Welcome to Beijing Olympic countdown. I'm LiuXu. There are now 39 days to go before the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

Torch Relay Kicked Off in Wuzhong

The sacred flame continued its relay in Wuzhong, known as the Thousand Tower City, today in northwest China's Ningxia province. Famous Chinese entrepreneur Huo Qinghua became the first torchbearer, with a total of 193 torchbearers running the 5.6 km relay.

(Photos from beijing2008.cn)

Multilingual Hotline Set Up For Traffic Info

Foreigners in Beijing will be able to report road emergencies to the 122 traffic police hotline in eight languages from July 20 to Sept 20. In addition to reporting automotive accidents, they will also be able to request traffic information and inquire about temporary traffic controls in English, French, German, Spanish, Arabic, Russian, Korean and Japanese.

Launching Ceremony of China's National Stadium Held

China's National Stadium, known as the "Bird's Nest," was pronounced fully operational last weekend, signaling the readiness of all 37 venues for the Beijing Olympic Games in August. According to chief commander of the project, the Bird's Nest is the last completed Olympic venue, and the best.

(Photo by xinhuanet)

UN Leader Praises Beijing Games Preparatory Work

Recently, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon praised Beijing's preparatory work for the Games and remarked that this session may be one of the most successful in Olympic history. According to Xinhua, Mr. Ban told reporters that the Chinese should feel very proud of their accomplishments in preparing for the Olympic Games.