Olympics-Beijing to lift scaffolding for Games

BEIJING, May 21 (Reuters) Beijing will not undertake major renovation projects on the city's cultural sites in 2008 to allow Olympic Games tourists to better appreciate them, local media reported today.

''Next year, there will be no scaffolding hanging from old buildings,'' the Beijing Youth Daily quoted Shu Xiaofeng, director of Beijing Municipal Administration of Cultural Heritage, as saying.

Beijing expects to host 2.5 million domestic and foreign visitors during the Olympics.

Heritage officials had budgeted 500 million yuan to maintain the city's antiquities over the next five years, but in 2008, renovation work would be transferred to Beijing's surrounding hinterlands, Shu said.

Beijing is spending about 40 billion dollar to prepare for the Olympics, and has earmarked 1.57 billion dollar in 2007 to renovate old buildings and topple others to build parkland as part of an urban ''beautification'' programme.

The Forbidden City, Summer Palace and Temple of Heaven, three of Beijing's top tourist draws, have all undergone recent renovations.

REUTERS BJR KP1418