From August 8, 2008 to August 24, 2008, Beijing, the capital of People's Republic of China, will hold the 29 th Olympic Games. This will be the 3 rd time for Asian countries to hold these events after an interval of 20 years (after 5 terms) since the 1988 Seoul Olympics. And this is the first time for China to host the Olympics. The opening ceremony will begin at 08:08:08pm 8/08/2008(because “8” is an auspicious number in China). Most of the games will be held in Beijing, and some events will take place in some neighboring cities and the seaside city―Qingdao. With regard to Equestrian, it will be held at Hong Kong Sha Tin Racecourse.

On July 13, 2001, Beijing won the right to host the 2008 Olympic Games in the112 th IOC (International Olympic Committee) Session in Moscow. Five candidate cities-- Beijing, Istanbul, Osaka, Paris and Toronto-- were selected by IOC Executive Board, but Beijing was the only winner. Prior to the session, five other cities (Bangkok, Cairo, Havana, Kuala Lumpur, Sevilla) submitted bids to the IOC but failed to make the shortlist in 2000.
In the first round of voting, Beijing, Toronto, Paris and Istanbul passed, but Osaka received only six votes and was eliminated. In the second round, Beijing obtained overwhelming majority votes, and was selected the host city of 2008 Olympics. The voting results of the second round were: Beijing 56, Toronto 22, Paris 18, and Istanbul 9. Reputedly, Paris and Toronto's applications were technically better, but the IOC, whose president was Juan Antonio Samaranch , preferred to have China hold the Olympics. For, from the commercial views, China had achieved remarkable economic development with the largest population in the world.

The Chinese Olympic Committee tried to have wushu included in Olympic games by citing successful cases(e.g. Judo became an Olympic event since the Tokyo Olympics, and Taekwondo was designated by the IOC as an official Demonstration Sport for the 1988 Seoul Olympic Games), but failed to meet with success. Instead, the IOC allowed China to organize an international wushu event in Shanghai during the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games.
With regard to softball and baseball, they were voted out of the 2012 London Olympics at the IOC Session in Singapore in July, 2005. Therefore, the 2008 Beijing Olympics will probably be the last Olympic Games for these two sports.