June 20, 2009 19:24 PM

Water Cube, China's Olympic Pool Open To Public

By Vincent Low

BEIJING, June 20 (Bernama) -- China has opened its Olympic swimming pool, the 'Water Cube' which is also the country's National Aquatics Centre to the public for a fee of 50 Yuan (RM25.95) for a two-hour swim from today.

The 1.02 billion yuan (RM529.36 million) centre, which was built alongside Beijing National Stadium in the Olympic Green for the swimming competition of the 2008 Summer Olympics, will be opened to the public every Thursday to Sunday from 2pm till 7pm.

However, those intending to swim in the two-metre deep pool are required to show a health check certificate and deep-water swimming certificate, and to make it easy for the public to get the certificate, an on site test and a one time health check can be done at the centre.

One has to pay 20 Yuan (RM10.40) for the test, which include a 200-metre swim in any style and water treading for 30 seconds. Those passing the test can immediately use the deep-water pool.

Beijing Olympic Green Management Committee executive deputy director Wang Chun had disclosed earlier that refurbishment of the 'Water Cube' was expected to start after the country's National Day, that is after Oct 1, and that the plans had been submitted to the Beijing Municipal Government for approval.

Under the refurbishment plan, the present 11,000 temporary seats in the National Aquatics Centre would be dismantled to create 8,000 to 10,000 square metres of space for additional facilities.

Beijing Morning Post's recent report quoting Olympic Green management committe member Li AiQin as saying that the National Aquatics Centre's renovation would take about eight to ten months to complete, and the committee had not decided whether to totally shut down the centre for the renovation works.

Li also disclosed that a water theme park and a 10,000 square metre multipurpose service area will be built under the renovation project with the centre to be divided into different sections and being managed differently.

However the main pool and the warm-up pool areas will remain, Li was quoted as saying.

Li said the management of the centre would also introduce a new ticketing structure when it reopened next year, however, the entrance fee will be affordable to the public besides being able to cover operations costs.

-- BERNAMA

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