Olympic silver on show

An Olympic silver plate has been chosen as part of the International Olympic Committee's souvenir exhibition, touring China until next August. The plate, issued by China Gold Coin Incorporation, was a gift from Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao to IOC's Lausanne headquarter, and was collected by IOC's Olympic Museum. Other items include 2008 Olympic mascot Fuwa, Olympic torch, and souvenir coins with Chinese ancient athletic patterns. Two sizes of the silver coin were issued: one is 200.8mm in diameter and weighs 1,000g, the other is 120mm in diameter and weighs 248.8g.

School's in at teahouse

A class of 20 students from poor tea-producing counties in Anhui and Guizhou will study tea ceremony in Beijing, in a project financed by local teahouses. The class will guarantee their future as tea ceremony performers in Beijing. The Lu Yu tea ceremony class comprises poor junior high school students who were at risk of dropping out. Shan Honglin, GM at Miyun Biboxuan Teahouse, donated 500,000 yuan to cover all their expenses at school. Famous teahouses such as Lao She, Biluxuan and Yiqingquan will provide study materials and practice venues.

Help in many tongues

A multilingual Emergency Call Center has been established in Chaoyang District, Beijing Daily reported. Volunteers offer help in eight languages including Russian, German, Korean, Japanese, Arabic and English. The service is ready to assist at the Good Luck Beijing Olympic venues testing events. There are over 30 volunteers in the central office, with at least one volunteer for each language on duty every day from 8am to 9pm. Communication difficulties can be solved by phoning the hotline on 96105.

Where the stork flies

Huairou District residents discovered more than 10 black storks depositing eggs in Tanghekou township. It was the first time the rare bird had appeared in the capital, Beijing Daily reported. The black stork is one of the world's endangered species and is under first-grade national protection in China. The purplish-green birds, measuring 110cm, mostly breed in the regions of Xinjiang, Qinghai, Gansu, Inner Mongolia and Liaoning. They lay eggs in Hebei, Xinjiang and northeast China provinces. The slots on the cliff beside the Baihe River in Huairou provided the birds with an ideal breeding ground.

One world, all smiles

Director Zhang Yimou will reveal 10,000 smiling faces from all over the world to kick off next year's Games, Beijing Daily reported. Zhang, who is directing both the opening and closing ceremonies for the Olympics, said last week the 10,000 faces of different colors, from different countries and regions would be artistically presented to express the theme of "one world, one dream" on August 8 next year. He said the program is under discussion about whether the faces would be shown in picture or video form.

(China Daily 08/23/2007 page19)