Travel agencies in Beijing are for the first time preparing half-day sightseeing tours of the capital for athletes, trainers and journalists during the Olympic Games.

Usually, a one-day tour is the shortest product available to tourists.

A municipal tourism bureau spokesman was quoted by Beijing Daily as saying the half-day tours are being specially tailored for foreign athletes and journalists who do not want to miss the sights of Beijing during their short stay.

"Each half-day tour will be less than four hours. This will enable athletes to avoid eating outside the village," Zhao Xin, director of the Olympic service center of China International Travel Service (CITS), told China Daily yesterday.

Tour routes have been carefully selected to present the typical Beijing ranging from the Great Wall, the Palace Museum, to watching an acrobatic show.

The price of a half-day tour costs between 400 yuan ($60) and 500 yuan, higher than a one-day tour which costs on average between 200 yuan to 300 yuan, Zhao said.

"It is because the price of night shows and rented buses have soared in the run-up to the Olympic Games, a factor we cannot control," Zhao said.

CITS is the authorized travel service provider for the Olympic Village.

Two other major players in China's tourism market - China Travel Service and China Youth Travel Service - are authorized to provide services for the media village.

The municipal tourism spokesman said all three travel services will provide consultation in eight languages including English, French, Japanese, Spanish and Arabic, between 8 am and 11 pm each day.

For half-day and one-day tours, Zhao Xin with CITS, said athletes only need to register at the village's travel service counter one day ahead.

For longer tours, however, they need to sign up two or three days ahead to allow for arrangements to be made.

The travel services have readied all resources for the Olympic Games.

"We have a pool of more than 600 tour guides that can speak about 20 foreign languages and nearly 100 buses of various sizes," Zhao said.

(China Daily June 25, 208)