China is making a large documentary film to record the historic moments of the seven-year journey towards the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games, a press conference announced on Wednesday.

"The film tells us what has happened with the preparatory work for the next Summer Olympics and the progress in Beijing's urban development and management from July 13, 2001 when we won the bid, to the time we will stage the Games," said Wang Hui, deputy director of the Media and Communications Department of the Beijing Organizing Committee for the Games of the XXIX Olympiad (BOCOG).

Temporarily called <2001+7>, it will be released in July next year "as a gift to the Olympics," she told the press at the Beijing Olympic Media Center, stressing that the film is also a key item in the publicity program of her department.

The documentary is being elaborated by the Central News Documentary Films Production Company (CNDF), the nation's most famous and authoritative documentary maker, boasting a combined film footage of 420,000 minutes.

The company said the film will cover the construction of the Olympic venues, the preparation of the Chinese athletes, the volunteer activities, security and other areas. So far the crew has accumulated a film footage of 50,000-meters as a result of the work of 50 creators and 30 cameramen in cooperation with some 60 organizations.

CNDF director Gao Feng explained the meaning of the number seven, saying it "indicates the time -- seven years -- that our crew has dedicated to a film". It "contains seven key words: hardworking, dedication, determination, confidence, understanding, dreams and harmony."

"There are seven days in a week; there are seven musical scales in western civilization; seven strings in the ancient Chinese musical instrument Guqin; seven colors in the rainbow ... so that the number seven symbolizes the exchange of East and West, and the harmony of nature," Gao said.

(BOCOG July 4, 2007)