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)