As sports fans from around the world convene on the city of Beijing for this year’s summer games, it’s becoming hard to ignore the city as a modern world power.

Text of report in English by official Chinese news agency Xinhua (New China News Agency) Beijing, 25 November: Beijing Olympic organizers Friday [25 November] started construction on the media village for the 2008 Games.

BEIJING (Reuters) - The huge digital clock on Beijing's Tiananmen Square shows there are still some 1,100 days until the start of the 2008 Olympics. The Chinese capital, however, is already well on its way toward being ready.