Beijing Olympics 2008

One World, One Dream is the theme of the Beijing Games - and if overseas ticket demand is any indicator, the whole world wants to be in Beijing for the Games to live their dream.
Beijing Games organizers have said that they are “still trying to dig out resources for tickets so as to satisfy demand worldwide”.
“Olympic tickets are ‘hot’ and the enthusiasm is very high,” said Zhu Yan, director of Beijing Olympic Ticketing Center.
“Overseas demand was taken fully into consideration in ticket sales, and we are still trying to provide more,” he added.
About 6.8 million tickets are available for sale for the Beijing Games and it is estimated that 75 percent of those will be for the domestic market.
Overseas tickets are handed over to the national or regional Olympic committees (NOCs) and most of them appoint ticket agents to deal with sales.
In Finland, for example, all the 10,000 tickets allocated have been sold out. Officials there are asking for more.
“The number of tickets we allocated for the NOCs is much more than that in previous Games,” said Zhu. “The allocation strictly followed the rules of the International Olympic Committee and we have tried our best to meet the needs of all the NOCs.
“But since their demand is still on the rise, we will continue to discuss with them and balance the requirements of all sides.”
Zhu said it is hard to put a figure on the exact number of tickets sold outside the Chinese mainland because sales are still under way.
On the Chinese mainland, the third and the final round of ticket sales start next month. About 1.38 million tickets will be on offer from May 5 to June 9.
Tickets for 244 events in 16 disciplines are available at Bank of China outlets or on the official ticketing website on a “first come, first served” basis.
People are allowed to buy a maximum of six tickets at one time, three each for two sessions.
Overwhelming demand caused the computer system to crash just a few hours after the second sales phase started six months ago, forcing organizers to revert to a lottery system.
But Zhu reassured people that thousands of tickets are available for most of the events, and urged them not to rush. The system has been fixed and there will be no repeat of the chaos in the previous round, he said.
“The system has been optimized and updated and it is being tested right now,” Zhu said last week. “I am confident that the system will meet the requirements of customers.”
People who paid for the tickets through the website can get their tickets printed anytime during the third phase and those who paid at Bank of China outlets can get tickets on site.
The first stage of the domestic sales was conducted from April to June last year, with some 1.6 million tickets, including all the tickets for the opening and closing ceremonies, allocated by lottery.
The second stage was launched last October but was suspended until December. About 1.8 million tickets were sold.
Ticket delivery for the buyers in the first two stages is planned to start in June.

from: xinhuanet.com

CHANGCHUN, Northeast China — Liu Chang arrived at Jilin College of Art early Sunday morning. Sided by her mother and a friend, she seemed a little bit nervous as directors of the Olympic opening and closing ceremonies from Beijing would test her on manners and postures hours later.
Liu is one of the girls who want to become the Olympic ushers during the opening and closing ceremony of the 2008 Olympics and the Paralympics.
At the selection of Changchun division, tall and young girls with good figures and pretty faces lined up at the waiting room outside the scene of selection.
“I came to Changchun yesterday to get better prepared for the selection.” said Liu Jilin, whose hometown is the city of Jilin, 127 kilometers away from Changchun.
“My aunt saw the recruiting advertisement on TV and told me about it, and I thought, maybe I could be the one,” she said.
The nationwide selection, starting from late March, will pick out 260 ushers during the opening and closing ceremony of the 2008 Olympics and the Paralympics. Changchun is one of the 12 cities that hold the preliminary selection.
According to the recruiting advertisement, young Chinese girls taller than 1.68 meters can apply for the position. The ushers will be holding the brand with country names in front of athlete delegations at the four ceremonies of the 2008 Olympics and the Paralympics.
Nearly 500 people signed up for the position in Changchun division in the three-day application, said Chen Yong, who is in charge of the program organization. More than 100 applicants have been chosen to attend the preliminary selection, and most of them are college students.
Feng Jianing, 13, is the youngest among all the girls on the scene.
“The Beijing Olympics will be the best ever one, and I also want to do my best to participate in it,” Feng said. She’s still a primary school student in the sixth grade, with tall figures and experiences at model training school.
Xu Beini, a junior of the Northeast Normal University, was one the participants who finished the morning session early.
“They (the directors) made me walk and smile, and they took photos,” said an excited Xu. “It was really nervous.”
“I’m quite confident in my smile,” she said while beaming, “but you know, there are so many girls with right qualifications. The competition is tough.”
The second round would continue on Sunday afternoon with more complicated tests including language skills and rhythm sensation. The selection will end with 10 to 20 candidates entering the nationwide competition.
The final selection will finish at the end of April, and those who picked for ushers will get trained in Beijing.
“The Olympics is a festival that the Chinese people all expect, and we just want to try our best to be part of it,” Liu Chang said before she entered the selection hall.

from: chinadaily.com.cn 

Indicating the official start of the Beijing Olympic torch relay, the lighting ceremony for the Beijing Olympic torch will be held in Ancient Olympia, Greece on March 24 as scheduled.

Intensified and orderly preparations for the event are underway, an official of the Greek Olympic Committee was quoted by Xinhua as saying.

As a tradition, the torch lighting ceremony is held in front of the Temple of Hera of Ancient Olympia. Starting out from Olympia, 605 Greek torchbearers run a distance of 1,528km in Greece to relay the torch for seven days. The relay will pass through 16 regions and 43 cities, in addition to four communities, with 29 celebration events along the route. At 3:00pm on March 30, the flame arrives at Panathenian Stadium in central Athens, where the first modern Olympic Games took place in 1896. On March 24, 2008, the Greek Olympic Committee will hold the ceremony to hand the flame over to the Beijing Organizing Committee for the Games of the XXIX Olympiad (BOCOG).

For the 1936 Berlin Olympic Games, the flame was lit in front of the Temple of Hera, the site of Ancient Olympia, with an ensuing Olympic torch relay. Since then, the tradition has been carried out for a total of 16 Olympic Summer Games.

The torch lighting for the Olympic Winter Games was first held in 1964 in front of the monument to Coubertin, founder of the modern Olympic Games. So far 12 Winter Games have had their flames lit at Ancient Olympia in a ceremony similar to that of the Summer Games, with the same artists playing the part of the priestesses.

With the stadium, arena, the athletes’ dormitory and religious service facilities such as the altars of Zeus and Hera in place, the site of Ancient Olympia hosted the ancient Olympic Games between 2700 BC and 1600 BC. Afterwards, the site fell into ruins as a result of religious conflicts, earthquakes and robberies.

source: beijing2008.cn 

Beijing’s National Stadium will not be completed until the end of April after preparations for the Olympic opening and closing ceremonies interrupted construction, a top official from the Beijing Olympic Games organizing committee for the Games of the XXIX Olympiad (BOCOG) told China Daily yesterday.
The architectural centerpiece of the Beijing Olympic Games, affectionately known as the “Bird’s Nest”, was scheduled to be finished by the end of March ahead of two “Good Luck Beijing” Olympic test events in April and May.
“The construction of the venue and the background setting up for the ceremonies are going on together now, which has postponed the working progress of the Bird’s Nest,” said Jiang Xiaoyu, executive vice-president of BOCOG and a newly-elected CPPCC member.
“The Bird’s Nest will be the last but the best venue at the Beijing Games.”
Located at the north end of the city’s central axis line, the National Stadium, designed by Herzog & DeMeuron (Swiss) and China Architecture Design Institute, will host the opening and closing ceremonies, all athletic events and the men’s soccer final.

The National Stadium, or “Bird’s Nest”, is lit in colors at night in Beijing, March 3, 2008. The Stadium will not be completed until the end of April after preparations for the Olympic opening and closing ceremonies interrupted construction.[Xinhua]

Village completed
Another important Olympic venue, the Olympic village, has also been largely completed.
“Up to now, the construction of all buildings in the Olympic villages have been completed and a full loading test is scheduled to be carried out before July 8, when the lockdown begins,” said Liu Rong, an official from Beijing Guoao Investment Development Co Ltd, the owner of the venue.
The Olympic Village is located at the northwest corner of the Olympic central area in northern Beijing.
It will accommodate 16,000 athletes and officials during the Olympics and 7,000 athletes and officials during the Paralympics.
The village will open to athletes and officials on July 27, two weeks before the opening of the Beijing Games and, afterwards, serve the Paralympics until September 20.
“In order to make it a home for all the athletes and officials, we will hold various recreational activities and performances in the village,” said Yu Debin, the village’s deputy director. “When the athletes achieve good results, we will present them cards with congratulations.”

from: chinadaily.com.cn

Four reservoirs in Hebei province will be used to ensure sufficient supplies to Beijing during the Olympics, the capital’s water authority said yesterday.
About 300 million cu m of water from the reservoirs will be diverted via the Beijing section of the ongoing national South-to-North water diversion project from the end of this month.
The move will help the capital realize a unified and balanced supply of surface, ground and diverted water to better plug its water shortage, Jiao Zhizhong, director of the water authority, said.
The water from Hebei will be used as emergency supplies during the Games, Jiao said.
The capital has been plagued by water shortages partly due to its geography, with a nine-year consecutive drought from 1999 to last year seeing only 75 percent of precipitation compared with other years and exacerbating the problem, officials said.
Part of the main South-to-North water project, the construction of the Beijing section - with a length of more than 300 km, crossing four rivers, 23 roads and railways, 23 bridges and taking more than four years - has been “arduous and massive”, Jiao said.
Much effort has been made on water conservation, including expanding the use of recycled water for irrigation, improving industrial water-saving technology, and enforcing the strict management of water use, he said.
This year, authorities have said they will provide free water-saving equipment to 30,000 low-income families.
“Through our efforts, water consumption decreased from 4.1 billion cu m in 1999 to 3.48 billion cu m last year, despite the fact that demand for water has been rising with the development of industry and agriculture and population increase,” Yu Yaping, an official from the water authority, said.
“Water supply during the Olympics will be raised to ensure there is no disruption,” he said.
Daily water supply could rise from the current 2.65 million cu m to 2.95 million cu m, he said.
In 2002, China approved the South-to-North water diversion project aimed at relieving water shortages in arid northern areas. The project will divert water from the Yangtze, the country’s longest river, to the north.
According to the South-to-North water diversion office, when part of the project is completed in 2010, about 1 billion cu m of water will be diverted to the capital every year.

from: chinadaily.com.cn