Olympic Treasure Exhibition debuts in Hong Kong

A model of the "Bird's Nest" attracts visitors. (Photo credit: Takungpao)

(BEIJING, February 19) -- The five-day IOC Olympic Treasure Exhibition ended in Hong Kong on February 18, attracting numerous local students and residents.

More than 700 collection items from the International Olympic Committee (IOC) Olympic Museum are on a one-year China tour until the start of the Beijing Olympics on August 8, 2008, with Hong Kong as its sixth leg.

The exhibition features Olympic medals, torches, mascots, art products, films and photographs, sports-related scientific and technological products, as well as souvenirs of previous Olympic Games.

This is the museum's first cross-regional event of this magnitude and duration, and it is the first time the entire collection of Olympic torches from the past 100 years has left Europe. It is also the first time the entire collection of Olympic medals from the past 100 years is touring Asia.

The Hong Kong visitors flocked to the section containing the products showing the "Bird's Nest" (the National Stadium), the "Fuwa" (the mascots of the Beijing Olympics) and the Beijing Olympic torch decorated with the auspicious clouds, according to the local newspaper Takungpao.