Not surprisingly, China wants to make the biggest impact possible at the opening ceremony of the 2008 Olympic Games, and to get the job done, the Chinese are playing their ace. Enter Zhang Yimou, the countrys most celebrated film director, and now director-general of the opening and closing ceremonies of the 29th Olympiad.
Yet despite Zhangs obvious talent, in some eyes he needs to take his performance to the next level. At the closing ceremony of the 2004 Athens Olympics, an eight-minute Chinese presentation directed by Zhang made He Zhenliang, Honorary Chairman of the Chinese Olympic Committee, shaking his head. He told a reporter of the Hong Kong-based Phoenix TV that compared with the Greek opening and closing ceremonies, the Chinese performance left a lot to be desired.
We lag far behind them. Theyre profound, while were superficial. This should not be what the Chinese culture, civilization and modern spirit represent.
He has attended more Olympic opening ceremonies than any of his contemporariessix summer Olympiads and seven winter Olympiads. In his eyes, its extremely difficult to fully manifest Chinas thousands of years of history and profound culture with original creation. To clearly embody the Chinese understanding of sports and the Olympic spirit, and to be tinged with strong modernism, are the key to success. It cant only be achieved with symbols like big red lanterns and the facial make-up of Peking Opera, he said.
With the opening ceremony just two years ahead, many Chinese are having the same worries as He Zhenliang, and expectations are running high. Liu Qi, Secretary of the CPC Beijing Municipal Committee and Chairman of the Beijing Organizing Committee for the 29th Olympic Games (BOCOG), said, Our opening ceremony should contain plenty of innovative points and highlights, so that people all over the world can remember the moment forever.
In April, several heavyweight experts, including 95-year-old master of Chinese traditional culture Ji Xianlin and Oscar winning director Steven Spielberg, were engaged as advisors to the BOCOG. Since the beginning of last year, when the collection of design plans for both opening and closing ceremonies was initiated, 409 submissions have been received. Teams are now working overtime on a combination of the best features of the top 13 designs. The design for the opening ceremony and the plan for its technical implementation should be ready before the end of this year.
Beijings aim has always been to stage the most distinctive and high-level Olympics to date, and the opening ceremony is an important component. Liu Qi also pointed out that to be distinctive means incorporating Chinese style, culture, features of the times and mass participation. High-level, he said, involves eight aspects, including venues and sports facilities, the opening ceremony and cultural activities, media services and public opinion, security, volunteer teams and services, traffic, urban image, and results of games.
Venue construction
Preparation for the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games has drawn great importance from all the governments at all levels and great support from the people, said Wang Wei, Executive Vice President of the BOCOG. The Beijing Municipal Government has set up the Beijing 2008 Project Construction Headquarters, the Beijing 2008 Environment Construction Headquarters Office and the Olympic Legislation Coordination Group to oversee Olympic venue construction, urban environment protection and relevant policy research. People from all walks of life are actively involved in the preparatory work, including marketing, and the solicitation of the Olympic emblem, theme slogan, mascots and songs.
Many experts say they have confidence in the preparation of the structural aspects of the Games. From July 13, 2001, when China won the Olympic bid, to August 8, 2008, when the opening ceremony of the 29th Olympic Games will be held, the seven-year period will see step-by-step and steadfast process, said He Zhenliang. Preparatory work is proceeding smoothly and according to plans.
Hein Verbruggen, Chairman of the International Olympic Committee (IOC)s Coordination Commission for the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games, described what he saw on his tour of the construction sites of Olympic venues as impressive when he was in Beijing in May.
Along Beijings north-south central axis lie many rare cultural relics and famous structures, like Tiananmen Square, the Forbidden City and the Temple of Heaven. By 2008, the central axis will have been extended by a long distance. At its northernmost tip, the 1,100-hectare Olympic Park will be built, where 14 venues and the Olympic Village are located. The National Stadium, venue of the opening ceremony, lies in the middle of the park.
The 2008 Olympic Village will be a green island, with 40-50 percent of the village and the areas for other Olympic projects covered by trees and flowers, Liu Qi told environmental experts shortly after Beijing won the 2008 Olympic bid. He said that three green barriers will be built, including one in the mountainous areas measuring 10,400 square km, a 1,000-km long green barrier in the plains, and more than 100 square km of green fields in urban areas. Currently, forest coverage in Beijing has exceeded 50.5 percent, two years ahead of the target for 2008.
According to the plan, the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games will use 37 venues for games and 76 for training. So far, construction has begun on 15 new venues, the main sections of which have been finished. Before the end of this year, reconstruction or enlargement of old venues will begin. According to official sources, construction of all competition venues and related establishments will be finished before the end of next year. Before the Games begin, more than 40 trial runs will be held to thoroughly test all venues and procedures.
In addition, Beijing has designated 21 Olympic medical centers and set up the 2008 Olympic Doping Test Center. From the first half of next year, 112 star-level hotels in Beijing with contracts with the BOCOG will begin receiving room reservations. It is estimated that a double room in a five-star hotel offered to athletes, coaches, game officials and registered media will be priced at around 2,800 yuan, or $350.
Preparations and funding
The Games have a total of 28 sports, 38 disciplines and 302 events. There will be 623 competition sessions. The BOCOG has just released the pictograms, and the daily and session competition schedules have been approved by the IOC in principle. Competition managers for the 28 sports have been confirmed by international sports federations.
Organizations for the preparation of the sailing competition in Qingdao and football preliminaries in Tianjin, Shanghai, Shenyang and Qinhuangdao have also been set up. The BOCOG has signed the principle agreement on its relations with the governments of the five co-host cities. Games preparation in those cities is now in full swing.
According to the fiscal budget during Chinas Olympic bid, the Beijing Games was expected to earn $1.625 billion, with expenditure at $1.609 billion. Due to the September 11 terrorist attacks and the SARS epidemic in China in 2003, the BOCOG later increased its budget for security, sanitation and medicare.
Although there is some increase in the expenditures, well still stick to the principle of being down-to-earth and frugal, and our operational costs wont surpass those of the Athens Olympic Games, which were 1.967 billion euros, or $2.4 billion, said BOCOG Executive Vice President Jiang Xiaoyu.
Funding includes $830 million earmarked by the IOC as TV broadcasting fees, about $334 million as a share to the BOCOG from the revenue of the IOC marketing campaign, and the rest collected through the BOCOGs marketing initiatives. Our marketing is very successful. There will be no problem to stage a successful Olympic Games, said Jiang. Since the Beijing Olympic Marketing Program was launched on September 1, 2003, the BOCOG has driven a surge of sponsorship. To date, 11 IOC worldwide partners have come on board with financial and service support. Nine companies are now official sponsors. Since the Olympic Licensing Program and the Supplier Program kicked off, five exclusive suppliers have been selected. A total of 248 licensed retail outlets have been opened across the country to sell official merchandise.
All preparatory work is now well underway. Unexpected problems will no doubt crop up, but as Wang Qishan, Mayor of Beijing, said, When we got the Olympic flag we had already prepared to cope with all possible problems.
Reviewing the countdown on the fifth anniversary of Beijings
successful Olympic bid for 2008
December 13, 2001: The BOCOG was established.
February 4, 2002: The State Council put forth the Regulations on the Protection of Olympic Symbols, which went into effect on April 1, 2002.
July 12, 2002: The Beijing Olympic Action Plan formulated jointly by the Beijing Municipal Government and the BOCOG was promulgated, detailing the main tasks of the preparatory work for the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games.
June 11, 2003: The BOCOG Sailing Committee (Qingdao) was set up in Qingdao.
August 3, 2003: The Emblem of the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games, entitled Chinese SealDancing Beijing, was publicized at the Temple of Heaven in Beijing.
August 31, 2003: A frame agreement for the establishment of the Beijing Olympics Broadcasting Co. Ltd. was signed, launching the TV broadcasting work for the Games.
September 1, 2003: The Beijing 2008 Marketing Plan was officially launched.
December 24, 2003: Construction of the National Stadium and the National Swimming Center kicked off.
March 26, 2004: The Lenovo Group became the first Chinese company to join the Olympic Partner Program.
July 13, 2004: Entitled Sky, Earth and Human Being, the emblem of the Beijing 2008 Paralympic Games was unveiled.
May 31, 2005: Beijing Olympic Broadcasting Co. Ltd., host broadcaster of the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games, was put into official operation.
June 5, 2005: The Beijing Olympic Volunteer Program was launched and the volunteer symbol for the Games was unveiled. Around 70,000 volunteers will be needed for the Beijing Olympics and 30,000 for the Paralympics.
June 26, 2005: One World, One Dream, the theme slogan for the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games, was announced.
July 8, 2005: The International Olympic Committee announced that the equestrian events will be located in Hong Kong.
October 5, 2005: The BOCOG Equestrian Committee (Hong Kong) was formally established.
November 11, 2005: The official mascots of the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games were unveiled to mark the 1,000-day countdown to the opening of the Games. The mascots, consisting of five figures, are officially named Fuwa. They include Beibei the fish, Jingjing the panda, Huanhuan the Olympic flame, Yingying the Tibetan antelope and Nini the swallow. The first characters of their rhythmic two-syllable names form a line that reads Beijing Huan Ying Ni, or in English, Welcome to Beijing.
April 16, 2006: The creation team for the opening and closing ceremonies of the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games was announced.
August 7, 2006: The BOCOG released the pictograms of the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games.