Olympic Forest Park, a Beijing landmark

(BEIJING, December 3) -- A platform at the Olympic Forest Park is becoming a Beijing landmark, thanks to its LED lighting technology.

Located on an isle of the park's lake, the platform presents the night scenery under simulated moonlight, becoming the first park in China to benefit from the lighting technology.

Light-emitting diodes (LEDs) are solid-state devices that convert electric energy directly into light of a single color. Because they employ "cold" light generation technology, in which most of the energy is delivered in the visible spectrum, LEDs don't waste energy in the form of non-light producing heat. In comparison, most of the energy in an incandescent lamp is in the infrared (or non-visible) portion of the spectrum.

The news came from a month-long exhibition being held at the Urban Planning Exhibition Hall in downtown Beijing.

As it introduced the layout of the Olympic Village adjacent to the park, the exhibition indicated that the village covers a building area of 520,000 sq m, comprising 42 apartments and five accessory buildings. They will accommodate 16,000 athletes during the Olympic Games. After the Olympics, the facilities will become a residential area for Beijingers, who will share and enjoy renewable energy, recycled and rain water, clean air, intelligent housing appliances, digital TV and "green lighting," a legacy of the Olympics.

Statistics show that 15 of the Beijing Olympic venues have rain-collecting systems capable of gathering a total of one million tons of rain water yearly. Nine of the venues have solar heating systems able to supply 600cbm of hot water daily. In addition, the solar photovoltaic generators of seven venues can put out a total of 500kw of electricity and the geothermal heat pumps of four venues cover an area of 99,000sq m. Using recycled water, the heat pumps at the Olympic Village can meet the heating and cooling needs of an area of 400,000sq m.

Opened on December 2, the exhibition winds down at the end of the month.