Senior International Olympic Committee (IOC) officials will invite over 200 National Olympic Committees to Beijing on August 8 to mark the one-year countdown to the opening of the 2008 Games.
This is one of 63 activities organized to celebrate the special day, as announced by officials from the Beijing Organizing Committee for the Games of the XXIX Olympiad (BOCOG) on Wednesday.
The event, which will start at 7pm in Tian'anmen Square, is believed to be the first time that such a traditional ceremony has been held out of the IOC headquarters in Lausanne, Switzerland.
As introduced by Zhao Dongming, director of BOCOG's Culture and Ceremonies Department, the event will feature the final countdown, a special IOC ceremony and several performances.
The celebration will use Tian'anmen Square as the stage to display the country's development from ancient China until now," said Zhao. "A crowd of 10,000 people, including Chinese leaders, IOC senior officials and chefs-de-mission from over 200 countries are expected to attend the gala. It will be broadcast live on CCTV to the whole nation."
Meanwhile, from August 4-8, BOCOG will organize a variety of Olympic-themed activities.
The IOC Olympic treasure exhibition will come to China for the first time on August 8
It will be the first time that the IOC treasures have left Europe.
The 2008 Olympic landscape sculpture exhibition will open on August 5. About 290 sculptures selected through a design competition will be displayed at China Millennium Monument till August 11.
Starting from August 6, the 10 Olympic Families chosen by netizens will start their nine-day tour of China in Beijing.
The 2008 Smiling Beijing Volunteer Activity will be held on August 7, during which time the slogan for the Beijing Olympic volunteers will be announced and some will take an oath to pitch in at the test events.
The Beijing municipal government, various communities in Beijing and co-host cities of the Games will also hold a raft of celebratory events. They include public fitness activities, forum, exhibitions, musical instrument competitions and other performances.
