About 480 teenagers, including 410 from overseas and 10 physically challenged youths, will attend the Olympic Youth Camp (OYC) from Aug 6-17 during the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games.
The disabled youths, all from China, will take part in such an exercise for the first time in the OYC's history.
The National Olympic Committees from 196 countries and regions will participate in the camp, making it the largest of its kind.
The 12-day fixture will give the youths, aged between 16 and 18, first-hand experience of the Olympic ideals of peace, enterprise, teamwork, sportsmanship, fair play and participation, as well as China's unique culture.
With the slogan of "Youth Creates Future", the campers will carry out various colorful exchange activities focusing on the Olympic experience, cultural exchanges and understanding China.
They will attend the opening ceremony, watch the Games, visit the Olympic Village, stay with local families, take part in volunteer work, travel to famous historical sites and learn Chinese kung fu and calligraphy, among other things. And 20 of them will participate in the Olympic torch relay in Hebei, Henan, Tianjin and Beijing.
Other activities will include planting trees near the Great Wall and a Mini Olympic Games
Every National Olympic Committee will send a girl and a boy to the camp.
The Beijing 101 Middle School, near the Summer Palace and its world-famous imperial garden, will host the young campers from all corners of the earth.
The school is only 10 km from the Olympic Green.
The Beijing Games organizers and Olympic Solidarity will cover their expenses.
The Chinese representatives have been selected by the Communist Youth League of China.
The concept of the youth camp originated at the 1912 Stockholm Olympic Games, when King Gustav V invited 1,500 Boy Scouts to set up tents near the Olympic Stadium. There were no more camps until another Scandinavian city, Helsinki, embraced the idea in 1952.
The experience proved so successful that an OYC has been held during every Olympic Games since, except Melbourne (1956) and Los Angeles (1984).
