Goody bag makes athletes feel well cared for in Village

A sample of the treats all the athletes receive at the Asian Games. Sun Xiaochen / China Daily

Guangzhou - The Athletes Village sent a welcoming message to its new residents this week in the form of a goody bag containing everything from the Guangzhou Games mascot to an umbrella, a medicine box and an electric mosquito killer.

"It's nice to see how much they care about us," said one official from the Chinese delegation.

The bag was aimed at making the residents, most of whom are far from home, feel as comfortable as possible and help them deal with various contingencies and emergencies, said Huang Jie, one of the service managers in the village's residential zone.

The package, which comes in the form of a sling bag emblazoned with a flaming pattern and the logo of the games, includes a packet of band-aids, a ball-point pen, a sewing kit and Asiad mascot Le Yangyang.

"Everything in the bag is very useful," said Lutfalla Ebrahim, who plays in midfield for Bahrain's Asiad soccer team. "The band-aids are probably what we need the most, though, because we're always getting wounded in training. I can take the mascot back home as a gift for my family."

Huang said some of the athletes have already adopted the package as an early souvenir of their Guangzhou Asiad experience.

"Some said they consider the sewing kit a great collectors' item due to all the colorful threads and exquisite box," he said. "I've already seen a lot of the women using the band-aids when they wear high heels, so at least they're proving useful."

The athletes also received a range of toiletries, a bilingual map of Guangzhou and several English-language tourist guidebooks to ease their stay in the city.