Beijing: Jubilant overseas Chinese are holding colourful activities to celebrate the 100-day countdown to the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games.

In Harare, some 50 representatives of Chinese immigrants, entrepreneurs, media personnel and diplomats gathered at the Chinese embassy to jointly witness the historic moment.

Signatures were collected in support of the Beijing Olympics and a singing performance was staged on Wednesday. Basketball games and golf matches were also planned to celebrate the occasion.

Guo Yongnian, president of the Chinese Association in Bulawayo, who drove 400 km to Harare, said the whole Chinese community in the second largest Zimbabwean city was as excited as all the Chinese people around the world and had been watching the Olympic torch relay through TV and radio broadcasts.

In Bamako, the Chinese embassy invited Mali's Olympic Committee officials and the media to a press conference on Tuesday to mark the 100-day countdown. In the evening, the embassy hosted a party for Mali's parliamentary and government officials, foreign diplomats as well as Chinese in the West African country.

Ambassador Zhang Guoqing and Mali's Parliament Speaker Dionconda Traore jointly unveiled a countdown clock and presented honorary certificates to donors of the Olympic stadiums.

In Nigeria's economic hub Lagos, a cultural display for the Olympics countdown was held at the headquarters of the Nigerian Postal Service Wednesday.

About 200 people, including students, bankers and traders, turned out to watch the event and showed their support for the Olympics. The ceremony was attended by Guo Kun, the Consular General of China in Nigeria.

In Paris, leaders of several Chinese associations in France held a seminar Wednesday to voice their support for the summer Olympics. Ye Xingqiu, acting chief of a Chinese poetic group in France, read a poem he wrote for the Olympics.

Also on Wednesday, in an interview with Italy's Ansa news agency, Sun Yuxi, the Chinese ambassador, said that during the Games, the Chinese people will receive friends from all over the world with passion, friendliness and hospitality.

 

Source : IANS