(BEIJING, October 13) -- A 5.6-ton "Olympic Tripod" symbolizing the integrity of the Chinese culture and the Olympic spirit was unveiled in Beijing's Chaoyang Park on Saturday, 300 days to the opening of the 2008 Olympic Games.

The typical Chinese cultural product is a gift to the Beijing Organizing Committee for the Games of the XXIX Olympiad (BOCOG) by the provincial government of Gansu in northeast China. The province's Vice-Governor Feng Jianshen and BOCOG Executive Vice-President Jiang Xiaoyu jointly unveiled the tripod in an official ceremony.

The Olympic Tripod

The presentation is part of his province's campaign to welcome the Beijing Olympics, said Feng. Appreciating the province's initiative, Jiang said the tripod symbolized a prosperous China and the peaceful life of its people in the years of opening-up, and expressed the Chinese people's support for the Olympics to be held in the country for the first time.

Feng Jianshen delivers a speech at the unveiling ceremony.

The tripod is 2.9-meter high, in reference to the 29th Olympiad, and 5.6 tons in weight, representing the 56 ethnic groups of China, the designers said. The exterior of the tripod bears many Chinese and Olympic elements, including the five stars, Tian'anmen Square, the Great Wall, the Beijing Olympics emblem and pictograms, the Olympic rings and so on. They are arranged in an integral way.

Jiang Xiaoyu delivers a speech at the unveiling ceremony.

The tripod will stay temporarily in the park, a popular recreation facility in east Beijing and one of the 31 Beijing-based Olympic venues, for the beach volleyball competitions. Before the Olympics are opened on August 8, 2008, the tripod will be moved to the central Olympic area to become a unique curiosity there, the organizers said.