Beijing is battling to stamp out illegal sales of 2008 Olympic merchandise on dozens of unauthorized Web sites seeking to cash in on the Chinese public’s Games fervor.

The Beijing Youth Daily , citing an Olympic e-commerce official, said authorities had investigated about 80 commercial and personal Web sites selling fake Olympic merchandise, or lacking licenses to sell the legitimate product.

Xie Funing, a spokesman with the Olympic E-commerce Operation Centre said, ‘The supply channels on these illegal Web sites are chaotic.’

Many Web sites lacked legal proof of the origins of their products, while others had ‘exploited consumers’ urgency to buy merchandise by raising prices and ripping them off.

Beijing Olympic organizers have targeted making $70 million from merchandising from the 2008 Games, from a range of about 4,000 products.

Local media reports of police busting fake Games souvenir makers and street peddlers are common. Law enforcement agencies seized nearly 30,000 finished or half-finished Olympic fakes in the capital earlier this year. Our illustration is, but of course, of genuine Olympics souvenirs being sold.
Source: Reuters

The China Daily reports on the difficulties of designing costumes for next year’s Beijing Olympics.

Creating a look for the clothing worn for their hosting duties by combining a huge batch of traditions is not easy. A design contest for the public to submit ideas brought in a swodge of submissios which are still being judged.

While some favor an ancient Chinese robe with wide sleeves and a belt some suggest that Cheongsam dresses should be used for the victory ceremonies.

Others claim that this traditional female dress featuring slits on either side is popular among receptionists at Chinese hotels and restaurants, but is not appropriate for the Olympics.

To complicate the design process, the costumes must also reflect ‘national characteristics’ which is a mammoth task in a country with 56 ethnic groups.

Organizers will only make a final decision after gathering public opinion on the short-listed choices that were earlier selected from a national solicitation drive. Somebody has to make a decision and soon. There are a lot of costumes to be made.
Source: Media Bistro

Australia was in plenty time for it Olympic Games. Hardly any last minute panic. Athens was different. They were still painting the night before the opening ceremony.

Beijing is different again The Summer Olympics will start at 8 p.m. on Aug. 8 next year. And Beijing is ready. Very ready.

Throughout Beijing, countdown clocks are planted in well-trafficked areas, serving as up-to-the-second counters. They are hardly needed. Yes there are some cranes around and some construction workers but by the felicitous 8/8/08, a sparkling, freshly painted, neon-glowing Beijing will be unveiled to the world.

In Beijing, officials say they hope to have construction finished on the venues by the end of this year, and before August, they plan to run 44 test events to ensure that each venue is prepared for the Games. D Day should have been so well planned.
Wang Hui, executive deputy director of communications for the Beijing Organizing Committee, said, ‘It actually shows our attitude. We’re being very meticulous in terms of preparing for the Games.’ Meticulous. The very word.

For Beijing, for China, next summer’s Olympics is about so much more than sports. It’s being billed as a coming-out party, announcing China on the modern-day world stage. (Two years after that will be Expo 10, Shanghai and it will be a case of who put on the best show. A semi-friendly rivalry.)

In Athen before the Games many Greens were already exhausted by the effort. Wang Hui said, ‘I also witnessed a similar attitude prevailing in Torino. Everybody was pretty exhausted once the Games began. It’s quite different for China. We’ve been dreaming and expecting these games, anticipating it for over a hundred years.’

Since they learned in 2001 that Beijing won the bid to host the Games, the Olympics have been woven into the everyday life of just about every single local resident. English is being taught to every grade-school student. Throughout China, textbooks have been passed out in schools and everyone is learning about the spirit, the history and the ideology of the Olympic movement. It will be fantastic.
Source: Baltimore Sun

This large sand creation with an ancient Greek Olympic athlete throwing a discus, is at the 9th Zhoushan International Sand Sculpture Festival on Zhujiajian Island, East China’s Zhejiang Province. This is one of a set of sand sculptures made by 30 artists from ten countries, including China, the U.S. and Russia, to welcome the 2008 Beijing Olympics as well as illustrate the history of the Games.

Zhang Xiqin, deputy director of State Tourism Administration, said, ‘The sand sculpture festival, the first of its kind introduced to China, has become a major tourist attraction and led to similar festivals in other parts of China.’

More than one million tourists, from home and overseas, have visited the previous sand sculpture shows in Zhoushan city.
Source: China View

The Beijing Olympic Broadcasting is aiming to stage the best ever television coverage for the Olympics.

Addressing the World Broadcaster Meeting, BOB production manager Bob Kemp said, ‘BOB aims to facilitate the best Olympic Games television coverage ever for viewers around the world.’ The BOB does not refer to the bob sleigh event. It refers to Beijing Olympics Broadcasting.

Host broadcasters BOB have been working closely with the Beijing Organising Committee for the 2008 Olympic Games (BOCOG) to fine-tune all the broadcasting plans for the two-and-a-half week show.

The Beijing Games will provide increased coverage in several sports, including table tennis, which enjoys vast popularity in China, tennis, badminton, and fencing.

BOB will also offer — for the first time in Olympic Games history — some virtual enhancement elements on the International TV signal from selected sports at the discretion of the producer.

Bob Kemp said, ‘BOB will insert when appropriate, a world record indicator on track events of 1,500 metres or longer. The pace of the indicator will be based on the current world record holder’s split when the record was set.

‘Throughout the final, there will be a virtual indicator to show the current gold medal-winning performance for an easy indication of the latest attempt against the best in the competition to that point. These virtual enhancements are being offered to enhance the viewers’ understanding and enjoyment of the action.’
Source: Jamaica Gleaner