Economical Asian Games: Make full use of existing venues and facilities, and follow the principle that “unless absolutely necessary, renovation instead of new construction, repairment instead of replacement, renting instead of buying and borrowing instead of renting”; explore mechanisms of market innovation, especially the introduction of of private capital, and try to obtain enough funding through market.

The Shangcheng Sports Complex (formerly Jianggan Sports Complex)

Shangcheng Sports Complex (formerly Jianggan Sports Complex), is located in Hangzhou’s CBD area, the Qianjiang New Town, to the east of Zhijiang Road and the west of Fuchun Road, where the subway and buses can directly reach.

The table tennis gymnasium of the Gongshu Canal Sports Park

In the complex, there is a stadium, a national fitness center, a tennis center, with good facilities and affordable prices. It is open for free during some hours of the working day, making it the first choice for nearby residents to exercise and keep fit.

A number of football matches of the 2022 Asian Games in Hangzhou will be played at the stadium of the Shangcheng Sports Complex. To fully meet the requirements of the event and considering the post-event comprehensive utilization of the venue, since April 2019, workers have been renovating and upgrading the stadium, including the competition area, the audience area facilities, the media and broadcasting area, the security facilities and others.

As an important venue in the center of Hangzhou, this renovation project is an epitome of Hangzhou’s commitment to run an “economical” Asian Games.

“The stadium is roofless, exposed to sunlight and rain all year round, but during our inspection before renovation work started, we found to our delight that none of the 14,000 seats on the grandstand was damaged, even though they were installed in 2009,” said Tian Kunsheng, former director of the logistics department of the sports complex. “In line with the principle of being economical, we decided to continue to use them.” Tian said that to save water, they also installed a set of rainwater collection devices under the lawn of the football field, which can automatically collect excessive rainwater in to collection tanks for recycling and purification.

The Huanglong Sports Center

Covering an area of 701 acres, the Gongshu Canal Sports Park will host the events of table tennis, field hockey and breakdancing in the Asian Games. When completed, it will be the biggest sports park in Hangzhou, which will serve as a fitness center, a training venue as well as a place showcasing the culture Asian Games and the Grand Canal.

The site of the project sits at the three villages of Xiangfuqiao, Huayuanggang and Fangjiadai, where rivers crisscross and trees grow in abundance. “In terms of design, we hope to make it into a place that can meet both the requirements of the Asian Games and people’s fitness needs after the games, while still retaining its function as an ‘urban green lung’,” said Su Fangsheng, who is working on the renovation project. Meanwhile, to reduce the impact of project construction on the ecological environment of the rivers, the project has only made minimum alteration to their original courses.

The field hockey pitch of the Gongshu Canal Sports Park

Situated next to the West Lake and the Huanglong Cave, the Huanglong Sports Center used to be Zhejiang’s biggest sports complex with the most comprehensive functions and enjoys unique geographical advantages. However, as the largest and most extensive renovation project for the Hangzhou Asian Games, such advantages have become disadvantages, and how to deal with the sizeable amount of construction waste generated during the renovating process has become a thorny issue.

The traditional way of disposal is to first load the construction waste into the engineering vehicle, and then transport it directly to the suburbs for stacking. Huanglong Sports Center is in downtown, and traffic in the surrounding area is not ideal for waste transportation. Indeed, there are only 10 hours for outbound transportation every day. In addition, according to project schedule, the time spent for construction waste disposal should not exceed one month, to meet which also means more noise for nearby residents.

Considering the downside of the traditional disposal method, the project department decided to apply the mobile crushing station to break and recycle the construction waste, according to Jin Tianhong, project manager for the renovation project.

“The mobile crushing station can break the construction waste to the required particle size and the mobile screening station will automatically sort the material as per the particle sizes,” said Jin. “The noise generated during operation is not more than 70 decibels.” Jin said. Waste iron and other metals will also be separately sorted out, and the construction waste, after treatment, can serve as the raw materials for dry mortar and plastering mortar, as well as concrete bricks.   

Editor: Huang Yan