30 minutes to Beijing.....

They say, now you only need 30 minutes from Beijing to Tianjin.....wow...

The first intercity train between Beijng and Tianjin departs from Beijing South Railway Station for Tianjin, Beijing, capital of China, Aug. 1, 2008. The intercity rail line between Beijing and Tianjin is a high-speed rail. The new train service would cut the 120-km journey from the current 70 minutes to about 30 minutes. (Photo credit: Gong Lei/Xinhua)
















The Beijing-Tianjin passenger railway Sunday completed laying its tracks, making it possible for the high-speed train to open as scheduled for the 2008 Summer Olympics.The 120km-long railway is the first in the mainland to have trains that reach 300kmh and will shorten travel between the two cities from about an hour to 30 minutes, with a minimum interval between trains of three minutes, officials have said.Construction of the railway's signal, telecommunication and electrical supply systems are next in line, after which fast-speed trains will conduct test runs starting from February.
The railway is scheduled to begin operations on August 1, a week before Olympic Games.There will be five stations along the rail line - Beijing Southern Railway Station, Yizhuang in southeastern Beijing, Yongle and Wuqing in Tianjin, and Tianjin Railway Station.
Its operation will enable more passengers to travel between Beijing and Tianjin, and help speed up the integration of the regional economies of the two major cities of North China.The Ministry of Railways has said in its mid- and long-term plan that a fast passenger transport rail network will be formed by the year 2020 to link up China's major cities and cities in three regions."The completion of laying rail tracks on the Beijing-Tianjin high-speed railway signifies a breakthrough in high-speed railway construction technology that China has mastered," said Liu Zhijun, minister of Railways.
The ministry said that many new technologies were used in the project for the first time in China's railway building history, which together enhances the railway's life span and produces low levels of pollution and noise. Up to 86 percent of the railway is built on bridges.The Beijing-Tianjin railway has been exemplary for other high-speed railway projects under construction, Liu said.

Source

Flashback..

@004 Athens Olympics Scoreboard - Top 5

Links to lead you.

Useful Links for spectators :-


For Ticketing, Map, Hotels, Dining, Shopping, Recreation, Transport, Sights and Religion related information
Photos from Olympic Village
Olympics news from China itself

Beijing Olympics Vs Drugs

The Olympic Village have opened on Sunday. With this opening, the IOC Anti-Doping Rules for the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games enter into force.
There are noteworthy changes in the,

Number of tests
increased from 3,600 in Athens to 4,500 in Beijing, to ensure fair play. As a general rule, all top five finishers plus a further two will be tested. The tests include pre-competition controls, which have proved to be decisive. Of the 4,500 tests, around 700 to 800 will apply to urine EPO detection and 900 will be blood tests.

New elements
Specific new elements of the rules include:

- an athlete may be notified and tested more than once during the same day;
- the fact that athletes who miss a test on two separate occasions during the Games, or on one occasion during the Games plus twice in the 18 months beforehand, will be considered to have committed an anti-doping rule violation;
- possession of any substance from the list of prohibited substances will constitute a violation (previously only a selection from the prohibited list applied).

The period of the Olympic Games is defined as “the period commencing on the date of the opening of the Olympic Village for the Olympic Games”, namely 27 July 2008, up until and including the day of the Closing Ceremony of the Olympic Games on 24 August 2008.

As the ruling body for the Olympic Games, the IOC will delegate the responsibility for implementing doping controls to the Organising Committee for the Olympic Games (BOCOG) and the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA). They will act under the IOC’s authority. The IOC Medical Commission will be responsible for overseeing all doping control processes on-site, which will be in full compliance with the IOC Anti-Doping Rules, the World Anti-Doping Code and the International Standard for Testing (ISO9001:2000).

The tests will be conducted at 41 doping control stations, 34 located in Beijing and 7 in the co-host cities. All venues will be equipped with a standard doping control station where blood and urine can be collected. The samples will be analysed in a period of between 24 and 72 hours only, depending on the kind of test.

ANTI-DOPING RULES
The International Olympic Committee Anti-Doping Rules
Applicable to the Games of the XXIX Olympiad, Beijing 2008
World Anti-Doping Code
The World Anti-Doping Code

Source : http://www.olympic.org/uk/news/olympic_news/full_story_uk.asp?id=2653

Pics from Olympic Village

Exciting pictures from Olympics Village

Check the link:-

Here

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Olympics Beijing 2008 Bejing2008 Blog Blogger China Summer

Beijing struggling to fight the fog before Olympics

With the official opening of the athletes' village yesterday,in the midst of thick fog, pressure is piling on the government to bring the city's air quality problems under control before the start of the Games in just 11 days.

According to Environmental officials, Government is going to take new measures but after giving the public a little forward notice before activating them.

Li Xin, a senior engineer at the Beijing Environmental Protection Buearu, said: "We will implement an emergency plan 48 hours in advance if the air quality deteriorates during the August 8-24 Games."

Environmental authorities told that there is nothing to worry about and they will take sufficient measures to avoid anything like that.

Du Shaozhong, deputy director of the Beijing city Environmental Protection Bureau, said at the weekend: “Good air quality does not necessarily mean blue sky. You might not be able to see things in a bathroom, but you would not conclude that it’s due to pollution.” He added: “We should judge whether there is pollution by scientific statistics, not by what our eyes can see.”

According to the study in last weekend after half the cars taken off the streets, construction ordered to halt and many factories closed for miles around, the air pollution index for particulate matter – a major airborne pollutant – was at a reasonable 67. But, even with so many vehicles off the streets, the index soared on Thursday to 113, peaked at 118 on Saturday and was still at 113 on Sunday. No number is yet available for today, but the air looks as thick as ever with many tall buildings hidden by haze.

Temperature conditions are also a problem in Beijing. On Sunday, temperatures of well above 90 degrees Fahrenheit (32 degrees Celsius), coupled with 70 percent humidity and scarcely a breath of wind, created a soupy mix of harmful chemicals, particulate matter and water vapour.

The national environmental protection bureau website showed Beijing yesterday in the III 1 category – defined as having the potential to affect people with respiratory problems severely and to make breathing difficult for others. That ranked the capital as third from the bottom of a list of China’s most polluted cities.

Mr Du admitted that “The air quality in August will be good.”

Athletes entering the newly opened Olympic Village on Sunday could barely make out the Bird’s Nest through the smog. The Firewall of China is also blocking the sites that provide information about the smog conditions in Beijing to ensure the secrecy of the fog condition.

One expert warned that drastic measures enacted to cut vehicle and factory emissions in the city were no guarantee skies would be clear during competitions. Fresh draconian anti-pollution measures are also ready to install to combat the smog in time for the Olympics.

Source : http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/asia/article4414228.ece

The Olympic village officially opened in Beijing..

New news from Beijing...

The Olympic Village for the Beijing Games was officially opened Sunday morning.

The first to enter the 66-hectare compound were the Chinese athletes itself. Olympic Village mayor Chen Zhili (R) and Beijing Organizing Committee for the 2008 Olympic Games (BOCOG) President Liu Qi attended the launching ceremony of Olympic Village on July 27, 2008. The village is very close to the venues for athletics and swimming. It can accommodate 16,000 athletes and officials from 204 countries for the Olympics Games.

"We now welcome athletes from around the world to come to the Games," said Chen Zhili, the mayor of the village and vice president of the organizing committee BOCOG.

"We will try to satisfy the needs of people from different cultural and religious backgrounds. We hope you will like the facilities and services, and achieve desirable results at the Games."

Polish and Cuban Olympic delegations are also set to take up their quarters in the village on Sunday.Athens Olympic 110 meters hurdles champion Liu Xiang and NBA star Yao Ming were also present at the ceremony. The NBA star Yao will be one of the most prominent residents, and Spanish tennis star Rafael Nadal has also said he will stay in the village. But his rival Roger Federer prefer to stay in hotel who wants privacy.

"If you go to the Olympics you have to go to the village," said the French Open and Wimbledon champion Nadal.

Village Facilities

The 66-hectare village has 42 buildings, swimming pools, tennis and basketball courts, a library, shopping zones, as well as a hospital and fire station. Worship rooms are available for Christians, Buddhists, Muslims, Hindus and Jews.

Around 100 foreign chefs and 2,700 Chinese cooks will cater for athletes and officials in the dining hall seating 5,000. There are four zones offering Chinese, Asian, international and Mediterranean food. The menu will include Halal, vegetarian, low-sugar, Indian and Kosher food, with cards to show ingredients and nutritional value. It contains tea houses, coffee shops, a barbershop, post office, shops, library, a fire station and a clinic.

The athletes' apartments consist of three or four bedrooms around a living area, giving them an average of up to 22.5 square meters per person, compared with 19.5 square meters for Beijing residents and just 16 square meters at the Athens Olympics in 2004. Door locks are decorated with ancient dragon motifs and the entrance halls have ceramic ornaments of women in Tang dynasty-style costume in the entrance halls.

"This is one of the nicest Olympic villages. Conditions are one step higher than in Athens (2004)," said German Olympic Committee official Bernhard Schwank.

The athletes and officials are looked after by a large staff with some 2,700 hotel workers and nearly 5,000 student volunteers on hand. Builders made extensive use of renewable energy, water recycling, energy saving technology, environmentally friendly construction materials and solar-powered lighting. Air-conditioning is also solar powered and much needed for the hot conditions in Beijing.

Source : http://www.newindpress.com/
http://in.news.yahoo.com

Iraq banned from Beijing Olympics 2008

Disappointment for Iraq....

According to the announcement from International Olympic Committee, athletes from Iraq have been banned from taking part at this summer's Beijing Games. The already existing interim ban is now extended to full ban. The Olympic committee of Iraq was under the attack of political influence from the country itself. Under the IOC charter, all committees must be free of political influence. As Iraq finds difficulty in avoiding the politics in the committee, IOC decided not to give ticket for the country.

Iraq had been planning to send a team seven athletes in five different events to the Olympics which start on 8 August. Two rowers, a weightlifter, a sprinter, a discus thrower, a judoka and an archer were ready to go to Beijing.

"The deadline for taking up places for Beijing for all sports except athletics has now passed," said IOC spokeswoman Giselle Davies.

Hussein al-Amidi, the general secretary of the Iraqi Olympic Committee, replied to the qustion in a press conference :

"This morning we were informed of the final decision of the International Olympic Committee to suspend the membership of the Iraqi Olympic Committee. It's a final decision, there is no way to appeal. This means that Iraq will not take part in the coming Olympic games. It is a blow to Iraq and its international reputation, its athletes and its youth. I swear those athletes who have been training - they phoned me today and they were crying and were very upset."

The Iraq government had dissolved the National Olympic Committee in May. Interim IOC ban was put in place from 4 June, which is now extended to full ban. The committee from 2004 was dismissed in 2006,which was in line with the Olympic movement's regulations. The committee members are not seen since 2006, including Ahmad al-Samarra'i, chairman of the committee.

Anyway the doors are almost closed for the Iraqi team for olympics '08.....

15 days 2 go...Corporations eye Beijing

...its only 15 day left for the biggest event of the year to start.As the games approaches, the companies and the corporate giants started to look forward for a huge market for their products. The expect a very large audience. They think they can have a very good advertisement campaign . There are many companies are in business here in Beijing at the time of Olympics.

The main Sponsors were,
Johnson & Johnson
Adidas
Volkswagen
UPS
NBC
at the beginning..then the picture changed...

Now, there are 12 worldwide sponsors -- Johnson & Johnson, Coca-Cola, Atos Origin, General Electric, Kodak, Lenovo, Manulife, McDonalds, Omega, Panasonic, Samsung, and Visa -- that collectively have invested $866 million.

NBC got the broadcasting rights for the Olympics in USA. They have already put a $900 million dollars as the sponsorship money. Definitely people are excited about the events as well as the business to be priceless here in Beijing.

Adidas became the official partner of the Olympic games

''This could be the biggest Olympic Games ever," said Wally Hayward, CEO of Chicago-based Relay Sports and Event Marketing.

BOCOG Vice President Wang Wei, left,shakes hands with Sandrine Zerbib, Head of Adidas Greater China, at a high-profile signing ceremony, Jan. 24, 2005. German sportswear manufacturer Adidas-Salomon signed a deal with the Organizing Committee of the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games (BOCOG) ,becoming an official partner of the 2008 Olympics. (Xinhua hoto/Qi Heng)










Adidas Olympics Advertisement



Source : http://www.flickr.com/photos/shalvas/2332831665/












Beijing 2008 Olympic Games
Worldwide Partners


















Beijing 2008 Olympic
Games Partners


















Other Sponsors


Source: http://en.beijing2008.cn/bocog/sponsors/sponsors/

Olympic torch enters Liaoning Province

Su Hongzhang, deputy secretary of the CPC Shenyang Committee, reached Qipanshan Ice and Snow World Square in Shenyang, the first stop on the Olympic flame's tour of Liaoning Province, to light the cauldron at 10:16 a.m.

22 days to go

Beijing...Beijing...Beijing..

..can't u hear it.???
.only 22 days more to go for the 2008 Olympics. It starts on 8th August and will last till 24th August. China has done its part to make it a big event. The rest is up to the rest of the world to come up with the spirit and joy that Olympics provides. Its time to break the old records.Its a hunt for new SPEED,HEIGHT and STRENGTH.
Olympic torch rally concluded today at Yanji...
Another step to the great event finished. Let's wait for more to come...

Beijing Olympics '08 Schedule

olympics competition schedule

The Olympic Anthem

"Throw wreaths of fadeless flowers to the victors

In the race and in the strife!

Create in our breasts, hearts of steel!"

Kostas Palama, extract from the Olympic anthem.

The Olympic anthem was composed by Spiros Samara, based on the words of Kostas Palama, for the Games of the I Olympiad in Athens in 1896. It was played again in 1906, but subsequently replaced by anthems specially commissioned for the Olympic ceremonies. In 1954 the IOC held an international competition won by Polish composer Michael Spisiak, who had put a poem by Pindar to music. It was played in Melbourne in 1956, but the composer demanded such a large fee that it was subsequently abandoned. When the Japanese played the piece by Spiros Samara at the 55th IOC Session in Tokyo in 1958, everyone enjoyed it so much that it was unanimously adopted as the official anthem, at the proposal of IOC member Prince Axel of Denmark.

-- Prince Pierre of Monaco, IOC member, offered the sum of US$ 1,000 to the winner of the competition for an Olympic anthem launched by the IOC in 1954.

-- The IOC received 392 entries from composers from 40 different countries. At its 51st Session, the IOC chose Michael Spisiak's composition.

-- The current Olympic anthem was adopted at the 55th Session of the IOC in Tokyo in 1958.

-- The Olympic anthem was played for the first time in Athens in 1896 and again in Rome in 1960.

-- The Olympic anthem was played for the first time at the Olympic Winter Games in Squaw Valley in 1960.

The Olympic Anthem Immortal spirit of antiquity,

Father of the true, beautiful and good,

Descend, appear, shed over us thy light

Upon this ground and under this sky

Which has first witnessed thy unperishable fame

Give life and animation to those noble games!

Throw wreaths of fadeless flowers to the victors

In the race and in the strife!

Create in our breasts, hearts of steel!

In thy light, plains, mountains and seas

Shine in a roseate hue and form a vast temple

To which all nations throng to adore thee,

Oh immortal spirit of antiquity!

The Olympic Charter

The Olympic Charter (OC) is the codification of the Fundamental Principles of Olympism, Rules and Bye-Laws adopted by the International Olympic Committee (IOC). It governs the organisation, action and operation of the Olympic Movement and sets forth the conditions for the celebration of the Olympic Games. In essence, the Olympic Charter serves three main purposes:

a) The Olympic Charter, as a basic instrument of a constitutional nature, sets forth and recalls the Fundamental Principles and essential values of Olympism.

b) The Olympic Charter also serves as statutes for the International Olympic Committee.

c) In addition, the Olympic Charter defines the main reciprocal rights and obligations of the three main constituents of the Olympic Movement, namely the International Olympic Committee, the International Federations and the National Olympic Committees, as well as the Organising Committees for the Olympic Games, all of which are required to comply with the Olympic Charter.

Preamble Modern Olympism was conceived by Pierre de Coubertin, on whose initiative the International Athletic Congress of Paris was held in June 1894.

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) constituted itself on 23 June 1894. The first Olympic Games (Games of the Olympiad) of modern times were celebrated in Athens, Greece, in 1896. In 1914, the Olympic flag presented by Pierre de Coubertin at the Paris Congress was adopted. It includes the five interlaced rings, which represent the union of the five continents and the meeting of athletes from throughout the world at the Olympic Games. The first Olympic Winter Games were celebrated in Chamonix, France, in 1924.

Fundamental Principles of Olympism 1 Olympism is a philosophy of life, exalting and combining in a balanced whole the qualities of body, will and mind. Blending sport with culture and education, Olympism seeks to create a way of life based on the joy of effort, the educational value of good example and respect for universal fundamental ethical principles.

2 The goal of Olympism is to place sport at the service of the harmonious development of man, with a view to promoting a peaceful society concerned with the preservation of human dignity.

3 The Olympic Movement is the concerted, organised, universal and permanent action, carried out under the supreme authority of the IOC, of all individuals and entities who are inspired by the values of Olympism. It covers the five continents. It reaches its peak with the bringing together of the world's athletes at the great sports festival, the Olympic Games. Its symbol is five interlaced rings.

4 The practice of sport is a human right. Every individual must have the possibility of practising sport, without discrimination of any kind and in the Olympic spirit, which requires mutual understanding with a spirit of friendship, solidarity and fair play. The organisation, administration and management of sport must be controlled by independent sports organisations.

5 Any form of discrimination with regard to a country or a person on grounds of race, religion, politics, gender or otherwise is incompatible with belonging to the Olympic Movement.

6 Belonging to the Olympic Movement requires compliance with the Olympic Charter and recognition by the IOC.

The Olympic Motto

A motto is a phrase which sums up a life philosophy or a code of conduct to follow.

The Olympic motto is made up of three Latin words: "Citius, Altius, Fortius", which means "Faster, Higher, Stronger".

These three words encourage the athlete to give his or her best during competition, and to view this effort as a victory in itself.

The sense of the motto is that being first is not necessarily a priority, but that giving one's best and striving for personal excellence is a worthwhile goal. It can apply equally to athletes and to each one of us.

History The three Latin words became the Olympic motto in 1894, the date of the IOC's creation. Pierre de Coubertin proposed the motto, having borrowed it from his friend Henri Didon, a Dominican priest who taught sport to students.


To better understand the motto, we can compare it with the following well-known phrase:

The most important thing is not to win but to take part! This idea was developed by Pierre de Coubertin who had been inspired by a sermon given by the Bishop of Pennsylvania, Ethelbert Talbot, during the Games of London in 1908.

The Olympic Flag

On the Olympic flag, the rings appear on a white background.The flag reinforces the idea of the Olympic Movement's universality, as it brings together all the countries of the world.

Pierre de Coubertin, the father of the modern Olympic Games, explains the meaning of the flag:
"The Olympic flag has a white background, with five interlaced rings in the centre: blue, yellow, black, green and red. This design is symbolic; it represents the five continents of the world, united by Olympism, while the six colours are those that appear on all the national flags of the world at the present time." (1931).

Combined in this way, the six colours of the flag (including the white of the background) represent all nations. It is wrong, therefore, to believe that each of the colours corresponds to a certain continent.

At the Olympic Games, the flag is brought into the stadium during the opening ceremony. Since the 1960 Games in Rome (Italy), it has been carried horizontally by a delegation of athletes or other people well known for their positive work in society.After its arrival, the flag is hoisted up the flagpole. It must fly in the stadium during the whole of the Games. When the flag is lowered at the closing ceremony, it signals the end of the Games.

The mayor of the host city of the Games passes the Olympic flag to the mayor of the next host city of the Games.

History : Modern Olympic Events

Even though Pierre de Coubertin intended the Olympic Games to be an international event from the time of their re-establishment in 1896 in Athens (Greece), it was only at the 1912 Games in Stockholm (Sweden) that, for the first time, the participants came from all five continents. One year later, in 1913, the five rings appeared at the top of a letter written by Pierre de Coubertin. He drew the rings and coloured them in by hand. He then described this symbol in the Olympic Review of August 1913.

It was also Coubertin who had the idea for the Olympic flag. He presented the rings and flag in June 1914 in Paris at the Olympic Congress.

The First World War prevented the Games from being celebrated in 1916 in Berlin (Germany) as planned. It was not until 1920 in Antwerp (Belgium) that the flag and its five rings could be seen flying in an Olympic stadium.

The universality conveyed by the rings and the flag was a new idea at the beginning of the 20th century. Nationalism was very strong and tension between certain countries was high. It was in this climate, however, that Coubertin proposed a symbol which aimed to encourage world unity.

History : Ancient Olympic Events

The ancient Olympics were rather different from the modern Games. There were fewer events, and only free men who spoke Greek could compete, instead of athletes from any country. Also, the games were always held at Olympia instead of moving around to different sites every time.

Like our Olympics, though, winning athletes were heroes who put their home towns on the map. One young Athenian nobleman defended his political reputation by mentioning how he entered seven chariots in the Olympic chariot-race. This high number of entries made both the aristocrat and Athens look very wealthy and powerful.

The Olympic Games

The Olympic Games is an international multi-sport event subdivided into summer and winter sporting events. The summer and winter games are each held every four years. Until 1992, they were both held in the same year. Since then, they have been separated by a two year gap.

The original Olympic Games were first recorded in 776 BC in Olympia, Greece, and were celebrated until AD 393. Interest in reviving the Olympic Games proper was first shown by the Greek poet and newspaper editor Panagiotis Soutsos in his poem "Dialogue of the Dead" in 1833. Evangelos Zappas sponsored the first modern international Olympic Games in 1859. He paid for the refurbishment of the Panathinaiko Stadium for Games held there in 1870 and 1875. This was noted in newspapers and publications around the world including the London Review, which stated that "the Olympian Games, discontinued for centuries, have recently been revived! Here is strange news indeed ... the classical games of antiquity were revived near Athens".

The International Olympic Committee was founded in 1894 on the initiative of a French nobleman, Pierre Frédy, Baron de Coubertin. The first of the IOC's Olympic Games were the 1896 Summer Olympics, held in Athens, Greece. Participation in the Olympic Games has increased to include athletes from nearly all nations worldwide. With the improvement of satellite communications and global telecasts of the events, the Olympics are consistently gaining supporters. The most recent Summer Olympics were the 2004 Games in Athens and the most recent Winter Olympics were the 2006 Games in Turin. The upcoming games in Beijing are planned to comprise 302 events in 28 sports. As of 2006, the Winter Olympics were competed in 84 events in 7 sports.