Beijing started on Saturday a major renovation work on three existing sports facilities, bringing the total of Olympic venues under construction to 23.

The facilities include a multi-functional stadium, a gymnasium and a swimming center. They are all part of the Olympic Sports Complex, which was built in the Chinese capital for the 1990 Asian Games.

The Olympic Sports Complex, one of the regular training bases for Chinese athletes, will host soccer, handball, water polo and modern pentathlon competitions of the 2008 Games. It will also serve for training purposes.

The face-lifting work is scheduled to be completed in August 2007.

A total of 37 competition venues will be used for the 2008 Olympics, including 14 brand new, 14 existing facilities that need renovation and upgrading, and nine temporary.

With a total of 17,000 workers being employed at all construction sites, Beijing's construction for the Games has moved into higher gear. According to Jin Yan, chief of the Beijing 2008 Project Construction Headquarter Office, the main structures of all the venues will be completed by the end of this year.

Source: Xinhua