Press conference: Preparation work for the Opening Ceremony of the Games

TBS

If I may ask in Japanese, I understand the Opening Ceremony will last three and a half hours. When will the Olympic torch be lit? Around what time exactly?

Wang Ning

According to the handbook of the Opening Ceremony and Charter of the Olympic Games. The lighting is the most important part of the ceremony of the Olympic Games. It should be placed at the very last part of the ceremony. At the very end of the ceremony, we are going to lit the flames.

reporter

I have a question for Mr. Zhang. I would like to know the theme song by Liu Huan and Sarah Brightman. How long have those two been practicing? For the marching, who will be after the Greek delegation and who will be before the Chinese delegation? Whether President Hu will announce the opening in Chinese or in English? Thank you.

Zhang Heping

Brightman is now here in Beijing. Comparatively speaking, those two people do not have long time to record. They have started recording only recently. And they have done their utmost to make sure the song will fully reflect the spirit of the Olympics.

Wang Ning

For the marching order of the athletes, we are going to strictly abide by the marching order given to us by the IOC. Your question is very specific. After the Greek delegation is Guinea. Before the Chinese delegation is Zambia.

ABC

A group of protesters have been arrested today near the Bird's Nest. What do you know about that, what is going to happen to them?

Sun Weide

As far as we know, at the present stage, the four forefingers gathered illegally near the Beichen Bridge, we express strong opposition towards that. Olympics is a grand international gathering, we oppose any attempt of the political signs. In terms of the assembling demonstration, we have related laws and regulations. We hope that that related overseas foreigners will respect the related laws and regulations.

Wen Wei Po

My question is about the marching of the athletes, the marching order will be done on the order of strokes of the simplified Chinese characters. For about 60% to 70% of the delegations, the first character of the names of their countries are all 5 to 6 strokes characters. What are the specific roles? As far as I know, the Republic of Korea and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea will be marching in together. What is the reason of the two countries? Is it a consideration under BOCOG or the IOC?

Wang Ning

I suppose this is common sense. For any order, if the first number of strokes for the first character are the same, then we will consider the second character of the name. Also for the marching order, we should also take into account the IOC rules.

Now for the marching order, we have done a lot of consultation with IOC and the marching order is the result of the consultation.

Latin American reporter

You are just saying about the 3 groups of people who will be participating for the ceremony are professionals, students and the military. Tell us more about the specifics on how will be the participation of the Chinese military within the ceremony?

Wang Ning

I can see that you are very interested in how many people from the military will be involved in the performance at the ceremony. What I can tell you is that the people from the military, we have quite some professional artistic performance and also a lot of high caliber performers are working with the military. This time for the ceremony, we have asked some professional and amateurs military performers to be involved in the performance at the Opening Ceremony. The purpose for us to do so is to enhance the performance. And for the proportion of the military people, it accounts for about one third of the total amount of the performers.

Foreign reporter

I was wondering if they will be any references to modern Chinese history in the ceremony, more reference to Mao Zedong, Taiwan and the issues about the Tibet? Thank you

Zhang Heping

I would like to answer this question. As I said earlier, we would be using the Chinese way to do the performance so the performance is not trying to reflect the real history of China but will reflect the cultural part of the Chinese people. It will also showcase what the modern Chinese people are like and the specific forms would be the ones you are quite familiar with and people like very much.

Montreal Gazette, Canada

I think the world has a great expectation for sensational fireworks display given what the Chinese do with fireworks. Can you give us details in terms of the number of round of shells that you are going to use and how long the fireworks display will last?

Wang Ning

10 days ago, we actually talked about the fireworks for the Opening Ceremony. Today I will take this opportunity to brief you on the firework launching.

The firework launching is one of the characteristics of the Opening Ceremony. The hometown of fireworks is in China. The fireworks performance this time will be colorful and will be throughout the Opening Ceremony. It will be matching the ceremony and performance. We have selected new types of fireworks for this ceremony including the high tech content and different technologies to launch fireworks. In order to increase the effectiveness of the Opening Ceremony, we actually set up a large area around the Olympic Green so that more residents in Beijing can enjoy fireworks as well. In the main stadium, there will be about 15,000 shells. As for the vicinity, there will be 14,000. So I believe the fireworks will definitely be more colorful on the 8th during the Opening Ceremony.

AP

We understand that BOCOG website has recently posted notice that interviewers and TV crews who wish to interview on the Tiananmen Square should apply ahead of time. Could you verify if there are changes and why?

Sun Weide

First of all, during the Olympic Games, Tiananmen Square will hold major cultural events and a lot of the crowd will be there to watch the performances and a lot of flowers will be staged there. If a foreign journalist need to go there to cover, then we want them to call beforehand for reservation. The reporters will enter in accordance to the reservation they make. For the journalists who go there on their own to make a film, there will be staff to do the security check and helping out.

CCTV

I would like to ask you about the lyrics of the theme song. Are the lyrics in Chinese? Is there only one theme song? Is there any song performed by Andrea Bocelli or Zhang Liangying? Could you also reveal the lighting of the flame ceremony, there will be several people doing that or is there only one person or just one? Are you confident that the lighting of the flame will light the whole world?

Zhang Heping

The theme song will express the theme of the open and harmonious society.

CBC

There have been a lot of criticisms from all over the world about the air quality protests leading to Games and the Opening Ceremony. How do you respond to this and what are your messages to the world?

Sun Weide

Olympic Games is the major sports event in the whole world. We have been preparing for 7 years and a lot have been supporting us for the preparation. For example, last April NOC held a big meeting and 205 NOCs supported our preparation. There are 205 NOCs coming to participate. In recruiting the volunteers, we got a lot of support from the whole world. This time the Games have 100,000 volunteers; 70,000 volunteers for the Olympic Games and 30,000 for the Paralympic Games. A lot of volunteers actually came from overseas.

When you talked about the quality of the air. We have invited the experts from all of Beijing and Environmental Protection Bureau. They talked about the efforts they put in to improve the air quality. For the last 10 years, we spend 140 billion RMB in the technology to improve air quality. For all the efforts we put in, the air quality in Beijing have been improved. The first time we started doing and inspecting the air quality was in 1998. We set a lot of stations to observe the air quality and this year we have achieved 149 blue sky days. You can see from the statistics that we have definitely improved the air quality and then we provide a very good condition for the spectators and the athletes.

Foreign reporter

Just a follow up on the Tibet protest today. What do you say to other groups that may plan on protesting on Beijing Games? Do you think it is up to this challenge?

Sun Weide

I can provide further details. Today, this morning at 5 a.m., the 110 police number get a phone call that some residents, some foreigners are trying to climb the Beichen Bridge and trying to put the banner regarding Tibet. The Chaoyang district police went to the bridge and they took the four foreigners away. According to the preliminary investigation, there were three men and one woman. Two of them are Americans and two are British. Right now, the police are doing further investigation. When we talked about the protest assembly, the Chinese government has a very clear laws and regulations. We hope the foreigners will come here and abide by the rules and regulation.

CCTV

I would like to ask Mr. Zhang, what kind of work you are going to do with the audience at the Opening Ceremony? Do you suppose they have some kind of human wave? Can they take photo? What about the spectators that can't get into the Bird's Nest. How far can they stay in order to watch the firework?

Zhang Heping

At 7 p.m., we are going to have some activities right there. Everybody knows at the ceremony, they will receive a package and in the package there are some pamphlets, they mentioned the performance. So in this time slot, there will be some organizers to teach the spectators how to use the pamphlets. About human wave, yesterday during the rehearsal, there are lots of human wave and voluntary ones as well for the residents to enjoy. After the Opening Ceremony, there will be a lot of people. The Opening Ceremony is going to be a big festival. Not just in the stadium, I think in other places of Beijing, we will have fireworks. All the rest of Beijing can enjoy fireworks in very short distance.

NBC

Some question about the engineering work involved in the Opening Ceremony. How large is the massive screen at the stadium, is that going to be a permanent picture of the Bird's Nest? How to move from act to act?

Zhang Heping

I wanted to know what kind of screen you would like to know. I can put it this way. Since we have a high quality and a very characteristic Opening Ceremony, for the equipment work, we brought in big staging facility. We put these facilities in the stadium and we have finished the adjustment in the three rehearsals. It seems that it is operating normally. After the performances, we have three days of time to take them down so that the stadium can go back to the competition venue for the track and field. Thank you.

Japanese reporter

My question has something to do with the Internet. As we heard earlier, there have been some protests about Tibet. But something may not be necessarily related to the Olympics. For the reporters who are here, if we want to report on these things, and if there is no internet access or being blocked, how are we supposed to perform our jobs?

Sun Weide

First of all we have talked about the full convenience for internet usage. A lot of reporters here are using internet to cover the Olympics. The Chinese and foreign journalists can report on the Games without any problem.

Tomorrow at 11 o clock, the BOCOG leaders will talk about the preparation and readiness of the Games. Thank you.