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President Hu boosts morale of country's Olympians
Updated: 2008-07-24 00:12
During a visit to the eastern city of Qingdao on Sunday, the venue of the Olympic sailing event, Hu highly praised the use of renewable energy and environment-friendly material in the buildings of the Qingdao Olympic Sailing Center. He urged the center staff to make greater efforts for the preparations.
Starting in mid-June, the coast of Qingdao was coated with a vast algae coming from the Yellow Sea. A bright green covering of algae smothered beaches and extended out several hundred meters. It once covered 32 percent of the sailing venue at the peak of the outbreak.
Hu expressed satisfaction with the efforts Qingdao had made to clean the seawater and make it qualified for the sailing event, and urged local authorities to continue to keep alert.
He also encouraged Chinese athletes to achieve good results and voiced sincere welcome for foreign athletes.
"The Chinese people are showing their warm welcome to athletes from all over the world. We will do our best to provide good service for you," he told some foreign athletes who were training at the center.
