"Are we one step closer to the dreams come true", asked my wife gently at our home in Beijing watching the live broadcast of the vote at the 112th meeting of the IOC in Moscow seven years ago. Before I could answer, fireworks rocketed into the mid-summer night sky and noises rang through the quiet neighborhood. It was party time. The tornados of joy, buoyancy, ecstasy swept the 9.6 million km2 of this ancient and young country wherever a TV or radio was on. People reached out of cars, taxis, buses on the streets to greet one another: Yes, we won.

It was a memorable moment. The Games of the 29th Olympiad were awarded to Beijing.

Looking back, from my office in Athens, the capital of the country that gave birth to the Olympics, at the journey my fellow Chinese have covered since 13 July, 2001, I savored how China has changed in the process of renewal, integration and interaction with the rest of the world.

Ancient Nation Bound for Renewal

In a few days, the spotlight will be cast on Beijing. While the focus is on sports, some are also looking for the changes China promised to make.

China is for change. An old state as it is, Zhou's mission is to reform and renew, chanted the ancient nobles 2700 years ago, the very lines nowadays often quoted by the leadership of China. The same year China won the hosting of Olympics, the 1.3 billion nation joined the World Trade Organization. In a few years that followed, it started to contribute 14% of world's total economic growth annually. Mentality had changed as China became part of the world from what it used to be the world two centuries ago. New identity of living in a global village has been sought by the younger generation who are the mainstay of over 240 million internet and 490 million cell phone subscribers in China. The catchphrase for both businessmen and politicians, no wonder, is "win-win".

Among many changes that industrialization, globalization and information have brought about, paving the ways for the Olympics is the most happily embraced by individuals. In Beijing alone, 31 competition venues were dedicated to the Games, 11 of which were built new, adopting novelty ideas, green technologies that reflected growing environment awareness. While the Central Government is trying to reduce the energy intensity of production and SO2 and CO2 emission by 20% during the 2006-2010 period, local residents have benefited from the municipal investment of 14 billion Euros so far in forestation, waste processing, relocation and shutdown of heavy industries in Beijing. Development in a cleaner way, which has become a new consensus.

Is China ready? A tough question. When the goals were set, however, wrote Mr. Bill Durodie at Royal Institute of International Affairs, the Chinese often overshot them.

One World, One Dream

Not surprisingly, a modern philosopher in Athens has found coincidences in the development of ancient Chinese and Hellenic civilizations. The kernels of civilizations were congruent, Premier Wen Jiabao of China said calmly at a university in Paris in 2005. Indeed, sports activities were popular in the open, confident, vibrant societies of Han and Tang dynasties, particularly among social elites.

Nevertheless, Olympics, with its pursuit for excellence, praise of strength, emphasis on virtue, and love of peace, shed blazing light on China's modernization process. Young students in Tianjin, cried out in 1908 demanding when China could send its athletes to the Olympics? Call for return to the respect of the individuals and appreciation of health and strength, such as from Mr. Lu Xun, had become the prelude of the revival of a nation, with profound western influences.

Flowing water does not decay. In the years following 2001, China has deepened its reform to pursue its dream for a better place for people to live in. Apart from keeping the economy growing so as to sustain the urbanization process that creates an annual demand for 10 million jobs in cities, the country is bent on striking a balance between efficiency and social equality, with focuses on social security, medical care, housing and education for the lower income population.

At home, the drive is called building a harmonious society. Political and judicial reforms are steadfast and gradual. Direct elections were carried out at grassroots levels. The constitutional amendment to protect human rights was adopted. A labor contract law was enacted despite opposition from some employers. Preparations were being made for ratifying the international convention on civil and political rights. New rules on foreign journalists were implemented.

Internationally, China is playing an increasingly active role in building towards a harmonious world. On the Korean peninsula nuclear issue, Myanmar, Darfur and Iran, China's constructive efforts have earned it more respect, and occasionally, more pressure.

Work Together to Face Challenges

In staging great Games for the world, China is not alone. Beijing Olympics is blessed with the supports by the Excellencies President Karolos Papoulias, Prime Minister Kostas Kraramanlis, President of Parliament Dimitris Sioufas of Greece, among distinguished Olympic personages and other world leaders. I am the lucky guy to be accredited to Greece, where some of the kindest wishes were received.

The Olympics is one of the few occasions where the value of peace is cherished, which gave it unique significance in the world that had suffered two major wars in the last century. It is for enemies to kiss each other, remarked Mr. Minoa Kiryakou, President of Hellenic Olympic Committee, stressing the importance of reconciliation.

Nevertheless, a developing country in the east, China foresees challenges to hosting a successful Olympics. In the first half this year, the strength and resilience of the nation have been tested over and over: the snow storm in the south, the 14 March riots, the Wenchuan earthquake in May, terrorist threats on the frontiers. I could not have held my tears when I saw the photos of Jin Jing, a beautiful girl torch bearer, who kept smiling in her wheelchair during the relay of the Flame when a crowd of rogues violently grabbed her in attempts to rob her of the torch. I was deeply moved by Lang Zheng, a 3-year old boy, who gathered his strength and dignity to salute the soldiers when he was rescued from under the quake rubbles, badly injured.

When a leader wrote with a chalk on the blackboard "Disasters rejuvenate the nation" for schoolchildren, the nation, with its own efforts and the help from the international community including Greece, was ready to stand up with broad smiles from grief and mourning.

Smile. "It is more than delightful to have friends from afar", said Confucius two and a half millennia ago. He also taught the people to strive for an ideal world where the common good was "for all under the heaven".

How the call for "One World, One Dream" will be answered, the world is watching, and so is China.

Then let us work together.