Tickets

"We guarantee that the Beijing Olympics tickets will be sold via authorized domestic and international ticket agents by adhering to the principle of fair for all," said the executive vice president of BOCOG.

Tickets for the Beijing Games total 9 million but not all of these are available to the general public. "The exact number of tickets that can be sold will not be decided until we figure out how many tickets will go to reporters, the IOC members, the athletes from all over the world and the games sponsors," noted Jiang. A sales plan for Olympic tickets will be unveiled in April, he added.

Considering China's average purchasing power, BOCOG has long promised to adopt a low-price ticket policy. BOCOG will offer student tickets, which comprise about 14 percent of all domestically available tickets and cost merely 5 yuan and 10 yuan for preliminaries and finals respectively.

Olympic torch relay

When China bid for the Olympic Games it promised that the Olympic torch would climb over the top of Mount Everest. Now the Olympic organizers have to make good on that promise, with all the technical issues that involves.

"We are now cooperating with the Chinese Mountaineering Association and we hope to make full preparations and work things out," said Jiang, adding that a Chinese mountaineering party is already in training for the task.

According to Jiang, the route of the torch relay was submitted to the IOC last December for approval. "What we are sure of is that provinces, municipalities and autonomous regions as well as Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan are all included in the route," he said.

Beijing Paralympics

BOCOG will be the first organizing committee to host two of the world's most prestigious sporting competitions-the 29th Olympics and 13th Paralympic Games.

A Paralympic Games Department has been set up at BOCOG to coordinate preparations for the Paralympic Games, while other departments have divisions and staff responsible for the event. "We are going to host two excellent Olympic Games in 2008, the Olympics and the Paralympics," Jiang promised.