Beijing 2008 Summer Olympics
August 8-24th 2008

On July 13th 2001 Beijing was selected over Toronto and Paris as the Host City for the Games of the XXIX Olympiad in 2008. The opening ceremony took place at 8 p.m. on August 8th 2008. The number eight is a very auspicious number in the Chinese culture. The slogan for the Beijing Olympics is "One World, One Dream."

Beijing hosted the main events along with Hong Kong hosting the equestrian events. The coastal city of Qingdao hosted some events such as sailing and beach volleyball.

The centerpiece of the 2008 Summer Olympics was the newly constructed Beijing National Stadium. The National Stadium began construction on December 24, 2003 and replaced the 2001 built Guangdong Stadium which was originally scheduled to be the main stadium.

Cleaning Up Beijing
In an effort to make Beijing city more international friendly to foreign travelers and to clean up the city, the Chinese government created a campaign to teach the people of Beijing international protocol. Laws such as "no spitting" on streets have been created and enforced and the Chinese government has also taken great steps to improve air quality within the city.

Official Beijing 2008 Olympics Logo Entitled "Chinese Seal Dancing Beijing", the official logo of the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games combines a traditional Chinese red ink seal with a simple running figure. The figure itself resembles the Chinese character "Jing", the same sound which is name of the host city. The "Beijing 2008" writing is in English yet utilizes traditional Chinese calligraphy brush strokes. The logo embodies four messages; Chinese culture, the China nations color of red, Beijing's worldwide welcome, the the Olympic motto of Citius (Faster), Altius (Higher), and Fortius (Stronger).

Beijing 2008 Olympics Official Mascots The five mascots called "Fuwa" (roughly translating to "friendlies") were inspired from the Five Olympic Rings. They carry messages of friendship and peace, and blessings from China to children all over the world. The Fuwa consists of five children: Beibei, Jingjing, Huanhuan, Yingying, and Nini. Designed to express the playful qualities of five playful children, four of the five Fuwa were designed with characters based on four popular Chinese animals; the Fish, the Panda, the Tibetan Antelope, and the Swallow. The fifth Fuwa character is based on the iconic Olympic Flame. Cute and fun in appearance, it's interesting that the design of the five characters are greatly influenced by Japanese magna style cartoon characters.