By Charissa Yong

BEIJING, CHINA: As Nanjing gears up to host the next Youth Olympics Games (YOG), it is keen to not only reverse its recent misfortunes but also to revive its long-lost former glory.

Following a deadly gas explosion and widespread crayfish poisoning last month, the Jiangsu provincial capital is badly in need of some good news.

It wants the YOG, which it will host in 2014, to be a springboard for its aims to become a more cosmopolitan and energetic city.

"The Youth Games is a great chance," Zhu Shanlu, the executive president of the city's YOG organising committee, told the China Radio International on Aug<TH>16. "If we make the best use of it, Nanjing's development will make a big leap forward, reaching our goal eight or even 10 years ahead of schedule.

"It has been proven that top sports meets like the Olympic Games could play a crucial role in a city or even a country's development. Look at Beijing. The Olympic Games changed Beijing so much."

Nanjing craves for a transformation. Despite being China's capital centuries ago during the reign of six dynasties and again during the Kuomintang era, it was replaced in 1949 by Beijing when the communists took over.

Although it kept its name, which means "southern capital", it ceased to be even the most important city south of the Yangtze river.

That honour went to Shanghai, with Pearl river powerhouses like Guangzhou and Shenzhen also overtaking Nanjing.

For most foreigners, the city is now perhaps best known for the Nanjing Massacre of 1937, when tens of thousands of women were raped and hundreds of thousands of civilians killed after the Japanese ransacked the city.

Even when the city made the headlines in recent months, it was for the wrong reasons.

On July 28, a gas leak explosion in an abandoned plastics factory killed at least 13 people and injured around 300.

In recent weeks, dozens of residents fell ill after eating crayfish and were hospitalised for kidney failure and rapid muscle breakdown.

To boost its glamour factor, there has been persistent talk for years that the city could be granted municipality status like Beijing and Shanghai, giving it direct access to the central government. But, for now, the YOG may do the trick.

Nanjing plans to curb pollution and transform the city's transportation networks before the Games. Three new subway lines and more high-speed railway services to Shanghai will be added. Its airport will also get an additional runway.

For the Games facilities, an Olympic village will be constructed, with the main stadium that seats 60,000 already in place.

The officials are not short on confidence. "Nanjing can learn a lot from how Singapore is running its Youth Games," Cai Zhenhua, the head of the Chinese sports delegation, told the Nanjing Daily earlier this week. "But it definitely can also do better."

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