China hosted largest yet Olympic cultural festival

Beijing hosted the largest yet Olympic cultural festival around August’s Games, attracting thousands of performers to participate, said an official of the Beijing organizing committee. The festival will host significant cultural activities with "Meet in Beijing 2008" as the theme, including Asia Night, Africa Night, Latin America Night, Arab Night, SCO (Shanghai Cooperation Organization) Night and other song and dance shows.

Nearly 300 art teams both home and abroad performed at this Olympic Cultural Festival, said Zhao Dongming, director of cultural activities department of the Beijing Organizing Committee of Olympic Games. Zhao said,” I believe it will be the most diversified one in the Olympic history and it will be a chance for cultural integration between China and the rest of the world."

In fact, China has been holding Olympic cultural festivals in Beijing since 2003. These included sports film showings, song competitions and exhibitions around the city.

China based online newspaper people’s Daily reported that, Nearly 20,000 artists from more than 80 countries and regions will feature in 600-plus performances, including those from Hong Kong, Macao and Chinese Taipei.

British soprano Sarah Brightman, who sang Amigos Para Siempre (Friends of Life) at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics, performed. Italian violinist Salvatore Accardo, the Russian National Ballet Theatre, as well as an Irish River dance team, will also take part in this big event.

The team works according to the following procedure: each section, including choreography, costume, decor and scenery, lights, sound, fireworks, ground and above-ground work, prepares their own scheme, before they are finally integrated. As a key process of the production stage, the rehearsal of the program started in August at a designated place in Beijing‘s suburbs.

Director Zhang Yimou promised to present a splendid opening ceremony for the upcoming Olympic Games and a surprise to the world. The mass rehearsals of the ceremony with some 10,000 actors and actresses have started at different places.

To ensure the security of opening ceremony Chinese government is going to take every possible measurement to pull out any kind of terrorism.  China Civil Aviation Administration announced new move for Olympic security that no planes would be allowed to take off or land at Beijing Capital International Airport from 7 p.m. to midnight on Aug 8, the night of the Games’ opening ceremony.

The Beijing transport authorities opened 28 special bus routes yesterday to make commuting easy for spectators because they could not drive their vehicles to National Stadium – there are no parking lots near the venue. The authorities released a traffic control plan, covering 35 sections of roads, for Aug 8. The restrictions will be enforced in different places at different times, starting at 11:30 am and lasting till 8 pm.

Beijing commuters will face even tighter security checks from Thursday when subway passengers will have to submit all bags for screening.

Even small handbags must go through x-ray machines or portable scanners, the subway operators announced Wednesday.

Eventually, Beijing is ready to present an historic opening ceremony through entertainment, securities and huge number of facilities for the athletes, visitors, journalists and every person related with this Olympic 2008.