Xi will oversee start of Hangzhou’s smart Asian Games, welcome visiting foreign leaders

Self-driving electric shuttles will serve the upcoming Asian Games in Shaoxing, Zhejiang province. (LONG WEI / FOR CHINA DAILY)

President Xi Jinping will attend the opening ceremony of the 19th Asian Games in Hangzhou, Zhejiang province, and host visiting foreign leaders from Sept 22 to 23, Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying announced.

The foreign leaders attending the opening ceremony are King Norodom Sihamoni of Cambodia, President Bashar al-Assad of Syria, Crown Prince Sheikh Meshal Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah of Kuwait, Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal Prachanda of Nepal, Prime Minister Xanana Gusmao of Timor-Leste, Prime Minister Han Duck-soo of the Republic of Korea and Speaker of the Dewan Rakyat of Malaysia Johari bin Abdul.

In addition, the Sultan of Brunei’s representative Prince Haji Sufri Bolkiah, the Emir of Qatar’s representative Sheikh Joaan Bin Hamad Bin Khalifa Al Thani, Prince Faisal bin Hussein of Jordan, Princess Sirivannavari of Thailand and Deputy Prime Minister Edil Baisalov of Kyrgyzstan will attend relevant events.

Hangzhou, along with five other cities in Zhejiang province, is set to host a smart Asian Games, which will officially open on Sept 23, said Chen Weiqiang, chief spokesman for the Hangzhou Asian Games and the Hangzhou Asian Para Games.

Chen was addressing a news conference on Sept 21 at the Main Media Center of the Games. He was joined by Mao Genhong and Xu Deqing, the other spokespersons for the event.

“The Hangzhou Asian Games — the third Asiad to be hosted in China — is an Asian Games held in the new era. Many high-tech applications have been installed to deliver a smart Games,” said Chen, who is also executive secretary-general of the Hangzhou Asian Games Organizing Committee.

“We have overcome a lot of challenges and are now fully equipped to successfully hold the Games. All competition equipment and support and operation teams are in place,” he added.

The Asian Games, also called the Asiad, is a series of athletic events held for participants from Asian countries. The competition is held every four years. The 19th edition of the Games was originally scheduled in China in 2022, but deferred due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

More than 12,000 athletes from 45 countries and regions in Asia will vie for 481 gold medals in 40 sports at 56 competition venues in Hangzhou, Ningbo, Wenzhou, Huzhou, Shaoxing, and Jinhua. There are sports such as wushu and sepak takraw that are representative of the continent and emerging ones such as skateboarding and esports, which are popular with young people.

While preliminary matches of beach volleyball, volleyball, cricket, and soccer began on Sept 19, the formal opening ceremony of the Games will take place on Sept 23 at the Hangzhou Olympic Sports Centre.

For the first time, “online torchbearers” from around the world will together light the “online flame” of the Games during the opening ceremony, Chen said.

The digital torch relay was launched on June 15 in sync with the physical torch relay. More than 100 million netizens, who pass on the torch by shaking their mobile phones, have participated in the digital relay as of Sept 20.

“We’ve opened a new era in our preparations for the Asiad; it is the era of digitalization,” Chen said, adding that smart control systems, enabled by 5G technology, the internet of things, big data, and artificial intelligence, among others, have been installed at major competition venues.

“Smart viewing” is on offer for those keen on having an immersive experience of the Games without buying a ticket, according to spokesman Mao Genhong, who is also deputy secretary-general of the Hangzhou Asian Games Organizing Committee.

“Space is limited at the venues, so many of our audiences might want to watch the Games via online viewing platforms,” Mao said.

Tickets for the competitions were so much in demand that most of them were sold soon after the online ticketing window opened on July 8. When offline booths opened on Aug 23, there were not many tickets left to sell, according to Mao.

Contact the writers at linshujuan@chinadaily.com.cn