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740 days to go

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There's a palpable air of anticipation on the damp streets of the Olympic capital. In 10 days, a magic lucky number will flash on digital red countdown clocks across Beijing and the nation.

They'll blaze with the intensity of the lightning unleashed by the summer's thunderstorms - '8-8-06!' will read the incandescent clock faces; '730 days to go!' will chant the state media.

Indeed, it's only two years out to that much-hyped and bedazzling day, 8-8-08. The 2008 Beijing Olympics are no longer just a distant dream. Next week, showtime really begins.

Test regattas, test athletic meetings, test softball, test volleyball and soccer tournaments, test this, test that, ad infinitum - all are billed over the remaining seconds, minutes, days, weeks, months and years.

There are scores of volunteer recruitment drives, cultural festivals, hopefully no more corruption scandals, umpteen executive board sessions of the Beijing Organising Committee for the Games of the XXIX Olympiad (Bocog), numerous Olympic Games Knowledge Management (OGKM) initiatives et al ... in fact, more seminars, parties, sporting events, launches, ribbon cutting and acronyms than Ycsasa (you can shake a stick at).

The chock-a-block diary makes the mouth water. And the voracious media machine is hungry for any tidbits of information.

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