It will not be late. Merely that the completion date for the Beijing Olympics marquee venue has been pushed back by a month to allow preparations for the opening and closing ceremonies. It will now be fully ready late April,

Jiang Xiaoyu, in the China Daily newspaper, said, ‘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. The Bird’s Nest will be the last but the best venue at the Beijing Games.’

Organizing committee spokesman Sun Weide said the main structure of the stadium was complete and only finishing touches remained.

With enormous twisted beams wound around the exterior like silver twigs in a nest, the 91,000 seat National Stadium is the centerpiece of the games, a massive prestige effort which will make the games memorable and will remain as a wonderful sympol. A legacy of the games.

Jiang Xiaoyu did not elaborate on the preparations for the opening and closing ceremonies — directed by Chinese filmmaker Zhang Yimou. The details are top secret.

Speculation among ordinary Chinese abounds on the Internet, with many guessing at how the Olympic flame will be lit during the August 8 opening ceremony.
Source: AP

Beijing vice mayor Chen Gang has said the construction of the venues for the 2008 Olympic Games cost less than RMB13 billion (about US$1.8 billion).

He told a press briefing: ‘We always encouraged frugality in the build-up to the Games.’

The cost of the National Stadium, known as the Bird’s Nest, was RMB3.5 billion (US$486 million). The central and local governments have contributed half of the cost with the remainder coming from other investors and donations.

Now with the National Aquatic Center delivered for use, all venues in Beijing except for the National Stadium have been completed.

There had been media reports — the Sunday Times in England leading the pack — that there had been ten deaths during the contrstruction of the National Stadium. Not so, said Ding Zhenkuan, deputy-chief of the Beijing Municipal Bureau of Work Safety. He said, ‘During the construction of the Bird’s Nest, there were two deaths, one in 2006 and one last year.

‘We investigated the accidents and properly compensated the families with the guidance of national standards. People who were responsible for the accidents have been punished. All the accidents have been reported to relative departments.’

According to officials, construction of the 91,000-seat showpiece venue, which will host the opening and closing ceremonies, will be completed on schedule in April.

For the Beijing Games, 31 venues are needed for competitions and 45 for training. Up to now, 22 have been tried in test events.

Xu Bo, director of Beijing 2008 Project Construction Headquarters Office said, ‘Through the test events, all the venues have met the requirements of respective international sports federations.’ This is confirmed by every contestant who has seen them.
Source: EastDay

Beijing Olympics organizers have denied reports that the opening ceremony of the 2008 Games will feature a Chinese opera.

Well, not exactly deny. Merely insist that the exact details of the ceremony are a closely guarded secret.

A Beijing-based newspaper this week quoted the ceremony’s artistic director Zhang Yimou as saying that the viewers would have a chance to taste Qinqiang, a folk opera popular in northwest China, during the opening ceremony.

Immediate denial followed.

Zhu Hong, deputy director of the opening and closing ceremonies department of the Beijing Olympics Organizing Committee (BOCOG), dismissed the report as ‘absolutely false’.

But how absolute is that?

Zhu Hong said, ‘There are about 300 kinds of folk operas in China. We have yet to decide whether the ceremony should showcase any local opera or not, not to mention decide how it can be displayed.’

He does even know how the Olympic flame will be lit at the opening ceremony even though that is fixed.

He said, ‘It’s op secret. Only ten people know about the details, even I know nothing.’

Beijing intends to make the three and a half hours show the best opening ceremony ever. Hollywood director Steven Spielberg, Australian Ric Birch and Frenchman Yves Pepin have been invited by the organizing committee to be creative consultants for the opening ceremony.

None of the three know very much about Chinese opera for which relief much thanks.
Source: China View

The Beijing Organizing Committee of the Olympic Games has announced on Wednesday that medals for the Olympics will be encrusted with the distinctive mineral jade from China’s province of Qinghai. This will be the first time that Olympic medals will be made with other materials other than metal.

The Olympic committee has shown a unique medal design in which the gold, silver and bronze medals will be laid with a distinctive band of jade.

The jade will come from a Kunlun Mountain area near Ge’ermu City, Qinghai. The province has an abundant reserve of jade and the manufacture will be very carefully supervised.

The gold medal will have lighter finer jade set in its back while the silver will have a white-greenish jade. The bronze will have a darker green jade.

Source: AHN News

With the Beijing Olympic Games 239 days away, BOCOG (Beijing Organizing Committee for the Games of the XXIX Olympiad) celebrates its sixth birthday.

Liu Jingmin, BOCOG executive vice-president, said, ‘In the beginning, BOCOG had less than 100 staff members, but with the growing workload, we had to move twice, first from Xinqiao Hotel to a more spacious place — Qinglan Plaza in September 2002.’

On July 13, 2002, the first anniversary of Beijing’s bid victory,BOCOG officially published the Beijing Olympic Action Plan, which outlined the promises made in the bid document.

The plan covered such areas as general strategy, the construction of competition venues and related facilities, an ecological environment and city infrastructure, the social environment, and logistics.

In the first three years, BOCOG drew up and implemented a series of plans, unveiled the Olympic emblem of a ‘Chinese Seal, Dancing Beijing,’ dislosed the theme slogan of ‘One World One Dream,’ and revealed the five Fuwa mascots.

From 2003 to 2005, extensive work was done to draw up the competition schedule of the Beijing Olympics. The opening and closing ceremonies, ticket sales, the torch relay and other matters were also put on BOCOG’s agenda.

During this period, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) increased guidance regarding Olympic preparations.

In January of 2006, BOCOG moved again to a new but this time permanent place — the Olympic Tower, designated as the command center of the Olympics in 2008. The body of BOCOG expanded to over 20 departments.

2006 saw attention focused on the core of the Olympics, namely the sport competitions.

BOCOG oversaw the progress of the Olympic venues, the finalization of the sports schedule, ticket sales, recruitment of volunteers, and the staging of Good Luck Beijing sport events to test the venues’ functions and the organizers’ capabilities.
Source: Beijing 2008