More than 1,000 pieces of Olympic treasures will go on display in China this summer as part of the celebrations to mark the one-year countdown to the 2008 Olympic Games, organizers announced on Sunday.

 

"The IOC Olympic Treasure Exhibition China Tour, the first one outside Europe in the history of the International Olympic Committee, will start on August 8, 2007 and last for one year until the 2008 Games open in Beijing," Liu Qingzao, an official from the organizing committee, told a press conference.

 

The exhibition, jointly hosted by the IOC, the Chinese Olympic Committee and the Beijing Organizing Committee for the 2008 Games (BOCOG), will be held in 14 cities across China, including Beijing, Shanghai and Hong Kong.

 

It will showcase torches, medals, artworks, mascots, sports equipments, souvenir, Olympic stamps as well as audio-video and pictures recording the opening and closing ceremonies of previous Olympic Games.

 

"The IOC Olympic Treasure Exhibition Tour of China brings the Olympic Museum to China for the first time and demonstrates the core Olympic value to Chinese people. Let us share the same Olympic dream with the world," IOC president Jacques Rogge was quoted as saying in a letter of congratulation.

 

(Xinhua News Agency April 23, 2007)