The city of Kaohsiung is undergoing an overhaul, including an environmental cleanup and a renewal of facilities, in anticipation of the approaching 2009 World Games, city officials said Thursday. With just 14 days until the opening ceremony for the July 16-26 international sports event, the city's Environment Protection Bureau expressed hope Thursday that the southern port city will make an excellent impression on the foreign athletes and visitors from all over the world who will soon descend on the city. 'We have carried out several measures to strengthen our citizen's concepts of garbage classification in order to reduce the volume of garbage. This includes a garbage classification system, a comprehensive garbage recycling and reuse program, and a drive for people to hand in their mercury thermometers for recycling, ' according to Liu Chun-yi, the bureau's deputy director. In 2008, the city's entire garbage volume was reduced to 580,000 metric tons, compared to the previous year's garbage volume of 620,000 metric tons, according to bureau statistics. With the city moving into the final stages of preparation for the games, Lee urged the public to support the clean-up of the city. 