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2007 "Beijing---An Olympic City in View" Photo Contest Begins

The contest, open to all photographers anywhere in the world, was designed to record the transformation of ancient Beijing into a modern metropolis as it prepares to host the 2008 Olympic Games. And with the upcoming 2008 Games as an impetus, the ceremony was held precisely on the 500th day before the Games begin on August 8, 2008, with thousands of foreign and domestic tourists to Beijing looking on. 

Peter Danford, the special prize winner of the 2006 event, addressed the ceremony, saying winning of the contest has provided a lot of great opportunities for him, although he didn’t at all expect to win when he first submitted his images. Also in attendance were officials representing the contest’s sponsors, the Beijing Municipal Administration of Tourism and the Information Office of the Beijing Municipal Government, and representatives of foreign experts in Beijing, foreign tourists, travel agencies and a host of expectant photographers

Millions of visitors pour into Beijing each year, with more than 12.48 million domestic tourists in 2005 joined by more than 3.9 million foreign tourists. Many of these tourists choose to experience this wonderful city as individuals through the medium of photography. Whether intentionally or unintentionally, they record the modern life of the city and its internationalization and modernization as it prepares to host the 2008 Olympic Games. The “Beijing—An Olympic City in View” contest helps bring these photographs, many of them surprisingly good, to a wider audience.

In this year’s event, sponsors will dispatch several photo contest buses carrying photographers to some of Beijing's most treasured world cultural heritage sites, such as hutong, siheyuan (courtyards), a cultural street and to Olympic venues so they can have closer contact with the history and essence of the city and record their experiences on film.

The 2005 and 2006 “Beijing—An Olympic City in View” events attracted great interest, especially among travellers from Sweden, the United States, Australia, Malaysia, Japan, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, New Zealand and South Korea, who participated in these events. Nearly 20,000 excellent photos about Beijing’s scenic spots, city features and residents’ lives were received.

“The vivid pictures have recorded the glory of Beijing as a capital that has a history of more than 850 years, and they have also served as a witness to the enthusiasm of this ancient city’s residents as they prepared for the 2008 Olympic Games in 2005 and 2006. What they have recorded provides a great deal of visual documentation for this special period of time of the hosting city,” said Du Jiang, director of Beijing Municipal Administration of Tourism at the ceremony.

The awards ceremony for the 2007 event will also be held on a special day—August 8, 2007—exactly one year before the opening ceremony of the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing. One Special Prize, two first prizes, five second prizes, eight third prizes, ten excellent prizes and 100 memory prizes will be awarded.