Peng and paper

To mark the 100-day countdown to the opening of the Beijing Olympic Games, UPS, the Beijing 2008 official logistics and express delivery sponsor, invited Chinaese tennis star Peng Shuai to be its courier.

Peng's first stop is UPS' special client, the Beijing Olympic organizing committee, BCOOG. In addition to the express delivery, Peng also presented UPS' Letter of Regards to BOCOG, showing its support for the Beijing Games.

Peng also headed to the China Charity Federation and delivered a confirmation letter regarding UPS' donation to the China Administration of Sports for Persons with Disabilities.

China Daily

Name of the torch

Nearly 80,000 Chinese people are named xiangyun (lucky cloud), and over 1,000 ones are named huoju (torch), according to the recent statistics of the National Citizen Identity Information Center under the Ministry of Public Security.

Due to the name's masculine meaning, 1,066 huoju name holders are men, comprising 95 percent of the total.

In contrast, xiangyun is almost equally favored by both men and women. As the Olympic torch returns to China after traveling around the globe, people with the names Torch and Lucky Cloud have attracted much media attention.

http://sports.sina.com.cn

Tulips in bloom

Visitors are marvelling at the display of flora used to pay tribute to the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games at the famed Keukenhof Flower Garden in the Netherland, the world's largest tulip park.

The flower show intends to highlight Chinese culture and the Olympic spirit.

In the garden, there is a colorful dragon created with flowers, temporary Chinese-style pagodas, and a sculpture representing the Olympic torch.

The origin of Keukenhof Flower Garden can be traced back to the 15th century. It has about 7 million bulbs consisting of more than 1,000 tulips. This year, the garden will be open from March 20 to May 18.

http://www.keukenhof.nl/nm/english.html

World in your pocket

The third-generation (3G) mobile phone service is ready for use in the upcoming Beijing Olympics as the high-speed wireless connection service and related products were formally delivered to the Beijing Games organizers early last week.

China Mobile, China's top wireless operator, and South Korean cell phone producer Samsung presented 15,000 3G handsets, plus data cards and nearly 3 million yuan ($428,600) of calling fees, to the Beijing Organizing Committee.

With the offer, work staff and volunteers of the Games can enjoy high-speed data transmissions, which will allow them to watch televised games, play videos, and surf the Internet on their cell phones.

The service is based on the Chinese 3G standard, known as TD-SCDMA (Time Division Synchronous Code Division Multiple Access).

China Daily

Broadband Games

People will be able to enjoy more Olympic information through broadband Internet access, as China Netcom (CNC), the official partner of the Beijing Olympics, launched a new installer last week to mark the 100-day countdown to the 2008 Games.

Through the installer, people can receive Olympic-related news in the form of text messages, photos, videos and on-line broadcasts.

It will also integrate other CNC Olympic products, such as the Interactive Voice Response mechanism, electronic city maps and an Olympic yellow pages.

People can log on to the official website at client.cncmax.cn to download the installer for free.

China Daily

Olympic gourd

Zha Taishan, an entrepreneur farmer in Western China's Shaanxi Pronvice, has recently come out with a series of Olympic gourds. The shapes, sizes and patterns resemble real-life basketballs, soccer balls and volleyballs.

Gourd carving and painting has long been a traditional handicraft in China, but Zha says the shape and pattern of his works come naturally. He used his knowledge of genetics and plant physiology to fashion them into preset shapes and sizes.

Zha got the inspiration to grow Olympic gourds six years ago when China won the bid to host the 2008 Olympic Games. Since then, he says, countless failed attempts to manufacture the products took him from riches to rags.

Zha presented his products to the Beijing Olympic organizers in April, he said. He has now stopped making them as he wants to present a one-of-a-kind gift to the Games.

China Daily

Chorus of approval

In the three months leading up to the Beijing Games, students' passion for singing Olympic-themed songs has a new avenue for expression in the form of a singing contest organized by the China Arts Promotion Society, China News Agency and Jiangxi TV Station.

The contest, aimed at fostering greater enthusiasm among students for receiving Olympic visitors, started selecting people from five Chinese regions last month. Winners of the first phase will gather in Jiangxi province for the final competition to grab the title of National Top Ten Campus Singer.

Candidates can choose any song they want - prefabricated or their own invention- as long as it has an Olympic theme.

The competition will last until Olympic D-day on August 8.

China Daily

(China Daily 05/09/2008 page2)