Editor's note: Following are some major events featuring Beijing's efforts to prepare for the 2008 Olympics in the past two years.

December 13, 2001 - The Beijing Organizing Committee for the Games of the XXIX Olympiad (BOCOG) was set up, signalling the formal start of the city's preparation for the Games. Liu Qi, then Beijing Mayor and now the Beijing municipal Party secretary, was selected as the committee president.

January 30, 2002 - BOCOG held its first ever news conference for the national and international media, announcing the overall timetable of the Olympic preparations.

February 7, 2002 - The International Olympic Committee (IOC) authorized BOCOG to protect the Olympic logo and related intellectual properties inside China.

March 28, 2002 - Liu Qi unveiled the Action Plan for the 2008 Olympic Games, the overall blueprint guiding the Olympic preparations.

June 7, 2002 - The science and technology committee of the 2008 Olympic Games was established.

June 17, 2002 - The national weather broadcasting centre started to provide a daily weather report to BOCOG.

July 2, 2002 - The two-day Olympic design conference was held in Beijing, marking the start of a design competition for an emblem for the 2008 Games. The competition runs until October 8, 2002 as BOCOG receives 1994 designs. A special 10-member judging panel was then set up to select the final winner. They made their final choice on February 11, 2003 and the new logo is to be unveiled in August, 2003.

July 5, 2002 - The concept plans for two main Olympic venues - the Olympic Green and Wukesong Sports and Cultural Centre were displayed to the public. The plans are from 89 candidates through an international bid opened in April, 2002. Nine days later, the winning pieces of the two venues were selected by a 13-member panel.

July 10, 2002 - BOCOG selected the Shunyi District in eastern suburb of Beijing as the water sports venue of the 2008 Olympic Games.

August 29, 2002 - Liu Qi made the first report on Olympic preparations to IOC by television and telephone - a means seen as both convenient and frugal.

September 5, 2002 - The biological environment protection plan - the first of the six-part Olympic preparatory plan - was unveiled. Each plan was published on the Internet and requires for public opinion for a couple of weeks. The whole work was finished on April 25, 2003.

October 17, 2002 - BOCOG started an open search for 56 new working staff with 3,515 applied for the job. The new recruits came into post in January 2003.

October 25, 2002 - BOCOG started to look for owners and proprietors of Olympic venues and facilities.

Until now, such works on the Olympic Convention Centre, the National Stadium and Wukesong Sports and Cultural Centre, are underway.

October 25, 2002 - The design competition for the National Stadium which will hold the opening, closing ceremonies and soccer final of the 2008 Games, kicked off.

December 2, 2002 - The IOC Co-ordination Commission held its first session in Beijing.

February 21, 2003 - BOCOG held a teleconference with the IOC Executive Board and briefed the Olympic preparations.

April 8, 2003 - BOCOG started to search for an Olympic song and the searching process will last for five years with 10 candidate songs chosen each year.

May 16, 2003 - BOCOG signed an Environment Management Systems (EMS) Co-operation Agreement with CH2M-IDC China, the company once served for other Olympics host cities including Atlanta, Sydney and Salt Lake City.

May 16, 2003 - Jacques Rogge, IOC President and IOC Co-ordination Commission Chairman Hein Verbruggen wrote letters to Liu Qi to support Beijing's fight against SARS. Rogge said the IOC was impressed with the courage shown by the Chinese Government and the people of Beijing and China and confident that BOCOG will be well equipped to stage a great Olympic Games in 2008. The two sides then decided to hold a television and telephone conference every two weeks to ensure their information channels are open.

June 26, 2003 - The design competition for the National Swimming Centre approaches its conclusion with three winners were selected from 10 candidate pieces later in June.

June 28, 2003 - A BOCOG delegation arrived in Prague for the 115th IOC session. During the meeting, the IOC decided to put off the opening time of the 2008 Games to August 8 - two weeks later than the previous scheduled time.

China Daily news

(China Daily 07/14/2003 page3)