The first bullet train designed and manufactured in China, with a speed of 300 km per hour, rolled off the production line Saturday and is expected to run on the Beijing- Tianjin route starting next August ahead of the Beijing 2008 Summer Olympic Games. Xinhua news agency reports it will reduce time on the route from the current 80 minutes to around 30 minutes. The first batch of 10 trains will be delivered in the first half of 2008.
There has been an unprecedented demand for tickets to the 2008 Games which means many ticket orders won’t be filled. The problem is occurring all over, including Europe and the United States. The Associated Press reports the national Olympic committees are complaining to Beijing organizers that ticket allocations were about half of what they expected. Even families and friends of competitors may not be able to attend the Games. Jesper Larsen, head of International Affairs for the Danish Olympic Committee said, “for certain sports it is almost impossible to get any tickets at all. Almost every NOC has experienced that the number of tickets they got allocated was much lower than what they were asking for “.
The fourth set of Olympic-themed commemorative stamps was launched Thursday at the newly built National Indoor Stadium. The new issue, called “XXIX Olympiad Competition Venues”, includes six stamps and a separate small sheet. The stamps are in limited circulation and have a denomination of 8.6 yuan.
