China Kick Starts Olympic Year with Fireworks and Celebrations – AP

From AP via IHT:

China kick started its Olympic year with a New Year party Monday with the country’s biggest medal hope on hand to watch fireworks, singing and dancing at a countdown party.

The party, put on by the organizers of the Summer Olympics, saw Beijingers flock in the cold to the Millennium Monument, capping a year in which frenzied construction of ultramodern Olympic venues and other projects changed the face of Beijing….[Full Text]

[Image: Fireworks light up the night over the Taipingqiao Lake in Xintiandi welcoming in 2008. - Wang Rongjiang/Zhao Jing, via Shanghai Daily]