As soon as Zhou Liyi hopped off the train from Shanghai to Beijing, he hurried to Wangfujing Xinhua Book Store, one of the largest of its kind in Beijing, to buy an Olympic map.

Zhou is a Shanghai resident who came to Beijing on business and plans to return as a tourist during the summer Olympics Games, when his school will be on summer holiday. The maps make it easy to find his Olympic venues and other places in the city and are also great souvenirs with a collector's value.

There are six versions of the map, published by SinoMaps Press, in Chinese and English, and each version can be used independently. The first version is Olympics venues. The other five versions cover environment, culture, science and technology, transportation and achievement. Except for the last version, all versions will be published before the Olympic Games in August. Each version takes one color from the five Olympic rings as the background. The last version, on achievement, will be in orange. To make it easier for collectors to store the maps, the publisher has also prepared a package including all the versions. A total of 2,008 packages will be made. SinoMaps Press was commissioned by Beijing Organizing Committee for the Games of the XXIX Olympiad to design the map in 2006.

"I have bought the versions on Olympics venues and environment. They are all beautiful and practical. They have a collector's value too," said a happy Zhou. He was delighted to find that relevant information on the other six co-hosting cities of the Beijing Olympic Games, including Shanghai, Qingdao, Tianjin, Shenyang and Hong Kong, is also displayed on the maps.

The maps have been selling well. The Olympic venues version has been reprinted four times, with a total of 100,000 copies. The total number of printed copies for all the six versions is projected to be over 1 million.

Satellite images

Although Cai Sen, a 66-year-old Beijing resident, has not yet been to the Olympics Park where the National Stadium, the main Olympic venue, is located, he has already studied the park on the environment version of the map he bought in mid-January.

The environment version shows that the forest coverage ratio in Beijing is 51 percent, and the per-capita park green area is 12 square meters. Readers can get a visual sense of the "green Olympics" and find the sports venues and places of entertainment.

"We have used the most up-to-date satellite images. We have screened for the park green areas and put them on the environment version," explained Yang Yougen, an editor with SinoMaps Press.

Cai's love of the map is shared by Sun Sheng, a tourist from Hefei City in Anhui Province. "The captions on the left side of the map introduce the design philosophy of the Olympic Park. It points out that the most salient feature of the park is the dragon-shaped water system. The water system in the park is located to the north end of the central axis of Beijing, resembling the head of the dragon," he said.

"Though it is a regular flat map, the environment version can help us visualize a three dimensional world," said Li Yang, an architect in Beijing. The map displays data on energy and water savings as well as emission reductions at the Olympic venues.

From the maps, readers can get a clear idea of the features of the Olympic Village, including its energy efficiency measurements, solar heating system, the accessibility of facilities to disabled persons, and plants growing on the building roofs.

The forthcoming versions of the map will highlight the Olympic venues and service facilities, and comprehensively introduce Beijing's landscape, administrative regions, natural environment and culture. The maps will also cover information on Olympic-licensed hospitals and hotels, roads and traffic, scenic sports, shopping malls and financial institutions. The information is indexed and sorted into categories, and listed by place names, page numbers, positions on the map and key words, so that readers can query the information easily.

Icons for Olympic venues displayed on the map are hand drawn. Newly constructed, renovated and temporary venues are differentiated using distinct marks and icons with varied frame colors. On the back of the map are drawings detailing the construction areas, number of seats, sports events to be held in each venue and the history of these events. Basic information on the design philosophy of the venues and their future use after the Olympic Games will also be listed.

The culture version will feature the history of Beijing. The map will list historical relics and museums. This is the first time that the 25 History and Culture Blocks under Preservation authorized by the Beijing Municipal Government will have been displayed on a tourism map. On the back of the culture version will be a hand-drawn painting on Beijing's culture and custom. The map will also introduce events such as Beijing International Tourism Festival in September and Beijing International Music Festival from October to December.

The technology version will exhibit universities, science and technology institutes and museums, as well as other related information. The back of the map will feature the application of science and technology in the Olympics, highlighting the new science and technology used to construct the venues.

The transportation version will have two maps illustrating the Olympic related transportation systems in Beijing and six other co-host cities, including roads to access the venues, transportation around the venues, inside the cities, and between the cities, as well as the agenda of the Games.

The achievement version will take stock of the medals awarded, and overview the marketing materials used to promote the Games, from the Games of the I Olympiad to the Games of the XXIX Olympiad.

All versions of the maps will be stored in a 5-inch CD, with matching narration, photos, voices, animation and videos. Compared with the paper copy, the electronic map is more vivid.

Unbreakable maps

Different from ordinary maps, Beijing Olympics maps are printed on PP Paper. The paper is said to be unbreakable. "No matter how hard you tear at it, you can not tear it apart," said Qi Caimei, an editor of SinoMaps Press. She also demonstrated how waterproof the maps are by soaking one in water, and rubbing it with both hands. After more than 10 minutes in the water, the map was intact.