A three-month campaign to solicit the design proposals for the Torch of the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games ended with lots of contributions submitted, the organizers announced today.
A large number of design proposals came from all over China and other countries such as the United States of America, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Japan, Indonesia and Iran, according to the Culture and Ceremonies Department of the Beijing Organizing Committee for the Games of the XXIX Olympiad (BOCOG).
The general public reacted actively to the campaign which began on December 6, 2005 and ended on February 28 this year, though specialized art or industrial design institutes as well as individual designers were targeted.
A man in his seventies from China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, for instance, delivered in person his designs to BOCOG in the company of his grandson, just to show his earnestness to devote himself to the Olympic cause.
The department said a jury will be set up to select three works for final appraisal by the Executive Board of the International Olympic Committee.
The jury will initially select 10 designs from which the three most outstanding ones will be chosen by April 18. The authors should make three-dimensional models on the basis of their plain drawings in addition to a description of the proposed Torch's materials and interior structures.
