As the first test event for the 2008 Olympics, the competition will play host to a massive and star-studded fleet. World and Olympic champions are on the list of over 460 sailors at this International Sailing Federation (ISAF) Grade 2 International Regatta, according to the organizing committee.

　　Participants come from 41 countries and regions, including 22 teams from Europe and 9 from Asia.

　　Among them there are 13 medal winners from the 2004 Athens Olympics - four gold, five silver and four bronze. A total of 111 of the participators are among the top 20 in different classes in the ISAF August Ranking, published on August 3.

　　The sailing competition is expected to be an exciting event, with ten days of racing beginning today.

　　The regatta features all the Olympic sailing competition's 9 classes' 11 events. It is taking place with a newly-adopted competition format. Each event series will consist of 10 races (15 races for the 49er) and a medal race on August 30. The top ten competitors in the first ten races will qualify for the medal race. Results for the medal race will be double weighted.

　　Athletes arrived at Qingdao days beforehand to practise and adapt to the venue's environment.

　　"It is very important to hold a successful regatta to show the world that Beijing, not merely Qingdao, will present the world with the best-ever Games in history in 2008," said Liu Peng, director of the China State General Administration of Sports, during yesterday's opening ceremony.

　　"The ISAF is very impressed by all the wonderful work Qingdao has done," said ISAF Vice-President David Kellet, "There is no other city in the world that has done such advanced preparation work. We can already say we are having a magnificent sailing regatta."

　　"The event will be a unique opportunity to experience some of the Olympic atmosphere and get familiar to the venue and waters we are going to use in 2008.

　　Qingdao: China's brand city

　　By Chuanjiang(China Daily)　

　　QINGDAO: Qingdao, a city of brand names, boasts many well-known products and its efforts to build up brand popularity have helped boost the city's competitiveness, economy and development potential.

　　At the 2006 China Brand City Development Forum that opened earlier this month in Qingdao, it attracted high praises from mayors from home and abroad on its growing brand impact at a national and international level.

　　"After years of development, Qingdao has become one of China's best known cities for brands," said Xia Geng, mayor of Qingdao.

　　"Qingdao is also a co-host city for the 2008 Beijing Olympics and its influence at home and abroad has been growing."

　　Qingdao is the wealthiest city in Shandong province, which has the second-highest GDP of China's provinces. Despite its cosy position on the Yellow Sea along the outer edge of the Shandong Peninsula, Qingdao is lumped together with its neighbours on the other side of the peninsula as part of the Bohai Sea Rim economic zone, North China's answer to the Pearl River Delta (PRD) and the Yangtze River Delta (YRD) regions.

　　In November last year, Qingdao was granted the title of Famous Brand City of China at the 2005 China Brand Economy and City Summit held in Beijing.

　　Qingdao now has 11 of China's Famous Trade Names, 44 brand name products at a national level, 151 at a provincial level and 189 at a local level. Five companies in Qinghao have won the National Quality Management Award.

　　Among them, Haier and Tsingtao Beer are the two leading companies to expand their brand presence around the world.

　　But the undisputed king of Qingdao's native companies is white goods giant Haier, whose global revenue in 2005 was nearly US$13 billion, about 38.5 per cent of its hometown's entire GDP. The company, which sprang from the ashes of a deteriorating state-run factory in 1985, is now the world's second-largest maker of refrigerators and is diversifying into other areas as mobile phones, insurance and pharmaceuticals.

　　On January 31, 2004, Haier became the only Chinese company to be named one of the World's 100 Most Recognizable Brands in a global name brand list edited by the World Brand Laboratory, one of five world brand evaluation organizations.

　　Its brand value tops the domestic companies and is worth 61.237 billion yuan (US$76.55 billion).

　　Brand Strategy

　　The success of brand development is due to the Brand Strategy, which was put forward in the mid 1980s.

　　The city has been clinging to the strategy ever since and a number of companies have emerged and established their status as household names in the nation.

　　Aside from Tsingtao and Haier, there are also high-tech firms like Hisense, which registered a breakthrough for Chinese companies when it developed its own digital video media processor technology in 2005.

　　Far from being single-mindedly focused on nurturing its own companies, Qingdao has also received a lot of attention from international firms, which have invested billions in projects there.

　　Besides electronics and appliances, other key industries include apparel and the food and beverage sectors - Nike and Coca-Cola also have multiple plants in town. Qingdao has especially close ties with Korean business. There are over 5,000 Korean companies in Qingdao and about 60,000 Koreans live there.

　　Thanks to a clean and favorable investment environment, about 80 brands from World Top 500 companies like Samsung, HP, Lucent, Hyundai, Panasonic, Nescafe, Wal-Mart have moved to Qingdao in recent years and are joined by top domestic brands like Gome, Sanlian and The Home World.

　　Famous brand names in Qingdao cover areas such as electronics, home appliances, chemical engineering, rubber production, beverages, food, costumes, steel, vehicles, container and ship-builiding.

　　As a coastal city, the shipping industry, tourism and ocean economy have taken giant strides.

　　Of the Bohai Rim cities, it is the most accessible to international sea routes and is especially convenient to Japan and Korea, an advantage that has helped Qingdao's port in the Huangdao District compete with its rival in Tianjin.

　　According to mayor Xia, at least 20 million people from around the world choose Qingdao as their tourist destination each year.

　　Hosting sailing and several other water-sport events before and during the 2008 Summer Olympics will of course provide a big boost for Qingdao's international profile - it will be the only city other than Beijing to host a medal round in any sport.

　　Chinese sailors eye first Olympic gold

　　By Xie Chuanjiao(China Daily)　　

　　QINGDAO: Chinese sailors hope to get a gold medal and score high enough to be placed in the world's top three for the 2008 Olympic Games, said Yao Xinpei, Secretary General of the Chinese Yachting Association, yesterday before the opening of Good Luck Beijing, the 2006 Qingdao International Sailing Regatta.

　　As the first of the two test events before the 2008 Olympic Games Sailing Events, the competition has attracted more than 80 per cent of the world's best sailors.

　　Chinese teams have brought all their national coaches and the most number of athletes, comprising 31 men and 18 women. The average age is 26 years old, with the youngest 16 and the oldest 44. They are going to take part in all the events of the Regatta.

　　The team includes previous Olympic medallist Yin Jian who won a silver medal at the 2004 Athens Olympics and Xu Lijia, the world's new champion in the women's Laser Radial race. Male athlete Zhou Yuanguo is also a world-level top star in the RS:X Class.

　　According to Yao, the selection was based on athletes' overall rankings in this year's domestic and international competitions. There are two to three members in each class, and who will take part in the 2008 Olympics will depend on their overall achievements and training in the next two years.

　　"The Chinese sailing team has very different levels in different classes. We are doing fine in the laser radial and the RS:X, but are rather weak in the 49er, star and 47 men and women," Yao said. "The women as a whole are doing better than the men."

　　Among the 65 sailors in the Women's RS:X ISAF World Sailing Rankings, nine are Chinese, with Chen Qiubin the highest Ranked Chinese sailor, in tenth place.

　　Yao said Chinese sailing and yachting sports have made a lot of progress in recent years. There are now more than 800 professional sailors on the mainland. In the future, the Chinese national sailing team will take part in more international competitions to learn from top international competitors.

　　Foreign coaches will also be invited to work with domestic ones to improve techniques and athletes' overall abilities.

　　When asked if the Chinese team had any advantage from attending a competition on home soil, Yao said Chinese sailors have still got to learn the venue conditions, just like their foreign counterparts.

　　"For many of our team members, this is the first time they have come to Qingdao. Like all the other foreign athletes, they had no idea about the climate and the water conditions here," Yao said.

　　He added that only the June-September period is warm enough to practice sailing in Qingdao. Plus, with all kinds of international events to take part in, Chinese sailors have about the same chance to practise as foreign athletes do.

　　Yao said this event was a great opportunity.