Parts of the awarded works will be used to beautify the construction sites of Olympic projects and decorate athletes' rooms at the Olympic Village, organizers said. The deadline for submitting paintings is early July.

A student watches paintings awarded in the 2005 contest

Organized by the Beijing Youth Palace and Beijing Environmental Protection Foundation and supervised by the Environmental Activity Department of the Beijing Organizing Committee for the Games of the 29th Olympiad (BOCOG) and China National Youth Palace Association (CNYPA), the two-month campaign will feature environmental protection.

"Green Olympics" is one of the three concepts of the Beijing Olympics (the others being High-tech Olympics and People's Olympics) and BOCOG has paid great attention to publicity of environmental protection in its preparatory work for the 2008 Games, said Jiang Xiaoyu, BOCOG executive vice president at the launch ceremony.

In addition to painting contest, activities involving the school children in water-saving, campus students in environment-related DV contest as well a series of film and photo shows and lectures will also be held, according to Jiang.

From 8-23 May 2006 organizations and individuals participating in the contest will have a chance to exchange their waste paper and books for recycled environment-friendly paper to paint their artworks.

In 2005, BOCOG held a similar contest in Beijing, attracting over 2000 participants from up to 100 primary and second schools, with 210 paintings awarded.