100 days to the Olympics!

Today marks the start of the 100-day countdown to the Beijing Games. The day was celebrated with a marathon and a series of programs in the capital.

About 1,000 people joined the 31.5-kilometer run beginning and ending at the National Stadium, Xinhua reported. Ten thousand people joined the programs which also included a 2-kilometer run, a public sports exhibition and Chinese shadow boxing performed by 2,000 people at the Olympic Green.

A gala show featuring the 30 best candidates for the Olympic theme songs is scheduled for the evening. A song called "Beijing Welcomes You," sang by over a hundred mainland and Hong Kong artists, for the 100-day countdown will also be debuted.

Organizers, the state media said, are fine-tuning the details before the Games in August. It said that construction of venues, easing the traffic congestion and efforts to control pollution are on track.

About 1.3 million cars, or almost half the cars in Beijing, will not be allowed on the roads during the Games. Construction projects will be halted and factories closed to improve air quality in the city that had 19 days of good air quality in March, according to Bloomberg.

Final touches on the National Stadium, more popularly known as the Bird’s Nest, won’t be completed until next month, officials said, because of the extra work needed to prepare it for the opening ceremonies. China has spent 67 billion USD (42.96 billion euros) on infrastructure for the Games, Bloomberg noted.

Tickets to the Olympic events are selling well. Of the 6.8 million tickets that are going on sale, 75 percent are reserved for the domestic market. Zhu Yan, director of the Olympic ticketing center, said that demand for the tickets is strong abroad. “The main pressure at the moment is that many National Olympic Committees continue to ask for more tickets,” Zhu was quoted by Xinhua as saying. “We are trying to dig out resources for tickets to satisfy demand worldwide.”

According to Bloomberg, security remains the top concern for the International Olympic Committee and China. Police said that they had already broken two terror plots by Muslim groups based in Xinjiang province.