Can you believe that in just fifteen months, Beijing will be hosting the 2008 Olympic Games. That means that Athens was the best part of three whole years ago & it simply doesn't seem that long!

However, it does allows me to indulge in the little hobby of pin collecting & for Beijing I've already started with the following.



Meet Beibei, Jingjing, Huanliuan, Yingying & Nini, the five Olympic mascots. The combination of their names gives the title of this post which means "Welcome to Beijing" which is clever but they will go under their unofficial group name of "The Friendlies". Doesn't that just make you warm & fuzzy inside!

At what point though, will an Olympics have too many mascots? Up until the turn of the Century, each Games had a single mascot to fly the flag, then Sydney bucked the trend with three, Athens with two & now Beijing has five!! This of course means there will be masses of pins issued for each one & of course, as collectors, we're individually obligated to hunt down whole sets at any cost! Ah, what an evil hobby & I think we're being ruthlessly preyed upon!

Each represent one of four popular animals in China, except for Huanliuan, which represents Fire for the Olympic flame (Apparently, there wasn't another animal in China which could be deemed popular!). Beibei represents a fish, Jingjing, a Panda, Yingying, a Tibetan antelope & Nini, a swallow.











I don't think anyone would have complained if they'd just stuck with a big furry Panda as the Beijing mascot. There's no question that each exudes a significant quantum of cuteness (yes, even the Tibetan Antelope!), but how are the kiddies meant to remember five mascots & which one's which. I mean, just check out Beibei & try to work out how whether it represents the fish or the swallow!?!

Anyhow, I suspect that this won't be the last set collected before September '08 & the selection on Ebay is rather coercive.

The official Beijing Olympics site is worth checking out. The venues themselves will be highlights of the games with the Stadium, nicknamed the Bird's Nest being built just for the Olympics & the Aquatic Centre which has been designed to look like a cube of bubbles. I'm thinking the Chinese will pull off something quite spectacular & unforgettable next year!