Ceremony to open Beijing Olympics

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Over the next 16 days, more than 10,500 of the best international athletes will compete for the 302 gold medals up for grabs across 28 sports.

The Games of the 29th Olympiad, being held in China for the first time, will officially open at 8.08pm local time (1.08pm BST) on the 8th day of the 8th month of the year. For the superstitious, the number eight is associated with good fortune.

A spectacular fireworks display will mark the occasion - not surprisingly, considering the Chinese invented them.

Beijing Olympic officials promised that fireworks of different shapes would be set off over the main Bird's Nest stadium, the Olympic Forest Park and a section of the Great Wall.

Besides Beijing, Qingdao will hold the sailing competition, Hong Kong will be the location for the equestrian events, and football will be played in Tianjin, Shanghai, Shenyang and Qinhuangdao.

The closing ceremony will bring down the curtain on August 24 before the Paralympic Games take over from September 6-17.

The nation's eyes will be on British stars in particular as they go for gold. Team GB consists of more than 300 British competitors who are hoping their performances give them a solid footing for success at the 2012 Games in London.

UK Sport has set its sights on 41 medals for a chance to achieve an overall target of 8th place in the medal table.

British medal hopes suffered a setback just before the Games with the withdrawal of boxer Frankie Gavin but, over the coming days, attention will be focused on stars such as Paula Radcliffe, Tom Daley and Kelly Sotherton as they run, dive and jump for glory.