Hangzhou, China, September 10, 2023: The big wheels of the 19th Asian Games in Hangzhou, China started turning on Saturday, September 9 as delegates began to arrive.
The official Arrival and Departure service will welcome delegates from Asia and around the world in the next few days, while the National Olympic Committee representatives began the Delegation Registration Meetings with the Hangzhou Asian Games Organising Committee to confirm the teams of athletes and officials.
The Arrival and Departure service allows the personnel to quickly go through the procedures such as health quarantine, border inspection, customs inspection, registration card activation and luggage claim.
The service is available in Hangzhou Xiaoshan International Airport, Hangzhoudong Railway Station, Beijing Capital International Airport, Shanghai Pudong International Airport, Guangzhou Baiyun International Airport and Urumqi Diwopu International Airport.
The Main Media Centre (MMC) also began a trial run from Saturday through to September 17, ahead of the official opening ceremony of the MMC on Monday, September 18 – five days before the 19th Asian Games opening ceremony on September 23.
The MMC comprises the Main Press Centre, International Broadcast Centre, Host Broadcaster China Media Group and the Life Service Centre in four exhibition halls of the Hangzhou International Expo Centre.
According to latest figures produced by HAGOC, the number of athletes is 12,417 – over 1,000 more than the previous record of 11,300 at the 18th Asian Games in Indonesia in 2018.
The Delegation Registration Meetings for the Hangzhou Asian Games officially commenced at the Asian Games Village on Saturday, September 9. This also marks the official start of the 19th Asian Games and indicates that athletes and team officials from various countries and regions will soon be arriving at the Asian Games Village.
From September 9-22, the Hangzhou Asian Games Orignising Committee will conduct Delegation Registration Meetings with teams of 45 National Olympic Committees (NOC).
This kind of meeting is a crucial step for the NOC delegations for the Hangzhou Asian Games. Its primary objective is to confirm essential participation details, including sports entries, accreditation entitlement and the final team size. Additionally, it serves as a platform for discussing and clarifying resource allocations such as accommodation, NOC dedicated vehicle and NOC assistants.
The Asian Games Village comprises the Athletes’ Village, Media Village and Technical Officials’ Village and has a capacity of around 20,000, with 10,400 beds in the Athletes’ Village, 5,000 in the Media Village and 4,000 in the TO Village.
The village marked the pre-opening on Saturday, September 9 and will officially open on Saturday, September 16, when the Team Welcome Ceremony programme will also begin from 9am to 6pm through to September 22.
