Beijing - Five-star hotels apart, Beijing's hotels are seeing a drop in occupancy rate during the Olympic Games, officials said Thursday.
Xiong Yumei, deputy director of the Beijing Tourism Bureau, told a news conference that five-star hotels have enjoyed an occupancy rate of around 81 percent during the Olympics, which began on Aug. 8. That was much higher than last year's 69 percent.
But four-star hotels were seeing an average occupancy rate of just 60 percent, lower than the 69 percent last year, Xiong said.
Three-star hotels' occupancy rate, meanwhile, ranged between 30 percent to 50 percent, also lower than last year, she said.
Beijing - Ticket touts continued to operate with apparent impunity near Olympic venues on Wednesday, despite a police crackdown that rounded up at least 37 foreigners among nearly 300 suspects.
Touts were out as usual on streets near the Workers' Stadium and the Workers' Gymnasium, which are venues for Olympic football and boxing, respectively.
One tout wanted 1,000 yuan (146 dollars) for a 150-yuan ticket for Wednesday night's boxing session.
Dozens of touts, including American and British ones, lined the streets leading to the two venues before Tuesday night's football and boxing matches.
Hamburg - Chinese efforts at curbing smog during the Olympic Games by banning half of the 3 million vehicles from Beijing's roads has highlighted the problems caused by mass motorisation in the world's megacities.
Seven of the world's biggest cities with a population of more than 10 million currently exceed World Health Organisation (WHO) guidelines on air pollution.
The problem is caused mainly by a growing population of older and badly maintained cars which spewing excess sulphur dioxide, diesel particulates and carbon monoxide into the air.
Beijing - Beijing authorities have received 77 applications for demonstrations since August 1, a spokesperson with the municipal public security bureau was quoted by Xinhua news agency as saying on Monday.
But none of the applications materialized into protests, according to the report.
Under pressure to hold an Olympics of international standard,
China had set tough conditions including a minimum notice of five days for any group wanting to protest at three designated parks during the Beijing Olympics.
After First Ever Individual Gold medal won by Abhinav Bindra, Indians can be proud for the Indian boxers, Vijendra Kumar and Jitender Kumar. Both the boxers have landed in the quarterfinals for their respective categories. On Saturday, both of the tough fighters displayed a flawless performance at the Worker’s Gymnasium in Beijing.
It seems that the ambitious Indian boxers will live up to their promise to get the medal in the Olympics.
On Friday, Akhil Kumar advanced to the quarterfinals, and all he needs to get the medal is to win one more game.
Hamburg - Chinese efforts at curbing smog during the Olympic Games by banning half of the 3 million vehicles from Beijing's roads has highlighted the problems caused by mass motorisation in the world's megacities.
Beijing - Beijing authorities have received 77 applications for demonstrations since August 1, a spokesperson with the municipal public security bureau was quoted by Xinhua news agency as saying on Monday.
After First Ever Individual Gold medal won by Abhinav Bindra, Indians can be proud for the Indian boxers, Vijendra Kumar and Jitender Kumar. Both the boxers have landed in the quarterfinals for their respective categories. On Saturday, both of the tough fighters displayed a flawless performance at the Worker’s Gymnasium in Beijing. 
