Calender days for the year ahead

1. August 8 will be a day of reckoning for Zhang Yimou, one of China's most famous film directors who has had mixed support from the public for his latest role as director of the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympics. Expect a dazzling display fusing cutting-edge technology with elements drawn from China's vast history and culture.

2. The National Stadium (Bird's Nest), the 91,000-capacity centerpiece of the Beijing Games, is due to be completed in March. People will get a chance to get up close and personal with this beautiful rendering of steel and plastic membranes when it stages its first test event in April.

3. On March 24, the Olympic flame will be lit in Olympia and the 130-day torch relay for the Beijing Games will get under way. Covering 137,000 km, it will be the largest relay in history.

4. It will be interesting to see how the world's media cover the Games, with each vying to get the news out first, find interesting sideline stories and be the first to jump on any potential scoops. Beijing will in effect be the staging ground of a media war as reporters join the athletes in their determination to walk away as winners having fully satisfy their clients hunger for news during and in the lead-up to the Games.

5. August 21 will see one of the most anticipated events of the Games as local hero Liu Xiang is hopefully present to defend his gold medal at the finals of the men's 110m hurdles.

Having already won the Olympic and world title at the event, and broken the world record, Liu will face incredible pressure to perform from much if not all of China's 1.3 billion population. At the very least, this should make for an interesting case study in pressure management. If he fails, it will be curious to see how the Chinese public responds.

6. Three sporting powerhouses - the United States, Russia and host China - will compete to top the gold-medal tally during the 17 days of Olympic competitions. As the first Summer Olympic Games to be held in Asia in 20 years, smaller neighboring countries like Mongolia are also investing heavily to earn their first-ever gold medal and not to disappoint local fans.

7. A series of contingency plans concerning the traffic and environmental conditions during the Olympic Games will be unveiled by the government before the Games.

8. For the first time in Olympic history, the Games will be broadcast on HDTV. The rise of Internet and mobile telephony will mean an unprecedented level of coverage, making the Games more omnipresent than they have ever been.

9. Get ready for another party on April 30, the 100-day countdown to the opening of the Games, as Beijing again goes under the microscope to see the culmination of seven years' hard work and make sure all the kinks are ironed out before the big day.

10. The Beijing Paralympic Games will open on September 6. Organizers have promised that the two Games will be "of equal splendor," but only time will tell whether the popularity of the Olympics can rub off on its oft-overlooked baby brother this time round.