September 14, 2008	Sunday	Ramazan 13, 1429

BEIJING, Sept 13: Zhang Li was more than a little surprised to arrive at the 13,000-seat Workers’ Indoor Stadium for the Paralympic judo tournament this week to find a large and boisterous crowd.

The Beijing businesswoman has not been alone in her wonderment as China has backed its “two Games, equal splendour” pledge with a raft of measures to ensure the more than 4,000 Paralympians do not compete in front of empty seats.

“I thought there’d be very few spectators at this sport,” she said. “The atmosphere is unexpectedly enthusiastic.” Zhang, who took holiday during the Sept 6-17 Games and booked tickets for as many different sports as she could, should have had an inkling when she was unable to get anything at all for the swimming at the Water Cube.

So popular have the Paralympics proved that “yellow bulls”, China’s name for ticket touts or scalpers, have been out in force. Beijing police detained 134 last week, according to local media reports.

The International Paralympic Committee (IPC) believes Beijing will be the best attended Games ever. On Tuesday alone, all the 20 competition sessions had more than 70 percent attendance with a few enjoying full houses, organisers said.

It has not gone unnoticed by the competitors. “What is most impressive was how loud it was,” said US wheelchair rugby coach James Gumbert after his team beat China on Friday. “The level of noise even made it hard to communicate with the players on the court.”

While the general public have bought about two thirds of the 1.65 million tickets on sale, 620,000 have been allocated to students and neighbourhood communities for free.

Some 250,000 yellow-uniformed cheerleaders, organised by Beijing’s trade unions, have also been much in evidence, waving scarves, banging inflatable sticks together and engaging in choreographed routines.

“We’ve had several training sessions to learn how to cheer properly,” said Cao Chengjie, who lives in suburban Tongzhou and left for the morning athletics session at the Bird’s Nest at 4.30 am. “What we do it is to create a better atmosphere.”

Tickets cost as little as 30 yuan ($4.39) and include free public transport as well as access to the Olympic Green if the venue is inside the park , a big draw given that the iconic stadiums are otherwise inaccessible to the general public.

“The square and the stadiums around are so beautiful. So was the tower and even the streetlights,” said a 68-year-old man surnamed Zhou from the northeastern city of Harbin, who was queuing outside the Bird’s Nest.

“We watched the Olympics on TV and now are here to see them with our own eyes. It’s fabulous.” For others who missed out on last month’s heavily-oversubscribed Olympics, it is a chance to get involved in the party.

“It is a shame that I was busy working during the Olympics,” said Zhang. “Now I have time to make up for it. It is a rare chance that China hosts the Games. With China likely to top the medals table as they did at the Olympics, there is also a patriotic element to the support with Chinese flags much in evidence. “I know judo pretty well and I think China can at least win a medal tonight,” said Gong Baochang, a scientific researcher in his 30s. “So I’ve come to experience the actual atmosphere of the big event. It’s warm and lively.”

Zhang Guixia had brought her nine-year-old son and his two school friends to the table tennis hoping they would be inspired by the disabled athletes.

“I want the kids to learn from their strong will, hard work, persistance and sportsmanship,” she said.—Reuters