GUANGZHOU - Fireworks flashed above Haixinsha Island. The 610-meter Canton Tower was aglow with colorful lights. Flags and posters decorated the city at every corner.

With the 2010 Asian Games just a few days away, Guangzhou, a metropolis in South China, showed its readiness to host Asia's premier sporting event held every four years. Since winning the bid to host the games in 2004, the organizers have spared no efforts to turn the largest tournament in human history from blueprint into reality.

More than 12,000 athletes from 45 countries and regions will compete for a record 476 gold medals in 42 sports at the Guangzhou Asiad. (Two years ago at the Olympic Games in Beijing, 11,468 athletes battled for 303 titles in 29 sports.) A stunning 570,000 volunteers have been assembled to serve the Guangzhou games.

"The six-year-long preparation is entering the final stage and now it is time to welcome the real test," said Zhang Guangning, vice president of the Guangzhou Asia Games Organizing Committee (GACOC).

The games will use 70 stadiums and gymnasiums, including 53 competition and 17 training venues, another record in Asian Games' history. Twelve of the 70 were built from scratch.

The organizers said they paid a lot of attention to post-Games use of those venues, so that they won't become white elephants in the future.

"This is not a one-time construction. We want to use the games as a catalyst to improve the city's development in the long term," said Peng Gaofeng, chief of the venues and competition facilities department.

For instance, Asian Games Town - which hosts the main press center, athletes' village and media village - will be turned into a residential community after the games. The venue in Zengcheng hosting the dragon-boat competition, 74 km east of downtown Guangzhou, will become a public park, while the equestrian venue in Conghua, a nearby county, will become a training base for the Hong Kong Jockey Club.

On Friday, the athletes' village officially opened. Footballers were the first batch of guests moving into the village because the soccer tournament starts today, five days ahead of the opening ceremony.

Among them, the Chinese soccer team drew the most attention. On Monday, the squad will take on archrival Japan in Tianhe stadium in an important group match that will largely decide which team advances into the next round.