CRI听力：Beijing Well Prepared to Receive Olympic Visitors

Less than 40 days, Beijing is getting better prepared to receive a surging number of visitors from both home and abroad as the city upgrades an array of services to better serve the 2008 Olympic Games in August.

Around 400 thousand urban volunteers have started working in 500 service centers scattered across the city, providing services such as translation, information inquiry and emergency handling.

A hotline for Olympic Games spectators is now ready for use. People can dial 12308 to enquire information concerning the Beijing Olympic Games.

For tourists, over 90% of rooms in the city's some 200 Olympic contracted hotels have been booked. Hotels are trying to go green by saving one-time sanitary products.

Hou Li, market manager of one Olympic Hotel, explains.

"The original package with 6 items has been reduced to 3, namely, a comb, a toothbrush and toothpaste. If our customers have other needs, we will try to provide them for free of charge."

The city has also officially announced a detailed policy to cut vehicle tax as the city will restrict vehicle usage before and during the Beijing Olympics.

Zhou Zhengyu is with Beijing Municipal Committee of Communications.

"We will cut the vehicle and vessel tax as well as road toll for July, August and September, which is 450 yuan for each private car."(Www.hxen.net)

The official added that the exempted fees will be taken out from the vehicle tax for 2009.

The restriction of vehicles during the games is expected to improve air quality and improve traffic flow.