Top 10 Beijing Olympics news stories in 2005
(People's Daily)
Updated: 2006-01-28 09:42

Following are the top 10 Beijing Olympics news stories in the year of 2005 selected by netizens (listed in the order of the number of votes):

1. "One World One Dream" was chosen as the slogan of the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games. The organizers had to sift through a staggering 210,000 entries from home and abroad.

2. Five dolls, which embody the natural characteristics of four of China's popular animals -- the Fish, the Panda, the Tibetan Antelope, the Swallow -- and the Olympic Flame, were unveiled as the mascots for the 2008 Olympics on Nov. 11, exactly 1,000 days before the event's opening ceremony.

3. Promoting the theme of "Green Olympics", the environmental logo for the Beijing Games was unveiled in September featuring an image that combines a human shape and a tree both reaching to the sky, representing harmony between men and nature.

4. "A high-level Olympic Games with distinguishing features" was defined as the goal of the Beijing Games.

5. An ambitious volunteer program for the Beijing Games was launched in June. Some 70,000 volunteers are expected to serve for the 2008 Olympics and 30,000 others for the Paralympics.

6. A team of eight Chinese TV stations were contracted to provide international TV and radio feeds for table tennis, badminton, modern pentathlon, football, basketball, volleyball and tennis during the 2008 Olympics.

7. The Chinese capital saw 230 days with clear sky last year.

8. The International Olympic Committee announced in July that the equestrian events of the 2008 Games will be switched to Hong Kong from Beijing.

9. The 14 new competition venues planned for the Beijing Olympics are all under construction.

10. The 5th full meeting of IOC's coordination commission for the 2008 Games was held in November. The IOC gave thumbs-up to Beijing's preparatory work for the 2008 Games.

Note: The top 10 news stories were selected by the online community from a shortlist of 20 entries. More than 240,000 votes were collected from home and abroad.