As we drove from the airport into town last night, we began to appreciate the scale of Qingdao. From its origins in the 1890s as a strategic German stronghold, this place has flourished as a major port and trading centre.
At the Branch today, a large crowd of staff and volunteers turned out to meet us, and we were given a glitzy multi-media presentation on their work, and the preparations for the Games.
In addition to first aid training and blood donor recruitment, the Branch has built expertise around first aid cover for sailing events. As in Beijing, they are training as many as possible of those connected with the Games, including bus taxi drivers in basic life-saving skills, and working closely with the Organising Committee to set up 109 First Aid Posts around the area where the 11 sailing events will take place.
They talk of 40,000 volunteers, but in fact this includes blood donors and other supporters, so the number of active volunteers as we know them is no more than a few hundred. In a city the size of Qingdao (seven to eight million in the wider conurbation), this is not many, so the chance to increase their reputation is an important one.
Our visit to the Branch was followed by a formal reception with the Deputy Mayor. Qingdao is twinned with Southampton, coincidentally not far from Poole, the venue for the sailing events for the 2012 Olympics, so there was plenty to talk about.
We watched a first aid demonstration and visited the spectacular Olympic sailing venue, complete with huge new breakwaters, piers and pontoons and a "village" for the athletes that will become a five star Intercontinental Hotel when the Games are over. It's hard to imagine how Poole will live up to the sheer scale of what the Chinese are providing. |
