Photo: Tai Miao wears red, thousands celebrate 100-day countdown to Beijing Olympics

BEIJING, April 30 (Xinhua). Thousands of Chinese people were jointly counting down from ten to one as of 19:59:50 Beijing time to celebrate the 100-day countdown to the Olympic Games at Tai Miao on Wednesday night.

The celebration and an awarding ceremony for the Fourth Olympic Songs Contest was held at Tai Miao at the Beijing Working People's Culture Palace, gathering more than a thousand people and dozens of Chinese and overseas media.

As the bell rang at 20:00 Beijing time, a hundred China's mainland and oversea Chinese singers jointly made the first live debut of the theme song for the 100-day countdown "Welcome to Beijing ", expressing their good wishes and full support for the Olympic Games and showing greetings of Beijing to the world.

On the evening, Tai Miao, an ancestral temple, was coated with the red light and projected with huge pictures of "Beijing 2008" and "One World One Dream", representing that Beijing is ready to welcome the Olympic flame and all friends across the world.

Zou Youkai from Fujian, whose lyrics of the song Dreams Come True won a prize in the contest, told Xinhua that he wrote the lyrics when he witnessed a sports game participated by hundreds of famers in Guangdong province to cheer the coming Beijing Olympics.

"As a Chinese, I felt very proud since the Games will draw the attention and gather all friends and athletic talents from all over the world." Zou said.

An eight-year-old boy Zheng Shukun told Xinhua he was very excited when he counting down the numbers just now. "I hope I can see the Games soon." Zheng said, adding he likes running and hopes to become the one like the Olympic champion Liu Xiang someday.

Wang Yunqin, 78, came here special for the Olympic countdown from Harbin, capital city of Hei Longjiang province. Wang told Xinhua, "I will remember this evening all my life," adding that she will tell her relatives, neighbors and friends what has happened this evening.