OLYMPICS /
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Beijing goes 'barrier-free' in Paralympics run-up
Xinhua
Updated: 2008-09-02 22:22
Badaling, the most famous part of the Great Wall around Beijing, has been equipped with two lifts and a wheelchair ramp to allow for one of the best views of the man-made wonder meandering along mountain ridges.
At the 600-year-old Palace Museum, or the Forbidden City, a 1,000-meter barrier-free pathway allows wheelchair visitors to go along the central axis of the palace.
The city's 235 large- and medium-sized shopping centers have also been made accessible with barrier-free facilities such as wheelchair ramps and Braille signs.
Silk Street, the popular clothing market, now has a 160-meter blind road leading to the entrance and 16 parking spaces for disabled shoppers.
Tang Xiaoquan, the Beijing Organizing Committee for the Olympic Games executive vice president, said the barrier-free facilities were not for the Paralympics alone. "We mean to get the city's nearly 1 million handicapped population more involved in public life."
Wang Jing, a Xuanwu District volunteer among the 44,000 serving the Paralympics, said the disabled needed to be understood as well as helped on top of the barrier-free facilities.
"I bring paper and a pen with me in case a hearing-impaired person would ask me for help."
