Beijing (AsiaNews) – In exactly two years, on 8 August 2008, at 8pm (please note: 8 is China's lucky number), the eyes of the world will be fixed on the Chinese capital, where the opening ceremony of the XXIX Olympics will be held. Official sources have said at least one million people will invade Beijing's parks today, doing gymnastics exercises and starting a countdown to celebrate. A theatre performance for children is also planned with the mascots of the games as protagonists.

Wang Wei, executive vice president of the Beijing Organizing Committee for the Games, told a press conference that preparations were proceeding smoothly. Beijing has set up construction sites to prepare 31 competition venues and 76 training grounds. Another six venues are outside Beijing: the sailing venue in Qingdao, the equestrian venue in Hong Kong and four venues for football preliminaries in Tianjin, Shanghai, Shenyang and Qinhuangdao.

Yesterday, symbols of the different sports were presented to the public. The set pf 35 pictograms, named "the beauty of seal characters" is the work of a group of artists of the Central Academy of Fine Arts and Qinghua University, who were inspired by ancient Chinese inscriptions on bones, seals and bronze objects. The result is at once effective, simple and elegant. Also yesterday, a performance of ethnic dances was held in Beijing's ethnic culture park.

The official website of the games, www.beijing2008.com, was launched some time ago. Apart from news and information about sports, athletics, and past Olympics, the site may also be reached for commercial purposes: to get memorabilia, for sponsorship of events, and so on.

Preparations for the games over the years have not been trouble-free. In the capital, there have been violent seizures of homes, demolitions without compensation, corruption and bribes that even involved the vice mayor of Beijing.

Many people fear that the Games are a big screen to cover up human rights violations. Yesterday, the Foreign Correspondents Club in China urged the authorities to guarantee the press freedom expected of Olympic hosts. At present many foreign reporters are hindered in their work: they have no freedom to move around and contact people, and their sources are frequently threatened and even harmed.

The heaviest accusations came from a group of human rights organizations, which includes Olympic Watch (www.olympicwatch.org), Reporters without Borders, Solidarité Chine, the Laogai research foundation (that documents life in China's lagers) and others. Yesterday they issued a statement calling on Olympic committees, athletes and sponsors to work for respect for human rights, threatening boycott as an option.

The statement said: "The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has refused to face the reality in which Beijing 2008 is to take place." It charged the IOC with being "either too cynical, or too incompetent, or both, in protecting Olympic ideals and taking a clear stance on continuing human rights abuses in China". So the organisations have called on National Olympic Committees and individual athletes to start discussing ways how they can protest, with one option being "full, publicly stated boycott of the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games". The statement also drew attention to the special responsibility of corporate sponsors of the Olympiad to prove that "their business philosophy does not condone propaganda abuse of the Games and human rights violations".