A few more hours to go before the opening ceremony of Beijing Olympics. Some random news and information about Olympics and happenings in Beijing…
2008-08-08 8.08pm
The number ‘8’ is seen as a symbol of prosperity for Chinese. The Beijing organisers are optimising their wish for prosperity to the max obviously… by running the opening ceremony on 8.08pm, on the 8th of August, 2008.
Renowned director Zhang Yimou and choreographer Zhang Jigang are the co-directors for tonight’s show at the Beijing National Stadium.
It’s still a mystery on who will light the Olympic flame at the opening ceremony. It’s heavily rumoured that gymnastic legend Li Ning will take the honour; we’ll see how true the speculations are.
Ode to the Olympics
A large scale oil-painting titled “Ode to the Olympics” was opened to the public on August 6. Artist Liu Ningyi and his daughter Liu Haomei took seven years to complete the masterpiece, which measures 112 metres (112 years of modern Olympic history) in length and five meters (representing the five Olympic Rings) in height.
The Olympic fan
Lu Zhiyuan, a 13-year-old boy from Zhejiang province, has collected more than 300 autographs from Olympic athletes arriving at Capital International Airport.
In the past few days, Lu and his father shuttled between newly arrived athletes and asked for their autographs in his notebook. The signatures include those of Chinese basketball star Yi Jianlian and Spanish tennis star Rafael Nadal etc. [via Cri]
Free hugs?
A foreign lady was ‘asking’ for hugs at a tourist spot in Beijing… probably one of the free-hugs campaigners. The translation doesn’t sound right though; free-huggers normally carry a sign-board ‘free hugs’ offering by-passers a free hug, but those Chinese words read ‘give me a hug’ instead, which actually sounds begging…
Google Olympic logo
Search engine Google would create special logos during holiday seasons or special occasions… and here it is, for Beijing Olympics…
