Hong Kong is always buzzing with life and is an exciting place to visit anytime of the year, but in the run up to the Olympics there will be a unique vibe about the city, with a whole host of events taking place to encourage public involvement and to spread the Olympic spirit. While Beijing, as the hub of the officially named XXIX Olympiad, will be thronged with visitors, Hong Kong will be doing things on a smaller scale but with the same level of enthusiasm. At 08:08:08 pm on August 8th - the 8th day of the 8th month 2008 - the opening ceremony of the games will take place in Beijing National Stadium and Olympic fever will ensue until the closing ceremony on August 24. The Equestrian Events in Hong Kong will kick off on August 9.

In all, there are six co-host cities for this Olympics: Shanghai, Shenyang, Tianjin and Qinhuangdao for the football preliminaries, Qingdao for sailing and Hong Kong for equestrian events.

Hong Kong first learned that it was to become an Olympic co-host city in July 2005. The BOCOG (Beijing Organising Committee of the Olympic Games) and the Hong Kong government set up a local organising committee – the Hong Kong Equestrian Committee of BOCOG. Angela Chang is the assistant manager of the Hong Kong Equestrian Organising Committee and she explains what being an Olympic co-host city means to Hong Kong. “Hong Kong takes pride in its cosmopolitan lifestyle, cultural diversity, dynamism, quest for quality and in its assurance of a level playing field for all who seek opportunities here,” she says. “And as Beijing’s co-host, Hong Kong embraces the Olympic ideals of solidarity, friendship, fair play and equality – ideals which go hand in hand with the city’s core values. Co-host city status provides us with a golden opportunity to showcase Hong Kong’s position as Asia’s world city.”

Angela believes that the success of the Olympic Torch Relay in Hong Kong is a great indication of what is to come and illustrates the excitement that Hong Kong residents feel about the impending games.

“The Olympic atmosphere in Hong Kong reached a new height with the Olympic Torch Relay and will continue to gather momentum for the Live Sites to be set up during the Olympic Games. A lot of city events are in the plan, such as countdown celebrations, firework displays and a youth parade.” To find out the exact times and dates of all these events, check out www.equestrian2008.org

The Live Sites Angela mentions will be erected in Causeway Bay’s Victoria Park and Sha Tin Park throughout the games so that the public can see continuous live coverage on big screens even if they don’t manage to secure tickets. The Live Site at Sha Tin Park will be erected again for the Paralympic Equestrian events which take place from September 7-11.

Buying tickets

There are a total of about 200,000 tickets available for sale for the 13 equestrian competitions. Dressage and jumping events will take place at the Sha Tin venue, and the cross-country competition will take place at the Beas River venue. “The last phase of ticket sales (Phase III) is planned to start in early July when all unsold Olympic equestrian tickets will be printed out in Beijing and delivered to Hong Kong. The China Travel Service (H.K.) Ltd., or CTS, has been officially appointed by the Sports Federation and Olympic Committee of Hong Kong as the Official Ticket Agent for the Hong Kong events,” she says.

The Olympic Equestrian Events comprises three disciplines - dressage, jumping and eventing with individual and team competitions in each. Hong Kong’s Olympic Equestrian Venue at Sha Tin has a 100 metre by 80 metre all-weather sand arena, and can hold 18,000 spectators for the jumping and dressage events. The capacity will be 8,000 for the single Paralympic Equestrian Event: Para-Dressage. The Cross-Country competition of Eventing will be staged in converted facilities at the Hong Kong Jockey Club’s Beas River Country Club and the adjacent Hong Kong Golf Club in Sheung Shui. Apart from the main facilities, there are warm-up and training areas for the competitors, newly constructed stables for up to 200 horses and a separate stable block for the reserve horses.

To really get a grasp of the scale and scope of the Olympics, consider this: a total of 1.38 million tickets went on sale from May 5 to June 9 for the following sports: archery, athletics, baseball, basketball, beach volleyball, boxing, canoe/kayaking-flat water, mountain biking, equestrian, fencing, football, gymnastics, judo, handball, hockey, modern pentathlon, rowing, softball, marathon swimming, rowing, sailing, softball, taekwondo, triathlon, volleyball and wrestling. To make the tickets available to a maximum of spectators, the BOCOG decided that individuals can purchase a maximum of six tickets, with a maximum of three tickets for each session.

1,800 local volunteers will help out during the Olympics, and another 600 during the Paralympics. The theme song for the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games one-year countdown celebration is called "We Are Ready" and in Hong Kong, it feels like the city is indeed ready and raring to go for our big Olympic debut.

Ticketing info

CTS will be the sole agent to sell all the unsold Olympic equestrian tickets worldwide either through the CTS website, at over 40 CTS branches all over Hong Kong or at box offices located at University and Fanling MTR Stations (for selling same-day tickets). For the latest updates on ticketing, contact the CTS Olympic Hotline on 2998 7080, or visit www.ctshk.com