China's First Rainwater Recylcling Systerm

Is China really getting greener? GE will provide China's first ever rainwater recycling system at the Beijing National Stadium for the 2008 Olympics Games in Beijing. This is one of over 300 projects that GE is involved with for the Olympics in '08.

The water, which is stored in underground pools, will be used for landscaping, cleaning and firefighting.

This is also part of China's effort to implement better, greener water management solutions for the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing. These kinds of improvements to China's infrastructure will no doubt continue to be useful for many hears after the Olympics next summer.

This type of water treatment system is very advanced and does not use chemical, therefore it meets even the most stringent environmental standards. There is no question that this as well as the many other efforts by GE and others to "green up" Beijing and the surrounding areas are welcome improvements indeed.

2008 Olympics Venue: Archery Field

Another venue for the 08 Olympic games is getting praise from the IOC. The Olympic Green Archery Field was the host of an on-site tour by IOC officials who said "Everything looks good."
The venue is 8,609 square meters and 4 gold metals will be awarded there.

Olympic Cylcling Road Tested

The "2007Good Luck Beijing" International Road Cycling Tournament took place on Sunday on the Cycling course for the 2008 Olympics in Beijing. The cyclists who took part in the event spoke very highly of the course.

Teams from eighteen(18) countries participated on the 102.6km track (174km riding distance).

The course is said to be very beautiful with a lot of scenery including the Temple of Heaven, Tiananmen Square, Yonghegong Palace, Temple of Earth Park, the Beijing Olympic Tower and the Summer Palace, and the Badaling Highway.

Traffic control reportedly went smoothly and there were no accidents.

2008 Olympics Torch Video

Here is a video featuring the torch for the Olympics in Beijing.

Another 2008 Olympic Games Promotion Video

Here is another neat promotional video for the '08 Olympic Games in Beijing, China. This one features some pretty cool animations. Feel free to leave some comments and tell us what you think about some of these videos.

2008 Olympics Clay Target Field

The Clay target field (CTF) for the 2008 Olympics in Beijing is complete and has been delivered.

Shooting competitions for the '08 Olympics will take place from August 9 until August 15th and 5 gold medals will be awarded at this venue.

Events from this venue will include men's trap, women's trap, men's double trap, men's skeet and women's skeet.

Amnesty International's press release about the Olympics

Many groups have been very vocal about boycotting the Olympics in Beijing and with the 1 year countdown having begun Amnesty International has issued a press release and published it on their website.

The press release sites their new report, The Olympics countdown -- one year left to fulfil human rights promises, and focuses on four things that they feel need immediate attention, the death penalty, detention without trial, treatment of human rights defenders and media freedom.

2008 Olympic video clips

Here's a neat little collection of 2008 Olympics video clips from Youtube.

NBC Olympic Coverage

WOW! NBC announced part of its plans for their television coverage of the 2008 Olympics in Beijing. 3,600 hours of coverage, 1,400 hours on NBC and their cable networks and 2,400 hours will be broadcast for free on the internet.

This is far more coverage than any previous Olympic games, about 212 hours a day for 17 days.

Beijing Olympics going "green"

A project has begun to build 33 windmills to power the 2008 Olympics. The project's cost is estimated at around $76.7 million or 580 million yuan.

These new windmills will provide about 100 million kwh of electricity to the city, which currently uses coal fired generators for electricity. This will significantly reduce carbon monoxide emissions and is aimed raising awareness of environmentally friendly power sources.

The Chinese Olympic committee has stated that it wanted at least 20 percent of the Olympic venues to be powered by wind generated electricity.