London will host the 2012 Olympic games. Four years ahead, London civic and business officials have offered a preview of the event at the Beijing Olympics. Mike O'Sullivan reports, they introduced the 2012 venues to Beijing residents through a display in a public park.
Officials from the historic borough of Greenwich are telling Beijing residents about the 2012 summer games. The games will be held in five boroughs of London.
Through a display in a local park, Beijingers are getting their first glimpse of the next summer Olympics.
The park draws people who play sports and watch the Olympic competitions on a large-screen television.
Here in Beijing, the British are getting some pointers from their Chinese colleagues.
Mark Sesnan's company, Greenwich Leisure Limited, hopes to run some of the London venues. He says he is impressed with the Beijing games.
"Fantastic," he says. "They've done a really, really good job in engaging the community and providing fantastic facilities and delivering it on time, and generally making the Olympic games back really where it should be as the greatest sporting event in the world every four years."
Chris Roberts is the leader of the Greenwich Borough Council.
He says Beijing and London have things in common. He hopes officials from both cities will work together.
"Our main hope here is to develop the relationship that we've got already with colleagues in Beijing, and that we will able to build on that and to promote our two cities as a center for tourism and cultural and educational exchange," explains Roberts.
Greenwich University will be one of the sites of the London Olympics. Deputy Vice Chancellor David Wills says the logistics are daunting.
"Absolutely. This is a hell of a challenge to be able to deliver as well as the Beijing Olympics. It's a really grand affair," notes Wills. "I think in Britain, we seem to be more concerned with the bottom line and that it's not going to cost too much, whereas I get the impression that in Beijing, money was no object. I may be wrong."
The Beijing games have cost more than $40 billion. The London games will cost less than half that sum, but London officials promise a grand event when they take the torch from Beijing for the 2012 Olympics.
