Tiananmen Square turned into a festival of jubilation Wednesday
night as a 10,000 international throng gathered in the heart of the
Chinese capital to celebrate the one-year countdown to the 2008 Olympic Games.
As the countdown clock in front of the Chinese National Museum
ticked down towards the one-year countdown, fireworks erupted
across the skyline before International Olympic Committee (IOC)
President Jacques Rogge presented Beijing Olympics invitation
letters to various National Olympic Committees (NOCs).
A number of senior Chinese officials took part in the Tiananmen
Square celebration, including Wu Bangguo, Chairman of the Standing Committee
of the NPC and member of the Standing Committee of the
Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee, and Liu Qi, President of the Beijing Organizing
Committee for the 2008 Games.
"We welcome athletes, coaches, officials, spectators and
journalists to participate in, observe and report the Beijing 2008
Olympic Games," Wu Bangguo told the crowds. "We will provide
quality services for them in accordance with Olympic standards, and
create favorable conditions to facilitate their work, visit and
participation in competitions."
Rogge honored the efforts Beijing had done, praising the local
organizers for their extremely hard work towards getting Beijing
into Olympic shape.
"The world is watching China and Beijing with great expectation.
The athletes also have great expectations and they are all looking
forward to competing in the state-of-the-art Beijing venues," he
said.
Rogge also said that China would surely greet the world wrapped
in an entirely new image as the Olympics open next August.
"Beijing and China will not only host a successful Games for the
world's premier athletes, but will also provide an excellent
opportunity to discover China, its history, its culture, and its
people, with China opening itself to the world in new ways," he
said.
Across the country, Chinese people celebrated the occasion. In a
central square in Urumqi, capital of northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, residents
gave demonstrations of roller-skating, martial arts and Taiji under
red banners reading "Fitness campaign to welcome the 2008
Olympics".
More than two thousand Tibetan natives and tourists congregated
in Lhasa on Wednesday morning to mark the countdown.
The celebration opened with a domino display by 2,008 middle
school students from Lhasa as they dropped to the ground one after
another on the plaza before the Potala Palace, forming the pattern
of the Olympic rings and the number "2008". In Yangzhou, Jiangsu Province, thousands of residents
played Guzheng, a form of traditional Chinese string instrument to
mark the occasion.
Beijing residents also marked the countdown in their own way.
Zhao Yue'e from Huanghuamen near Jingshan in downtown Beijing
gathered with friends at the countdown clock in her community. "We
are not just waiting for the Games, we are welcoming and expecting
it to come," she said. "My 15-year-old daughter is learning
English, and she can speak a few words with foreigners now."
A netizen wrote online that "at the dawn of the 20th century,
China was still unsure of participating in the Games at all. Less
than a century later, the country will be the host of the
event."
"I can hear the steps of the Olympics," said Wang Xiaochun,
another resident in Beijing, after taking photos with his family in
front of a countdown clock set up at Sanyuanqiao on the capital's
northern third ring road.
(Xinhua News Agency August 9, 2007)
