Working sessions were held March 29-31 between the 18-member International Olympic Committee (IOC) Coordination Commission for the Beijing 2008 Games and departments concerned with the Beijing Municipal Government. The sessions included talks on Olympic human resources, image and look, ticketing, marketing, torch relay, sports schedule, venue construction and operations, environment, technology, media and communications, spectator services, media operations, urban transport infrastructure as well as command, control and telecommunications. The working group also conducted site inspection tours of Beijing’s transport infrastructure.
Taiwan is considering China’s offer to join the Beijing 2008 Olympic torch relay, as long as the island is part of the torch’s international route. Taiwan Olympic officials outlined conditions for the island’s participation in the relay during two meetings with its Chinese counterparts since December. Taiwan will only take part in the international leg of the relay, not China’s domestic portion. Negotiations between the two sides are expected to resume later this year.
Beijing has started to solicit slogans for its 2008 Games volunteer program. The deadline is August 31, 2006. Wang Minghao, in charge of the program, said “the slogan should be in line with the concept of Beijing Olympic volunteer program – ‘service first, harmony first’ and highlighting the striking features of the times and the Chinese culture. It should also reflect the idea that volunteers’ smiles are the best name card of Beijing, carry an international perspective so that people from different countries and regions and of different cultural backgrounds can understand it. And it should be brief, rhythmic, easy to remember, inspiring and appealing”. The Beijing 2008 Games is expected to have about 100,000 volunteers.
China is welcoming volunteers from Taiwan, Hong Kong, Macau and the rest of the world to its volunteer program said organizers. Plans for the program will be announced in a big global launch this August. Wang Minghao, head of the program said “we will not only adopt the Athens practice of inviting Greeks from all around the world. We will also welcome volunteers no matter what race, what nationality and what religion they believe in”.
Beijing’s plans to host a green Olympics may be scuttled because of the invasive American White Moth that has been “sneaking” into China from its northeastern border since 1979 and is now seriously threatening trees and crops in Beijing and five provinces. Wu Jian, chief engineer of the State Forestry Administration said “without timely control, the moth may turn the green Olympics into a brown one by eating all the leaves from Beijing’s trees”. But he was confident that the problem could be tackled in Beijing before 2008. Wu said “this year our moth-control will target about 16,000 hectares of woodland in Beijing, Tianjin, Hebel and Liaoning”.
