Beijingers start countdown with morning exercises

By Nick Mulvenney

BEIJING (Reuters) - More than a million Beijingers gathered in city parks on Wednesday morning for the first of more than 60 events around China to mark the start of the one-year countdown to the 2008 Olympic Games.

The most heavily scrutinised preparations for any Games in Olympic history has brought forth a barrage of criticism for China this week on issues such as human rights abuses, press freedom, pollution, food safety and Tibet.

But, starting with a mass display of morning exercises, the Chinese people, waking up to sunny but hazy day, finally got their chance to express their enthusiasm for the most important sporting and cultural event ever held in the country.

With no sign of any serious dent in the 95 percent approval rating of the Games revealed by a 2001 Gallup poll, Beijingers are expected to come out in force to display their support for what is being described as "China's coming-out party".

The next stage of preparations for the Games begins in earnest later in the day when the first heats of the world junior rowing championships take place at the Shunyi venue.

This is the first of 26 Olympic test events taking place this year.

The main event of the day will be the gala celebration in front of 10,000 people on Tiananmen Square, where troops put down the 1989 pro-democracy demonstrations with huge loss of life.

Olympic chief Jacques Rogge will be on hand with Chinese political leaders to watch a countdown clock run down to exactly 366 days to go -- 2008 is a leap year -- at 8:08 pm (1:08 p.m. British time) on the eighth day of the eighth month, an auspicious date and time.

The International Olympic Committee president will also host a ceremony in which more than 200 countries and regions will be formally invited to take part in next year's Games.