9. Cheerleaders

Some 600 cheerleaders from all over the country will go all out to entertain spectators with Chinese folk dancing, acrobatics, drum shows, lion dancing and martial arts during time-outs. Cheerleaders were selected from national Olympic cheerleading competitions and local clubs.

10. The Beijing Green

The Olympic Forest Park, 680 hectares of plantation and lakes, has given the city a new green lung.

Beijing also built a number of new water purification plants for daily water recycling, replaced dated equipment at its power plants and retrofitted gas stations citywide.

The inclusion of solar power, rain-recycling and energy-saving facilities during venue construction are all helping the Games live up to its "Green Olympics" billing.

Beijing has also planted millions of trees to minimize sandstorms. It is also working with neighboring provinces to cut emissions.

11. Torch relay the longest, highest

The Beijing 2008 Olympic Torch Relay was scheduled to travel the longest distance and include the largest number of people over 130 days.

It reached the highest peak of Mount Qomolangma on May 8. Following the Sichuan earthquake, the torch relay route was curtailed in each city and special mourning sessions were added.

The leg in earthquake-hit Sichuan province has been rescheduled to August, just before the Games begins.

12. English, English

A 170-page Chinese Menu in English Version is seen as exemplary of one success of the English-speaking campaign throughout the city.

Pop stars teaching audiences correct English pronunciation and cab drivers toting language books all are part of Beijing's multilingual pre-Olympic effort.

"It's not just about the language, it's about how open and confident we are," said Li Yang, founder of Crazy English.

16. Massive Olympic education campaign

Educating young people through sports is one of the primary goals of the Olympic Movement.

About 400 million young people in more than 500,000 schools across the country have received Olympic lessons ahead of the Beijing Games. More than 500 model schools have been named and a series of Olympic readers compiled and presented to students.