Today, Sunday 27th at 9am saw the Village officially opened by BOCOG senior Vice-Presidents and the Mayor of the Village in front of hundreds of staff and volunteers, and more importantly the majority of the Chinese Olympic team. The whole event was split into two halves, with the Village Opening followed by the official Team Welcome Ceremony for the Chinese team. This ceremony is part of the traditional protocol of the Village and signifies (once the national flag is raised and the anthem played) that the host National Olympic Committee has officially taken up residence in the Village. All other Team Weclome Ceremonies need to be completed by the Games Opening Ceremony on the 8th of the 8th 2008.


Since the early hours of the morning, athletes have been arriving from all parts of the globe, Senegal, Cuba, Germany, Thailand - not whole teams at this stage, but sports squads from their various training camps. This trickle will quickly turn into a flood and the vast empty spaces of the Village will soon fill with the multi-colours of the track-suits of all  204 National Olympic Committees.

Among their number, and of course ready and prepared to receive their athletes is our own British Olympic Association. Over the past weeks they have worked so hard to get to this point with the greatest attention to detail. How do we know they are present in the Village? Well it would be very difficult to miss where they are in the 2008 Village...