Beijing marks 100-day countdown to Olympics

China has set its sights on ensuring the smooth running of the Olympic Games in August, as the country marks 100 days before the start of Beijing 2008.

According to Xinhua News Agency, International Olympic Committee officials have voiced confidence in the organization of the upcoming Games, predicting it to be a great success.

Quoting China Daily, Xinhua said representatives from the United Nations and non-governmental organizations around the world earlier this week also gathered to pay tribute to the concept of a green Olympics.

In order to keep air pollution to a minimum, the Chinese government has employed various measures, including planting trees, relocating factories and restricting the number of cars on the road during the Games period, a BOCOG (Beijing Organizing Committee for the Games of the XXIX Olympiad) official told ZDNet Asia last month in Beijing.

The choice of technology systems and architecture of Olympic venues also took an eco-friendly slant.

Testing of the IT systems is still underway, ZDNet Asia understands from Atos Origin, the overall systems integrator for Beijing 2008. The Good Luck Beijing testing phase is expected to close with the swimming marathon on Jun. 1.

In addition, the third and final phase of the domestic ticket sales will commence Monday, availing slightly less than 1.4 million tickets. Zhu Yan, director of the Olympic ticketing center, was quoted by Xinhua as saying that this time around, there will not be a repeat of the booking system crash during a previous round of sales.

"We have confidence in the system because our ticketing sponsor has increased the system's capacity by folds," he said. "Nonetheless, I hope that the public won't be hasty to buy tickets."