Badminton players from all over the world heaped compliments on the badminton venue in Beijing on Tuesday, labeling it as the best one after their first-day training.

"It is the best badminton hall I have ever seen, much better than the previous ones," said Jens Eriksen from Denmark, the most experienced shuttler at Beijing Olympics who had participated in the last three Olympic Games.

The advanced ventilation and air-conditioning system in the hall also impressed the men's singles No. 2 seed Lee Chongwei from Malaysia, who said that the venue is very satisfactory, from lights to the air drafts, two factors which shuttlers care most.

His words were echoed by men's doubles world champion Howard Bach. "There is no air draft," said Bach, a Chinese-American who was born in Vietnam with a name sounding like German.

The Beijing University of Technology (BJUT) Gymnasium, as the only Olympic venue located in Beijing's southeastern area with a seating capacity for 7,500, will hold Olympic badminton competitions from Aug. 9 to 17.

A number of energy-saving and environmental-friendly methods are used at the BJUT Gymnasium, including rainwater recycling, ground-source heating in the winter, and a water-source heat pump for cooling in the summer.

(Xinhua News Agency August 6, 2008)