Participants and visitors to the Beijing Olympic Games would enjoy convenient and timely access to about 1,000 domestic and foreign publications, the nation's biggest importer of foreign publications has said.

Jiao Guoying, acting president of the China National Publications Import & Export (Group) Corporation, said athletes, officials and journalists attending the Games would be able to access publications in their native tongues in line with Olympic conventions.

Under the Olympics Kiosk Project, around 100 varieties of newspapers and magazines would be made available in a dozen languages, including English, French, German, Russian, Japanese, Italian and Korean.

Jiao, whose company is responsible for the project, said preparations have entered the final stage.

"From Tuesday, eight kiosks began offering the publications," Jiao said, adding the interior decoration of the kiosks had been completed by the end of June.

The list of available titles has yet to be released.

"Providing foreign newspapers and magazines during the Olympics is an international practice and also part of our commitment to the Games," she said.

Eight venues, including one in Qingdao, Shandong province, will get such kiosks for the duration of the Olympics and Paralympics.

Most of the 120 Olympics-contracted hotels in the capital will also get special newspaper shelves.

Jiao said efforts have been made to expand communication with relevant authorities to ensure publications' punctual distribution.

"Generally speaking, the daily newspapers should be presented on kiosks' shelves in the afternoon, unless their distribution is disrupted by bad weather," Jiao said.

Newspapers are expected to be slightly more expensive than in their home markets because of flight shipment costs.

The varieties and numbers of editions at each kiosk would vary according to the needs of each venue and would be mostly determined by the anticipated number of visitors.

A team of 200 people with nine vehicles would be responsible for shipment, transportation and distribution of publications in the project.

Jiao said the work would be more of an honor and rare opportunity than a job, and her corporation hopes to head a similar project during the 2010 World Expo in Shanghai.

(China Daily July 10, 2008)