One year countdown to Beijing Olympics

Tiananmen Square was the centre of celebrations today as the countdown to the Beijing Games reached the one-year mark, an event China’s communist government hopes will showcase the country’s rising political and economic clout.

Eight is a lucky number in China, so the magic moment was to come at 8.08pm and 8 seconds (local time) marking one year until next year’s opening ceremony on August 8, 2008.

Everything seems on schedule for Beijing to host the most expensive Olympics in history. Beijing’s new anthem – the just-released pop song We’re Ready – was to be part of a grandiose ceremony played out on a stage under banks of searchlights.

“From what we have seen so far, the preparations for Beijing 2008 are truly impressive in every regard,” International Olympic Committee president Jacques Rogge said. “I don’t think we have ever seen preparations on this scale.”

China’s Communist government has been efficient in building venues. Except for the iconic “Bird’s Nest” National Stadium, all of the 37 venues are to be finished by the end of this year. Venue construction has eaten up only a part of the £20billion being spent on new underground rail lines and skyscrapers to remake the capital.

There have been few delays, and the £1billion operating budget has been offset by the vast revenue expected from TV and sponsorships. That has allowed attention to focus on Beijing’s choking pollution, campaigns to “civilise” the city and the risks involved for China’s authoritarian government.

Normally cautious with his words, Rogge warned hours before Wednesday’s big party that some events next year could be postponed if the air is too dirty.

“Yes, this is an option,” Rogge told CNN. “It would not be necessary for all sports, sports with short durations would not be a problem. But definitely the endurance sports like the cycling race where you have to compete for six hours, these are examples of competitions that might be postponed or delayed to another day.”

Despite billions spent to move refineries and steel mills out of town, Beijing has been blanketed for weeks by choking industrial smog.

To guarantee clean air during the 17-day Olympics, about a million of the city’s 3.3 million vehicles are expected to be kept off the roads. Officials are also hoping to control the weather. Meteorologists began tests last month, firing rockets to disperse rain clouds – a move to guarantee sunshine. They’ve also fired rockets containing sticks of silver iodide to induce rain to clean the air.