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The People’s Republic of China is the world’s largest nation, with 1.3 billion people (for every American, there are at least 4 Chinese). China is home to one of the world’s oldest civilizations. Its sports team has been one of the best performing at recent Olympic events (2nd behind the US in Athens 2004). Nonetheless, no Olympic games had ever been held in China. Beijing nearly edged out Sydney for the 2000 Summer Olympics, but it was not until the July 31st 2001 announcement that the 2008 games would be held in Beijing that a long-cherished dream of the Chinese people came true.

Hosting a grand international festival is one way for a country to establish its brand in human consciousness. It looks as if the Beijing 2008 Olympics will validate China’s global emergence just as Chicago’s World’s Columbian Exhibition in 1893, for example, previewed America’s rise as the primary 20th century industrial power.

The slogan for the Beijing 2008 Olympics is One World, One Dream. These four words reflect an international reality that is perhaps more interdependent than in any era since humans were down to a few thousand survivors in Africa a hundred thousand years ago (our odds for survival then were barely even!). The red emblem on the Olympic logo, “Dancing Beijing” incorporates Chinese calligraphy and an open armed figure inviting the world to share Chinese culture. The five Olympic mascots - or Fuwa - are meant to represent children. Each has a two-syllable rhyming name that expresses affection in China for young children - Beibei for fish, Jingjing for Panda, Huanhuan for the Olympic flame, Yingying for the Tibetan antelope, and Nini for the swallow. Put together as one word, all five names say “Welcome to Beijing” in Chinese.

The symbols chosen do not include the Great Wall of China (on the right), another one of the more popular and distinctive Chinese symbols. The Great Wall can be visited at different points around Beijing, and was built thousands of years ago to keep invaders out of China. The Olympics, on the other hand, is an invitation for the world to get together and celebrate community through sports so that a defensive structure may well have been inappropriate.

Three of the Fuwa colors - red, green and yellow - reflect three colors integral to Chinese art and style since ancient times.

They can be seen here in this gateway to a courtyard in Beijing’s Forbidden City, next to Tianamen Square, where Chinese Emperors and Empresses used to live. Most Olympic visitors can be expected to join the countless tourists that already make the Forbidden City the world’s most visited tourist destination.

Another popular destination for athletes and visitors to the Olympics might be Beijing’s Drum Tower, where drum sounds were used to inform the city’s population of different times of the day. This method of time keeping will not suffice for Olympic events of course; the Beijing Olympics will use some of the most modern time-keeping tools and technologies ever deployed at sports events. When athletes win races by hundreds of a second, this is an absolute requirement. These will be the highest tech Olympics ever. Events will also be broadcast throughout the world in high-definition television imagery and enjoyed in this format by more people than ever before. High-technology is one of the three guiding themes of the 2008 Olympics.

A second theme is for these to be a Green Olympics, as environmentally-friendly as possible. Beijing (and China in general) already have a high-degree of environmental-consciousness. Many different steps are being taken to both conserve and re-use resources used for the construction of Olympic facilities. Factories that spewed pollutants into the air were shut-down over the previous years, and strict driving regulations to keep airborne pollutants down are also being enforced. Based on license plate numbers, only select groups of cars can drive on Beijing roads on certain days. Beijing’s location not far from the Gobi Desert - from where a constant sheen of sand is being blown over the city - and other factors make keeping the air clean for athletes and visitors a major challenge for organizers. To this end, a new subway system (inaugurated in June 2008 by the Chinese Prime Minister) was built in record time for the Games.

The third major official theme for the Olympics is that it should be a “People’s Olympics,” and bring together people from all over the world in celebration of the Olympic spirit and human harmony. With what is expected to be the largest global - and of course national - audience ever for an Olympic games, this should be possible. What is also being brought together in these Olympics - as much as in the Athens 2004 Olympics - is the past and present for China. A great culture is offering both its ancient traditions and grand modern dreams and realities to the world. The image on the left is from a new art hub in central Beijing. Long a vast worker’s factory compound, the area is now home to avant-garde art studios and galleries that are pushing the boundaries of modern China. The Olympics are likely to be a transforming event for China’s image abroad and for its national self-perception.