Beijing 2008 Gets New Sponsors
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Anheuser-Busch and Legend Group have both signed on as sponsors of the Beijing 2008 Summer Olympic Games. Itâs the first time Anheuser-Busch, the maker of Budweiser, has sponsored a Summer Olympics outside
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Chinese sport fans have embraced an online lottery for tickets to theÂ 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing.
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(InfoWorld) - Chinese sport fans have embraced an online lottery for tickets to theÂ 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing. Nearly 90 percent of ticket applications were submitted through the Beijing Organizing Committee for the Games of the XXIX Olympiad's (BOCOG's) ticketing Web site, according to the Chinese Internet Network Information Center (CNNIC), an organization that oversees the .cn top-level domain and tracks Internet usage in the country. The remaining applications -- 10.6 percent of the total -- were made using paper forms submitted through Bank of China branches across the country. "The Internet has become the most important channel for Olympic ticket sales," CNNIC said in a recent report (in Chinese). The first Olympic tickets to go on sale in China are being sold through a lottery system. The first phase of the lottery lasted from April 15 and June 30. During that period, BOCOG received 700,000 applications for a total of 4.9 million tickets to Olympic events, CNNIC said. It did not say how many tickets are being offered during the lottery. During the second phase of the lottery process, which lasts from July until September, BOCOG will allocate tickets and charge customers, although pricing for individual tickets has not yet been made public. Payment can only be made using Visa credit and debit cards or through a Bank of China savings account. The most popular event during the lottery was the opening ceremony, planned for August 8, 2008. Nearly 51 percent of ticket applications received during the lottery are for the opening ceremony, CNNIC said. The next most popular events are basketball (39 percent) and soccer (35 percent). The least popular event is softball, which accounted for 0.9 percent of ticket applications. Chinese sport fans who missed the lottery can still buy tickets for the games. The remaining tickets will go on sale in October through BOCOG's Web site, Bank of China, and the Olympic Ticketing Call Center. Tickets will also be sold at the venue for each event starting in April 2008. Â
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International Olympic Committee (IOC)  president Jacques Rogge has praised Athens Games organizers for  setting new standards for 2008 hosts Beijing.
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NBA China, a new company that will conduct all National Basketball Association business in the world's most populous nation, was unveiled Monday with major US and Chinese corporate support.
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Shanghai. (Interfax-China) - The National Basketball Association (NBA) held its first ever game in China last night. Budweiser, Coca Cola, McDonald&#39;s, Reebok, Kodak, and Disney were the six corporate sponsors
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Beijing is pushing Chinese firms to establish a global presenceÂdespite the may risks that involves
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The eyes of the world are looking towards Beijing for the Olympic Games that will be held here fewer than 11 months from now. But for real China watchers, an event next month will draw much greater attention and have a much greater impact on the country than 16 days of athletics.
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(InfoWorld) - When Beijing won the right to host theÂ 2008 Summer Olympic Games, officials promised to use it as a showcase for new technology and China's economic development. But the reality is that while the games will display the world's top athletic talent, it will be using old, mature technologies. A lot of new technologies, and even some mature ones, have already beenÂ cut from the roster. Microsoft Windows Vista, for example, won't be the OS used on any of the PCs responsible for vital functions at the Olympics; its predecessor Windows XP will. WLAN (wireless LAN) didn't make the grade either. All networking for the games will be done by wireline. Officials have even prepared a mobile Web site for the Olympics based on WAP (Wireless Application Protocol), instead of GPRS (General Packet Radio Service) or 3G (third generation). The site is designed to provide up-to-the-minute scoring information, and it's already online. "We're only using proven technologies at the games," said Hou Xinyi, deputy director of the technology department at the Beijing Organizing Committee for the Games of the XXIX Olympiad, which has taken the acronym, BOCOG. If China's 3G system is up and running by the end of this year, the official Web site for mobile users will be more useful to people, he added. So far,Â China hasn't said when it will start issuing 3G licenses. The nice thing about WAP is its reliability and usability. Most wireless networks can be used with it, including CDMA (Code Division Multiple Access), GSM (Global System for Mobile Communications), PHS (Personal Handy-phone System), TDMA (Time Division Multiple Access), and most OSes allow people to read information from WAP sites. It's just not as fast as 3G, not by a long shot. But while the technology may be lacking, attendees to the 2008 Summer Olympic Games will be treated to some spectacular design work. Not only are some of the stadiums being built for the games unique -- and unusual for Beijing -- the torch to be used in the round-the-world relay is also easy on the eyes. And it was developed by a PC vendor, China's own Lenovo Group. Lenovo won the design contest for the 2008 Olympic torch. The company's PC designers came up with a 72 centimeter tall, 985 gram aluminum torch in the shape of an ancient Chinese scroll. The torch is two colors, split in half in the same manner as the Yin-Yang symbol, said Y.J. Yao, a vice president at Lenovo and head of the design teams. The upper half of the torch is silver with cloud designs outlined in red, while the lower half is red, covered by a special paint with a rubbery feel, a no-slip safeguard so runners won't drop it if they're sweating during their 400-meter portion of the global torch run. Originally, the company thought about using a dragon design on the top of the torch, but "the dragon is a symbol for the emperor, not for everyone, so we can't accept the dragon," Yao said. The cloud is for everyone, and represents the coming together of heaven and earth, he added. The name of the torch is the Cloud of Promise. The form of the torch -- the scroll design -- denotes paper, a useful item and a Chinese invention, Yao said. The color was chosen via a survey. "We asked, what color is China? Over 99 percent of respondents said red," Yao said. The color represents fire and warmth, friendliness and luck. People who like pictures of the torch might be interested in buying one of the laptop PCs Lenovo designed using the torch colors and styles. The company plans to auction off 2008 of them online and donate the proceeds to charity. EbayÂ is helping with the auction, but it won't be an eBay URL (uniform resource locator), said Yao. "We have a passion for the Olympic Games," Yao said. "You know, when it's happening in your city, you have a passion for this." The other top Olympic-related design work has gone into the new National Stadium, referred to by many as the Bird's Nest due to its unorthodox construction. The opening and closing ceremonies of the Summer Olympic Games will take place in the stadium. The exterior of the 91,000 seat stadium resembles a bird's nest, a steel exoskeleton wrapped around the outside of the site. The design is bold, and striking. It's hard to tell how it's going over with local Beijing residents, though. Many complain that there's nothing Chinese about it and one of the best comments this reporter heard on a recent trip to the city was "I guess it will take some getting used to." Beside the Bird's Nest is the National Aquatics Center, where all swimming and water sports events will take place. Based on the geometry of water bubbles and crystals, the center was nicknamed the Water Cube because of the design of its light blue and white outer membrane. The Cloud of Promise, Bird's Nest and Water Cube are all attempts at innovative design. Unfortunately, the technology used at the games won't be quite so bold. Â
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Beijing. (Interfax-China) - The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has arrived in China to begin cooperation with the Beijing Organizing Committee for the Games of the XXIX Olympiad (BOCOG), signaling the
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Huawei Technologies and ZTE, the leading Chinese telecommunications equipment makers, say they are in discussions to become sponsors of the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing.
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By Jonathan B. Cox, The News & Observer, Raleigh, N.C.  Sep. 17--Wangfujing Street in central Beijing is a shortcut to the other side of the world.   Above the Mercedes-Benzes and Audis whizzing nearby, a billboard promotes Adidas.
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A delegation of top Olympic officials arrived in Beijing on Wednesday with a clear message for its hosts: Preparation is the key to successfully hosting the 2008 Games.
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InfoWorld - Chinese sport fans have embraced an online lottery for tickets to the&#160;2008 Olympic Games in Beijing.
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Beijing -- Talk in China has shifted from holding a &#39;green&#39; or &#39;people&#39;s&#39; Olympics to a &#39;frugal Games&#39; as Beijing tightens its purse strings while undertaking massive preparations to play host to the 2008 event.
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BEIJING - Days after the euphoria of its record gold medal haul in Athens, China announced a sobering plan to delay construction of some venues for the 2008 Olympics and confirmed plans to cut down the extravagant features of two main stadiums here.
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China will spend considerably less on Olympic security than recent host countries, but organizers said they were confident the safety of the 2008 Games could be ensured at a low cost.