Liu Qi urges improvement in Beijing’s environment, traffic

Liu Qi, president of the Beijing Organizing Committee for the Games of the XXIX Olympiad (BOCOG) and Party leader of the capital city, called for a breakthrough in improving the city's environment and traffic conditions.

Liu Qi and other officials tour Beijing Olympic Security Command Center.

He made the remarks as he paid a site tour to check the on-going drive to cut the number of vehicles on the roads and see its impact on air quality on Sunday.

He visited Beijing Digital Building, a comprehensive information center for the Beijing Olympics, Beijing Traffic Police Command Center and other spots, while being updated on the effect of the new measures from August 17-20 (Friday through Monday.)

Liu Qi and other officials on site-visit to Beijing Traffic Police Command Center.

Traffic was much smoother on Friday, with the number of vehicles on the main roads down 30 percent to 3,463, while the average speed was up to 40.8 kilometers per hour, higher than the expected 33 kilometers per hour, thanks to a 76.5 percent reduction of government and enterprise-owned vehicles on the roads and the willingness of the owners of 200,000 private cars to keep their costly toy in check.

Liu and other officials inspect Beijing Olympic Security Command Center at Yangshan Bridge.

Liu Qi noted that environment and traffic are two inter-related issues that are very important to urban development and people's vital interests. People need to seriously sum up and analyze the results of the on-going action in an effort to find out solutions to traffic jams. Beijing needs to improve its preparatory work for the Olympic Games and upgrade the management levels of urban affairs to achieve mutual promotion and a virtuous cycle between urban development and Olympic preparations, he added.

Liu Qi and other officials visit Technology Center.

Joining him in the inspection activities were Chen Zhili, State councilor and first vice-president of BOCOG, Liu Peng, minister of General Administration of Sport and executive president of BOCOG, and Wang Qishan, Beijing mayor and executive president of BOCOG.