.

The games village will function as a campus and students dormitories after the games as well. Eleven newly-built and 15 renovated stadiums, which are located in campus, will be transferred to schools for usage. Universiade as platform

Shenzhen will take the opportunity of hosting the Universiade, showing to the world its openness, diversity, integrity and innovation.

The Shenzhen Universiade, which attracts more 12,000 participants from 152 delegations, is the biggest international event ever held in Shenzhen. Not only has Shenzhen been strengthened as an international city, but its international reputation and influence have benefitted from hosting the Universiade.

Universiade for citizens' welfare

The Universiade has brought about great changes to Shenzhen. Shenzhen's public transportation system has been significantly improved. Twenty-two new, modern sports stadiums have been built for the Games. The city environment has become more pleasing, with 335 kilometers regional greenway and more leisure parks. About 80 more community service centers have been newly built to benefit more community residents, each larger than 400 square meters.

System legacy

Shenzhen has launched a "Green Commuting" campaign, calling for car owners to drive their cars less often during the Universiade period. The campaign has received great success with more than 380,000 drivers apply to stop their car usage.