(ATR) The Bird's Nest Stadium comes back to life this week as Beijing remembers the Olympic Games held one year ago.
Italian Serie A teams Lazio and Inter are expected to fill the house at the 80,000 seat stadium Aug. 8, the actual one year anniversary of opening ceremony for the 2008 Games. It's the first major event in the arena since the Paralympics last September. The match has been on the calendar for the Bird's Nest, also known as the National Stadium, since last year.
Thursday night an open air concert that includes an appearance by film star Jackie Chan will be held on the north end of the Olympic Green. He is supposed to perform an original composition remembering the Games titled "Just Like a Dream".
No relighting of the Olympic cauldron is planned, but the Olympic rings are said to figure in the concert imagery.
Look for the results of research on the impact of the Beijing Olympics to be released Friday. The findings will be delivered as part of a symposium on the Olympics that's drawn a delegation from the IOC.
IOC members Kevan Gosper and Gerhard Heiberg are expected, as is Hein Verbruggen, ex-IOC member, former chair of the IOC Coordination Commission, plus Gilbert Felli, IOC Olympic Games Executive Director.
Liu Qi, president of BOCOG, Beijing Mayor Guo Jinlong and Chinese Olympic Committee president Liu Peng are among the speakers for the day-long event.
About 100 international media are accredited for the anniversary events.
Written by Ed Hula.