Olympic Stadium Bird's Nest

A bird flies over the National Olympic Stadium, also known as the Bird's Nest, which is lit by coloured lights during activities to mark a one year countdown to the 2008 Olympic Games at night in Beijing, August 5, 2007. The Chinese capital is gearing up to celebrate the one year countdown to the opening ceremony of the 2008 Olympic Games on August 8.

On August 8, a gala celebration for the one-year countdown to the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games will be held at Tian’anmen Square, an official from theBeijing Organizing Committee for the Games of the XXIX Olympiad (BOCOG) said Wednesday.

International Olympic Committee (IOC) President Jacques Rogge will send invitations to more than 200 National Olympic Committees around the world during the celebration night.

“This event marks the first time that such a significant ceremony has been held at the host city of the Olympic Summer Games, other than the IOC headquarters in Lausanne, Switerland,” Zhao Dongming, head of the cultural events department of BOCOG, said.A crowd of nearly 10,000 spectators will join the gala along with Chinese leaders, IOC senior officials, chefs de missions and representatives of the NOCs, ambassadors and representatives of the Olympic sponsors.

Tian’anmen Square will not have any special traffic control for this event, but there will be an area set asde for a stage in the center of the square. “We hope visitors can continue to enjoy the square as usual,” Zhao saidZhao said if it rains that night, the celebration would be moved indoors to the Great Hall of the People.

Aside from the gala celebration, 62 more events will be held across the country to celebrate the one-year countdown. Ten families selected to tour Beijing, five from China and five from around the world, through the “Olympic Families Tou Beijing” promotion will embark on their nine-day Olympic tour starting August 6.In addition, the theme song “We Are Ready,” written and composed for the Olympic Games one-year countdown, will be released this Saturday

Other activities in Beijing, such as the public fitness activities, forums, exhibitions, musical instrument competitions, will feature mass participation, while the co-host cities, Qingdao, Shanghai, Hong Kong, Tianjin and Qinhuangdao, will have their own organized countdown events.