China's National Stadium, the venue to host the opening ceremony of 2008 Olympics, is shown in this file photo taken on June 14, 2007. (Xinhua Photo)

    BEIJING, Sept. 21 -- The summer may be at an end but Beijing's Olympic dress-rehearsal events continue to attract fulsome praise across the board.

    From beach volleyball to field hockey, wrestling, rowing and more, the city's residents have been enjoying a string of pre-Olympic tune ups since last month as officials find room for improvement with almost one year to go before the Aug. 8 Games kick off.

    So far, the return on China's 7-year investment of time and money since it won the host city bid in 2001 has been positive and official hope to keep it that way.

    "We had excellent test events," said Klaus Schormann, president of the International Modern Pentathlon Union, who attended the 2007 World Cup finals here last weekend.

    After the first day of competition, Schormann expressed some minor complaints, such as people lingering by the swimming pool during that section of the pentathlon and problems with the way the medal-presenting ceremony was organized.

    He said later he was surprised at how quickly officials had responded to his feedback. After raising these issues, everything had been perfectly resolved by day two of the competition, he said.

    "All the promises that BOCOG (Beijing's Olympic organizing committee) gave us years ago - to keep the pentathlon close to the Olympic Green - have been fulfilled and the quality of the facilities is really great," he added.

    Schormann is not the only one to give such a big thumbs-up.

    An observation group from the International Olympic Committee (IOC) gave a positive evaluation of the events after weeks of observing of the Good Luck Beijing test events last month.

    They commented on the "excellent" progress made in building the Olympic venues, organizing transport and security operations, and providing good services for athletes and media, as well as a comprehensive set of volunteer services.

    This, they said, has paved the way for China to host a successful 2008 Games.

    So far 16 test events have been held in the Olympic co-host cities of Beijing, Qingdao, Qinhuangdao, Shenyang and Hong Kong.

    There will be a total of 26 events this year and 16 in the first half of 2008.

    To facilitate the hosting of the test events, a number of the Olympic venues were completed in recent weeks and handed over just in time.

(Source: China Daily)