Preparation work for the Opening Ceremony of the Games9

At the conclusion part of the performing arts. The theme song will be performed for first time during the Opening Ceremony. That is why the song not revealed during the rehearsals. The theme songs were selected by BOCOG for five years and they conducted 4 sessions of songs solicitation and from a variety of songs. The songs were approved by following the expert approval procedures. In terms of the secrecy of the song, we will not disclose anything related to the song.

Today we are privileged to tell you the singers that we have selected for the theme song. They are Liu Huan and Sarah Brightman. That is the second part of my introduction.

The 3rd part is with regards to what follows the performances. It includes things like the marching of the athletes, the address by the BOCOG Chairman and the address by the IOC Chairman and the President of China, and the entry of the Olympic flag and the playing of the Olympic Games anthem, raising of the Olympic flags, the release of the doves, the torch relay in the stadium and the final lighting of the torch as well as the fireworks.

The firework is the last one. It will last two and a half hours including the marching of the athletes which will take 2 hours. As for the order of marching of the athletes, we will do it in accordance to the order of strokes according to the simplified characteristics for the 205 countries and territories.