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The 2008 Summer Olympics, officially known as the Games of the XXIX Olympiad, will be held in Beijing, China from August 8, 2008 to August 24, 2008, with the opening ceremony to take place at 8 p.m. on August 8, 2008 (08-08-08; the number 8 is associated with prosperity in Chinese culture). Some events, like beach volleyball, sailing, and open water swimming, will be held in the coastal city of Qingdao.

On July 8 2005, the International Olympic Committee announced that Hong Kong will hold the equestrian events at the site of the Hong Kong Sports Institute in Fo Tan, Sha Tin. The facilities of the Sports Institute may be moved to Wu Kai Sha. This will be the second time the same season of Olympic Games has been hosted by two National Olympic Committees. (A similar arrangement was in place between Melbourne, Australia, and Stockholm, Sweden, for the 1956 Summer Olympics).

Bidding process

Beijing was elected host city on July 13, 2001, during the 112th IOC Session in Moscow, beating out Toronto, Paris, Istanbul and Osaka. Prior to the session, five other cities submitted bids to the IOC but failed to make the shortlist in 2000: Bangkok, Cairo, Havana, Kuala Lumpur, and Seville. Beijing previously bid to host the 2000 Summer Olympics, but lost out to Sydney in 1993.

2008 Summer Olympics bidding results
City	NOC	Round 1	Round 2
Beijing	China	44	56
Toronto, Ontario	Canada	20	22
Paris	France	15	18
Istanbul	Turkey	17	9
Osaka	Japan	6	-

Venues

The government intends to invest in thirty-seven new gymnasiums and stadiums as well as fifty-nine training centers. Over 300,000 houses were demolished, and residents relocated from their homes thus far in Beijing, China, due to construction in preparation for the 2008 Olympics. Police in Beijing placed many people under arrest for protesting the evictions.

Its largest architectural pieces will be the Beijing National Stadium, National Gymnasium, Olympic Aquatic Park, Convention Center, Olympic Village, and Wukesong Cultural and Sports Center. US $2.1 billion (RMB¥17.4 billion) in corporate bids and tenders are expected to fund almost 85 percent of the construction budget for the six main venues. Investments are expected from corporations seeking ownership rights after the 2008 Summer Olympics. Some venues will be owned and governed by the State General Administration of Sports which will use them after the Olympics as facilities for all future national sports teams and events.

It was announced on July 8 2005 that the equestrian events were to be held in Hong Kong because of "uncertainties of equine diseases and major difficulties in establishing a disease-free zone." The five other stadia to be held outside of Beijing will be located in Qingdao, Hong Kong, Tianjin, Shanghai, and Qinhuangdao.

Beijing

List of venues

New venues

• Beijing National Stadium - Athletics, Football
• Beijing National Aquatics Center - Swimming, Diving, Water Polo, and Synchronized Swimming
• National Indoor Stadium - Artistic Gymnastics, Trampolines, Handball
• Beijing Shooting Range Hall - Qualifications and finals of 11 shootings events, consisting of all 10-meter, 25-meter, and 50-meter range shooting events
• Wukesong Indoor Stadium - Basketball
• Laoshan Velodrome - Cycling (track)
• Shunyi Olympic Rowing-Canoeing Park - Rowing, Canoe/Kayak (flat-water racing and Slalom Racing)
• China Agricultural University Gymnasium - Wrestling
• Peking University Gymnasium - Table Tennis
• Beijing Science and Technology University Gymnasium - Judo and Taekwondo
• Beijing University of Technology Gymnasium - Badminton and Rhythmic Gymnastics

Existing venues

• Olympic Sports Center Stadium - Football,Modern Pentathlon (running and equestrian)
• Olympic Sports Center Gymnasium - Handball
• Workers' Stadium - Football
• Workers' Indoor Arena - Boxing
• Capital Indoor Stadium - Volleyball
• Fengtai Softball Field - Softball
• Ying Tung Natatorium - Water Polo,Modern Pentathlon (swimming)
• Laoshan Mountain Bike Course - Cycling (Mountain Bike)
• Beijing Shooting Range Clay Target Field - Shooting
• Beijing Institute of Technology Gymnasium - Volleyball
• Beihang University Gymnasium - Weightlifting

Temporary venues

• Olympic Green Convention Centre - Fencing preliminaries and finals, and Modern Pentathlon (fencing and shooting)
• Hockey Field, Olympic Green - Hockey
• Archery Field, Olympic Green - Archery
• Tennis Center, Olympic Green - Tennis
• Wukesong Baseball Field - Baseball
• BMX Field - Cycling (BMX)
• Triathlon Venue - Triathlon
• Urban Road Cycling Course - Cycling (road race)

Beijing National Stadium

The centerpiece of the 2008 Summer Olympics is the construction of the Beijing National Stadium which began on December 24, 2003. Government officials engaged architects worldwide in a design competition. A Swiss firm, Herzog & de Meuron Architekten AG, collaborated with China Architecture Design & Research Group to win the competition. The National Stadium will feature lattice-like concrete skeleton forming the stadium bowl which will seat 80,000 people. Architects originally described the overall design as resembling a bird's nest with an immense ocular — an opening with retractable roof over the stadium. However, in 2004 the roof part of the design was abandoned for cost and safety reasons. The National Stadium will be the site of the Opening Ceremony and Closing Ceremony as well as track and field events and soccer finals.

Guangdong Stadium

Built 100 miles north of Hong Kong in the city of Guangzhou, the Guangdong Stadium was opened to the public for the ninth National Games of the People's Republic of China in 2001. It was originally planned to be the centerpiece of the 2008 Summer Olympics until a decision was made to construct the National Stadium in Beijing. The original design for the Guangdong Stadium was announced in 1999. The stadium seats 80,000 people. Taking from Guangzhou's nickname as the Flower City, the American architectural firm of Ellerbe Becket designed Guangdong Stadium to resemble a flower. The design firm stated in its press release, "The stadium bowl grows out of the ground to a sculpted upper edge, like the petals of a flower. Floating above the bowl is a shimmering ribbon of roof flowing like a wave over the seats. It parts at the ends and holds the Olympic flame, suspended between the two ribbons. A hotel surrounds a circular opening in the roof that forms a vertical tower of light, which at night is visible for a great distance. The roof form undulates, making it different from any other stadium in China or the world."

Other locations

• Qingdao International Sailing Centre - Sailing,Beach Volleyball
• Shanghai Stadium - Football Preliminary
• Qinhuangdao Olympic Sports Centre Stadium - Football Preliminary
• Hong Kong Equestrian Venues - Equestrian
• Tianjin Olympic Centre Stadium - Football Preliminary

Sports

The events programme for the Beijing 2008 Games is quite similar to that of the Athens Games held in 2004. The 2008 Olympics will see the return of 28 sports, and will hold 302 events, one more than in Athens.

Nine new events are to be held, including the new cycling discipline of BMX (composed of individual events for men and women). Women will compete in 3000m steeplechase. Marathon swimming events for men and women, over the distance of 10 kilometers, will be added to the swimming discipline. Team events (men and women) in table tennis will replace the doubles events. In fencing, women's team foil and women's team sabre will replace men's team foil and women's team epee.

In addition to the recognized Olympic sports, some video gamers have recently talked to the Chinese government in hopes of their allowing video games to be a demonstration sport at these games. Demonstration events have not been held at any Olympic Games (Summer or Winter) since 1992. As of June 2006, no further developments in this have occurred.

Marketing

Emblem

The 2008 Summer Olympics emblem entitled "Dancing Beijing" was unveiled in August 2003 in a ceremony attended by 2,008 people at Qin Nian Dian (祈年殿) — the Hall of Prayer for Good Harvests in Beijing's Temple of Heaven (天壇 or 天坛). The emblem combines elements of traditional Chinese society — a red seal and a calligraphic word for jing (京) ("national capital") with athletic features. According to the International Olympic Committee, the emblem is the first of the modern Olympics to use red as the dominant colour, an important colour for the Chinese people throughout its history. The open arms of the calligraphic word symbolizes the invitation of China to the world to share in its culture.

Rogge delivered an address at the unveiling ceremony saying, "Your new emblem immediately conveys the awesome beauty and power of China which are embodied in your heritage and your people." Rogge continued, "In this emblem, I saw the promise and potential of a New Beijing and a Great Olympics. This is a milestone in the history of your Olympic quest. As this new emblem becomes known around the world — and as it takes its place at the center of your Games — we are confident that it will achieve the stature of one of the best and most meaningful symbols in Olympic history."

Mascots

The Friendlies (福娃 Fúwá) were unveiled as the mascots of the games by the National Society of Chinese Classic Literature Studies on November 11, 2005 at an event marking the 1000th day before the opening of the games.

The friendlies consists of five members: Beibei, Jingjing, Huanhuan, Yingying, and Nini. The five mascots incorporate fish, giant panda, fire, Tibetan antelope, and swallow designs respectively, and each also represents one of the five Olympic Rings. When the five names are put together, they form a pun on the phrase 北京欢迎你 (Běijīng huānyíng nǐ) which means "Beijing welcomes you".

Slogan

On June 26, 2005, The Beijing Olympic Committee announced that the slogan for the 2008 Olympics will be "One World, One Dream" (simplified Chinese: 同一个世界 同一个梦想; traditional Chinese: 同一個世界 同一個夢想)

Torch relay

Twenty-eight cities around the world will be chosen to receive the global phase—the torch's tour around the globe—of the Olympic Flame's relay. In addition, 78 cities will receive the torch on the domestic phase through China.

Presented to the IOC in Moscow was the plan for a torch relay route that will take the Olympic flame through the sites of the great ancient civilizations—Greece, Italy, Egypt, Iraq, Iran, India and finally, China —although the route through the Middle East may not be guaranteed due to the political climate in the region. The 2008 Summer Olympics torch relay will achieve a world record as eighty specially trained mountaineers carry the Olympic flame to the top of Mount Everest (known to the Tibetans as Chomolangma; simplified Chinese: 珠穆朗玛峰; traditional Chinese: 珠穆朗瑪峰), making it the highest altitude achieved in the history of Olympic torch relays. It will be carried up the southern slope from Nepal before carried down the northern slope into the Autonomous Region of Tibet.

Liu Qi, president of the 2008 Olympics organizing committee, has also expressed the wish that the torch relay be carried through Taiwan. Although the organizing committee has the relay mostly planned out, the IOC states that the torch relay route will not be decided until early 2007. The overall course of the torch relay, though, should take the Olympic flame from Athens in March 2008 through the Himalayas to Beijing and will be sponsored by soft drink giant, The Coca-Cola Company along side South Korean Electronic giant Samsung.

Potential boycotts

Boycotts occur at almost every Olympic Games by some group of protestors, activists, or political groups, and so far, this is not an exception for these Olympic Games. Below are just some of the potential boycotts and their reasoning.

Students for a Free Tibet have started a campaign for boycotting the 2008 Summer Olympics on grounds including the choice of the endangered Tibetan antelope (chiru) as one of five mascots for the Olympics. The group claims that this is a transparent effort to convince the world that Tibet is a part of China. They claim that such alleged propaganda to legitimize Chinese administration of Tibet goes against the Olympic spirit. It also claims that the railway currently being constructed from Golmud to Lhasa may endanger the Tibetan antelope further, bringing in more Chinese people – and potentially more poachers - closer to the Tibetan antelope's breeding grounds and habitat. The group claims that the Tibetan antelope, which the group uses to promote Tibetan independence, is a symbol of Tibet.

Some other opponents of the Government of the People's Republic of China, such as the Chinese democracy movement and the controversial outlawed spiritual movement Falun Gong, are also holding boycotts. However, it is very unlikely such boycotts by minor groups will have any significant impact on the 2008 Olympic Games, as most previous Olympic Games were successfully held despite such boycotts.

Some environmental groups have also called for a boycott of the 2008 Summer Olympics after it heard that the Chinese government has placed an order of 1 billion US dollar on 800,000 cubic meters of Merbau hardwood from the endangered rainforests of Indonesia's Papua province to be used in construction for the games. Rainforest activist groups claim this is against Olympic ideals of respecting universal moral principles. .

Participating NOCs

It is expected that the vast majority of the 202 competing nations in Athens 2004 will return, plus the recently accepted NOC of Marshall Islands should be expected at the Olympic Games increasing the number to 203.

Concerns surround the participation of Chinese Taipei (Taiwan). Taiwan leader Chen Shui-bian's term does not expire until May 2008 and strained relations between him and the People's Republic of China government have led to fears that a Taiwan boycott may occur in 2008. Taiwanese people though, may not favour a boycott as Chen Shui-bian only had the support of 5.8% of the people.

The National Olympic Committee of Macao, China has not been accepted by the IOC as a member, although already a member of the Olympic Council of Asia. It is unlikely that Macao will participate at the 2008 Summer Olympics.

It seems very unlikely (close to impossible) that the Vatican City will enter. However, the entrance of Tuvalu (the remaining nation besides Marshall Islands that were not present at the 2004 Summer Olympics) is an open possibility provided that the country establishes a National Olympic Committee prior to IOC deadlines. Tuvalu has met with IOC president Jacques Rogge, and he seems happy enough that in 2007 at the IOC meeting Tuvalu will be voted into becoming a full Olympic member.

The nations of Serbia and Montenegro will compete separately; the citizens of Montenegro voted in a referendum to sever their political union with Serbia in May 2006.

A South Korea news agency has announced they and North Korea will discuss sending a united team to the 2008 Olympics.

Preparations

Olympic House

The Sports House, the administration centre of the Sports Federation and Olympic Committee of Hong Kong, was renamed Hong Kong Olympic House on July 11, 2005. The Chairman of the International Olympic Committee and Timothy Fok, the chairman of the national olympic committee of Hong Kong, held the Olympic House Opening Ceremony and the IOC permitted the use of the emblem of the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games. This event symbolises that Hong Kong will hold the equestrian events and be one of the Olympic Cities in the world.

Olympic lawmaking

Beijing municipal authority declared on April 10 2006, that more than 70 local laws and decrees would be made before the 2008 summer Olympics. These laws and decrees include banishing local people who don't have Hukou of Beijing; banishing vagrants, beggars, and people with mental illness from the city; strengthening border control; forcible "special holiday", or forcible shutout, to make Beijing citizens stay at home during the Olympics; strengthening controls over Chinese and foreign NGOs; and forbidding any protests.

Broadcasting

Beijing 2008 will be broadcast worldwide by a number of television broadcasters. Confirmed broadcasters include:

• ERT in Greece
• CBC and Radio-Canada and its properties, along with TSN and RDS, in Canada.
• NBC Universal, with NBC and its cable properties, in the United States.
• BBC in the United Kingdom.

See also

• 2008 Summer Olympic bids
• 2008 Summer Paralympics
• International Olympic Committee
• Olympic Games
• Sports in China
• Summer Olympic Games

References

1. 6th Coordination Commission Visit To Begin Tomorrow, International Olympic Committee. Retrieved on May 20, 2006.
2. Thousands of homes destroyed to make way for Olympic tourists, TimesOnline. Retrieved on May 14, 2006.
3. Olympic Venues, Beijing 2008. Retrieved on May 15, 2006.
4. 2006 General Assembly of the FIEThe fencing programe will again include all six individual events and four team events, though the team events will be a different set than were held in 2004. The International Fencing Federation's rules call for events not held in the previous Games to receive automatic selection, and for at least one team event in each weapon to be held. Voting is conducted to determine the fourth event. In 2004, the three men's team events and the women's épée were held. Thus, in 2008, the women's foil and sabre events and men's épée were automatically selected. Men's sabre was chosen over foil by a 45–20 vote.
5. "Beijing 2008: Games Programme Finalised". International Olympic Committee. 2006-04-27. Retrieved 2006-05-10. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
6. Programme of the Games of the XXIX Olympiad, Beijing 2008, International Olympic Committee. Retrieved on May 15, 2006.
7. Morris, Chris (2006-05-31). "Competitive gaming trying to earn a berth in the Olympics". Game Over. Cable News Network. Retrieved 2006-06-03. {{cite news}}: External link in |publisher= and |work= (help); More than one of |author= and |last= specified (help)
8. The Beijing 2008 Olympic Bid, Coyne & Blanchard, Inc. Retrieved on May 14, 2006.
9. IOC commends preparation for 2008 Games, Beijing 2008. Retrieved on May 20, 2006.
10. Tibet will be free, blog.studentsforafreetibet.org. Retrieved on May 15, 2006.
11. Destroying Papua's Ancient Rainforests to Raise the Olympic Torch, Rainforest Portal. Retrieved on May 15, 2006.
12. Koreas 'to unify Olympics teams', BBC News. Retrieved on May 14, 2006.
13. 法制晚报 (Fazhi Wanbao, or Evening Paper of Legal System), April 10 2006, A05

External links

• Official Website of the 2008 Summer Olympics
• Articles about the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing
• Beijing Embraces 2008 Summer Olympics
• IOC press release announcing Equestrian events in Hong Kong
• Website for Free Tibet 2008 Olympics campaign

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