CRI听力:Youth Olympic Village Pre-opens to Athletes

Athletes began settling into the Nanjing Youth Olympic Village (YOV) on Sunday, two days ahead of the village's official opening day.

Youth Olympic Village Committee head Ding Ning says they are planning to accommodate around 6,000 guests.

The Olympic Village stretches across 140,000 square meters, making it the largest non-competition venue of the Nanjing Youth Olympic Games.

The athlete dining halls located on the fourth to sixth floors of the village's Building No. 1 can accommodate 2,700 people at a time.

The Committee has prepared a large array of different foods for the athletes.

Ding Ning the head of the Youth Olympic Village Committee says: "The dishes provided by the Youth Olympics have all been approved by the International Olympic Committee. We will mainly provide four different cuisines, including Chinese, European, Asian and Mediterranean. At the request of the IOC, we have added another 99 dishes. Altogether, we have 599 different dishes."

A welcome ceremony will be held in the Olympic Village for athletes on Friday night, just hours ahead of the opening of the games.