A cultural festival to promote the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games will start this weekend in China's capital.

The 10-day festival, featuring exhibitions, symposiums, concerts and public events, will run from September 21 to 30.

Tens of thousands of people, including foreign scholars, experts and business people, are expected to attend. The organizers hope China's first Olympics and the Olympic Movement will reach as many people as possible so they can stage the "best Olympic Games ever."

"We need to show the world we understand the Olympic Movement and also the Beijing Olympics in a Chinese way, even though the Games is still five years away," said Sun Weijia, deputy director of the media and communication department of the 2008 Beijing Olympic Organizing Committee.

Sun said the festival, "Enchanting Beijing, Cultural Olympics," will help publicize Beijing and, more importantly, encourage ordinary Beijingers to join in the world's mostly-watched sporting extravaganza.

The festival will open at the China Millennium Monument on September 21 and close with a concert by the China Philharmonic Orchestra in Peking University.

Several symposiums will also be held during the festival on issues such as the torch relay for the Beijing Games.

(China Daily September 19, 2003)