Yesterday marked the one year countdown for the Beijing Olympic Games. Celebrations were held throughout the country, sending to the world the signal that "Beijing is Ready."
In a lavish show of pageantry at Tian'anmen Square, the heart of China, which began at 8 o'clock sharp, the world was formally invited to the 2008 Beijing Olympics.
Our reporter Xiaoyu has the details.

Reporter:      

All members of the International Olympic Committee were invited by IOC President Jacques Rogge to come to China at yesterday's celebration in Tian`anmen Square.

"The Olympic Games are the celebration of the values of the Olympics and of sporting ideals by the youth of the world. They engender dreams and inspiration in the hearts of young people everywhere. I therefore call upon you all to enjoy the Games one year from now."

Last night's ceremony started at 8 pm, exactly one year before the opening ceremony of the Games on August 8th, 2008.

The presidents of the Greek, Canadian, British, Russian and Chinese National Olympic Committees accepted the invitation letters from Rogge as representatives of national and regional Olympic committees.

It is the first time the traditional IOC ceremony has been held in the host city of the Games rather than the IOC headquarters in Lausanne, Switzerland.

Rogge expressed his satisfaction towards Beijing's preparation.

Great progress has been made in venue construction. Of the 31 Games venues in Beijing, eight are completed, while the others are ready, or will be, ahead of a series of test events which began on Tuesday.

The city is also spending 800 million US dollars this year to upgrade its public transportation systems.

In order to solve the problem of air pollution, which is a top concern these days, the Beijing Organizing Committee for the Games, or BOCOG, has promised to unveil a number of contingency plans during the Game.

Liu Qi, the President of BOCOG, said the coming year is a decisive one and that the city will do its utmost to hold a successful Olympics.

"We will provide the highest services for the athletes, sponsors and public from all over of the world. We will make the 44 test games of the 'Good Luck Beijing' Olympics successful ones, perfect the security system and improve the environment of our city so as to make a more solid base for the realisation of a top-class Olympics with unique characteristics."

A huge singing and dancing spectacular was staged to mark the occasion with about 130 pop singers from the Chinese mainland, Hong Kong and Taiwan performing the official one-year countdown song, We Are Ready.

For Beyond Beijing, this is Xiaoyu.