The Start of the Countdown

On 13th Jul 2001, Beijing was elected as the host city for the XXIX Olympics during the 102th IOC Meeting in Moscow! This is the beginning of our journey to Beijing on 08-08-2008 at 8:08pm.

2008 Summer Olympics bidding results
City	NOC	Round 1	Round 2
Beijing	China	44	56
Toronto	Canada	20	22
Paris	France	15	18
Istanbul	Turkey	17	9
Osaka	Japan	6	-

source: wikipedia

This is the second time that Beijing is bidding for the rights to host the event. In 1993, it lost to Sydney in the final round of votes despite leading all the way. I remember the papers lamblasting the West for ganging together "against" China.

A few years later, I discussed this with my Chinese friends. Surprisingly, they said that it's actually better for China when they lost to Sydney! This is because such events require huge some of money and China is better off using the resources to develop its large poor interior and keep inflation in check.

Anyway, 8 is considered the most auspicious number for Chinese. The date they have chosen couldn't be more prosperous then! ;-)

Just a side note, Paris has lost 2 consecutive bids for the Olympics. Poor French! They just can't win the English speaking world.