Peking University is China's most famous college but table tennis is bigger, and the popularity of the sport is now threatening to overwhelm even this well-oiled academic machine.
An interior view of the newly built Peking University Gymnasium, the venue for table tennis events for the 2008 Olympic Games, in this photo taken December 2, 2007. The Gymnasium, the world's first gym specially designed for table tennis competitions, will host the 2007 Table Tennis ITTF Pro-Tour Grand Finals December 13-16, 2007. [Xinhua] |
The prospect of snarled traffic, mobs of spectators and disrupted school lessons is causing officials there to fret as they prepare to host back-to-back table tennis tournaments next week, both of them pre-Olympic warm-ups.
"We will limit attendance to half capacity to avoid any unnecessary trouble," said Zhang Yan, president of the event's organizing committee. This means ticket sales will be restricted to 3,500 per day.
The two events, the 2007 Volkswagen Pro Tour Grand Finals and the 2007 Table Tennis Invitational Tournament, will feature the same groups of players and will run from December 13 to 19.
Any points won from the Pro Tour Grand Finals will affect players' world rankings, which will later dictate who gets a berth at the Beijing Games.
Zhang said that right now, however, traffic is the prime concern for school officials.
Special plans for parking and traffic control are under final review with the local transport authority to avoid any last-minute meltdowns.
The events must also be run in a way that minimizes disruptions, he said.
Debate has long raged over whether taxpayers should be free to stroll around the campus and see how their money is spent - at the expense of interrupting student life.
"Our students do have concerns over what impact these events will have on their campus life," said Zhang, who also serves as a senior official at the university. "But this is unavoidable. For a successful Olympic Games, the impact should be sustained."
All of the action during the upcoming events will unfold at the newly completed Peking University Gymnasium, the world's first designated table tennis stadium, which is located in one of the most crowded clusters of the city.
Event organizers say they expect thousands of spectators to visit the venue despite tickets costing twice as much as at prior test events.
"I'm not worried about what happens after the first point is won," said Yao Zhenxu, vice president of the Chinese Table Tennis Association. "I'm worried about what happens before the first point is played."
The new gym, located in the heart of the university, made headlines on July 2 when a fire broke out and took an hour to be brought under control.
The accident, which designers said was caused by poor work practices, did not delay construction.
