The private jets are streaming in, sparkling limousines are on standby, multi-lingual guides are at the ready, the best hotels in town are all decked out and hundreds of banners are strung along the roads.

A five-year-old boy points to a FORTUNE global forum poster at the Beijing Capital International Airport May 15, 2005. The opening ceremony of the forum, orginally planned to open at the Temple of Heaven, will be held in the Great Hall of the People in downtown Beijing due to moderate rains forecast May 16. [newsphoto] Yes, there's definitely a buzz in Beijing as the curtain rises on the three-day FORTUNE Global Forum with a four-hour opening ceremony this evening.

More than 800 participants - CEOs, chairpersons and presidents of Global 500 firms and domestic enterprises; top government officials; and renowned scholars - will be brainstorming on various issues.

And they will be listening keenly as President Hu Jintao shares his vision of China and the New Asian Century, the theme of the forum, in his keynote address.

A five-year-old boy points to a FORTUNE global forum poster at the Beijing Capital International Airport May 15, 2005. The opening ceremony of the forum, orginally planned to open at the Temple of Heaven, will be held in the Great Hall of the People in downtown Beijing due to moderate rains forecast May 16. [newsphoto]

Robert Bierman, president of the conference division of FORTUNE Magazine, said yesterday that he expected the forum, the ninth of its kind, to be the best ever.

"We want it to be perfect," he told a press conference. To that end, the organizers, not willing to take any chances, have moved the opening ceremony from the park of the historical Temple of Heaven to the Great Hall of the People as drizzle is forecast for this afternoon.