Will Global Memories Luxury Enjoy the River View Room in Lujiazui, Hangzhou?, Embrace the Asian Games: Visit Hangzhou Asian Games Media Village Asian Games | Media | Global

Editor's note: The 19th Asian Games will be held in Hangzhou, Zhejiang from September 23 to October 8. This is the third time China has hosted the Asian Games since the 1990 Beijing Asian Games and the 2010 Guangzhou Asian Games. This is also the largest and highest level international comprehensive sports event held in China after the successful convening of the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, attracting national and global attention.

The Hangzhou Asian Games is the home ground for Chinese athletes and a stage test for their preparation for the 2024 Paris Olympics. Chinese athletes will strive to achieve excellent results, showcase a good style, and achieve both sports results and spiritual civilization.

The Liberation Daily's Shangguan News Movement+column has launched a special column called "Embrace the Asian Games" to convey the enthusiasm of the Hangzhou Asian Games and showcase the passion of Chinese athletes.

The Second World Media Conference of the Hangzhou Asian Games was recently held in Hangzhou. On June 29th, nearly 300 representatives of Chinese and foreign media reporters walked into the media village of the Asian Games Village located on the banks of the Qiantang River. During the Asian Games, this will be the home of approximately 12000 media reporters worldwide.

Asian Games Media Village, a warm and concise "Hangzhou Home"

The total construction area of the Hangzhou Asian Games Media Village is 660000 square meters, with a total of 31 buildings and 2551 apartments. During the Asian Games, it will provide living, rest, entertainment, and work exchange support for 5000 Chinese and foreign media personnel. The reporter entered the media village and found that the environment was quiet, the facilities were complete, the area had a large green area, and the functions were diverse.

At present, there are four different types of apartments for media to choose from. Indoor accommodation equipment is available, ranging from toothbrushes and slippers to washing machines and kitchen equipment. Meanwhile, in terms of geographical location, due to its proximity to the athlete village, technical officials village, and the main venue group of the Asian Games, the media village greatly facilitates the coverage of the Asian Games by world media.

The overall location of the Hangzhou Asian Games Asian Games Village is in the Asian Olympic City on the south bank of the Qiantang River in Hangzhou. The Asian Games Village adopts a "three villages in one" model, where the athlete village, technical officer village, and media village are all located in the same area. As early as June 16th, when the countdown to the Hangzhou Asian Games was 100 days, the interior and exterior of the athlete village were first publicly announced. The Hangzhou Asian Organizing Committee took advantage of the World Media Conference to open a media village for the first time.

The Second World Media Conference of the Hangzhou Asian Games attracted more than 300 people, including representatives from the Asian Olympic Council, Asian National Olympic Committees, Asian Sports Federations, international news agencies such as Xinhua News Agency, Associated Press, Agence France Presse, Reuters, mainstream Asian media, domestic media, and representatives from the Japan Aichi Nagoya Asian Organizing Committee.

During the media conference for the Asian Games in Hangzhou, a journalist from Liberation Daily and Shangguan News visited the Asian Games Media Village and also inspected some of the competition venues, main media centers, and other supporting facilities. They personally experienced the meticulous preparation work for the Hangzhou Asian Games and felt the passion of the Asian Games ahead of time.

New prime location, experiencing the new center of Hangzhou city

After visiting the camp, the reporter found that the hardware and software of media services for the 2022 Hangzhou Asian Games are very "friendly" to sports journalists in Asia and even globally. Firstly, the location of the Hangzhou Asian Games Asian Games Village should be the most prime location in the city center among the three Chinese cities hosting the Asian Games.

Before the Hangzhou Asian Games, China had already hosted the 1990 Beijing Asian Games and the 2010 Guangzhou Asian Games. These two first tier cities in China have adopted the same decision-making strategy for selecting the location of the Asian Games Village, which is to change the imbalance of development between urban areas.

In the mid-1980s, the main urban area of Beijing was still limited to the current Third Ring Road, and the development of one south and one north was relatively lagging behind. The Beijing Asian Games have brought about significant changes in the urban construction and layout of Beijing. The Asian Games Village is located between the North Third Ring Road and the North Fourth Ring Road in Chaoyang District, Beijing. During the large-scale urban renovation and expansion process, the axis of Beijing's urban construction shifted northward for the first time on a large scale.

The Guangzhou Asian Games Village is located in the new city of Guangzhou, about 40 kilometers away from the city center. Although the construction and use of the Asian Games dedicated road allows journalists to return to the "media village" in 45 minutes from the city center, overall, being far from the city center greatly increases the workload of media personnel, and the richness of their leisure life is also insufficient.

Image description: The predecessor of the Asian Games Village was a farmland, and now it has become a new center surrounded by skyscrapers in Hangzhou.

In the 2022 Hangzhou Asian Games, the location of the Media Village, if compared to the Shanghai Bund, is basically the "Lujiazui Pudong" area of Hangzhou, which is the core CBD area without exception. The Huangpu River in Shanghai once caused the public to "prefer a bed in Puxi to a room in Pudong"; The Qiantang River in Hangzhou also faces the reality of uneven development in the south and north of the Yangtze River.

The area where the media village is located belongs to the Xiaoshan area, which may be considered as the "lower corner" by the people of old Hangzhou. However, the trend of the times is rolling forward, and Hangzhou's development is changing rapidly. With the help of the two major trends of the G20 summit and the Asian Games, the Asian Games Village has settled in the north of Qianjiang Century City, which happens to be "three legged" with the adjacent Hangzhou Olympic Sports Expo City and the Qianjiang New City on the opposite bank. This "iron corner" of the river has made Hangzhou's position as a new urban center more stable, and has become the foundation for Hangzhou to go global. It will also become a window for showcasing China's image at the 2022 Hangzhou Asian Games.

Illustrated: The hardware facilities of the Asian Games Village Athletes Village are more in line with the characteristics of athletes.

The Asian Games Village, including the Media Village, actually only played a temporary role during the Asian Games. After the Asian Games, it will return to its true nature: commercial housing with good location and quality. It is reported that the real estate in the Media Village area will be used as talent apartments for local government departments in the future and will not be sold to the public; But the real estate in the athlete village area has long been sold out and will be delivered to the homebuyers after the Asian Games.

After inspecting the model houses in the media village on site, the author felt that the quality of the housing was already good, and it is reported that the quality of the housing in the athlete village is better. In addition, there are multiple buildings in the Media Village adjacent to the Qiantang River. Media reporters who live in side apartments can have a better view of the scenery on both sides of the Qiantang River, which can be called "super invincible river view houses".

Convenient travel and thoughtful attention to detail operation

Secondly, it is very close and convenient for travel. The media village where the media stayed is only about 3 kilometers away from the main news center and the Hangzhou Olympic Sports Center venue cluster. The Hangzhou Olympic Sports Center venue group will produce nearly 1/4 of the gold medals for the Hangzhou Asian Games. The main news center where journalists publish daily articles is located next to this venue group. The convenience of media reporters covering events during the day and going out to relax at night is expected to reach the peak of the history of the Asian Games.

Image description: Some of the side rooms in the media village offer a direct view of the Qiantang River.

Finally, the enthusiastic service attitude of the Hangzhou Asian Games Organizing Committee towards the media is also expected to bring surprises. Many sports journalists interviewed about comprehensive sports events, and their biggest concern was that the budget exceeded the limit. Every international competition is a time when the host city makes a big profit. Whether it's accommodation, transportation, or catering, prices often increase several times, which makes the media reporters who go to interview scratch their heads. After all, the relevant units have strict accommodation and food standards.

It is reported that the Hangzhou Asian Games Media Village does not have a floor to ceiling price for media accommodation. The price of 260 yuan per night is very affordable and will not exceed the travel accommodation standards of relevant media organizations. Many central media reporters are delighted to hear this information. At the same time, the pricing of media meals in the main news center is being drafted. It is reported that registered journalists who interview the Asian Games may be able to have a variety of buffet meals at the main news center for around 30-50 yuan. This is indeed very considerate for some media agency employees who only have a daily meal standard of 80 yuan for business trips.