08.08.08

Today’s date is a very special one – a once-in-a-lifetime occurrence, 08.08.08 will only come by in another century in 2108.

The number 8 is an auspicious number to us Chinese. The Chinese word for number 8 is pronounced as “ba”, which is very similar to “fa”, which stands for fortune and prosperity in Chinese. As such, the number 8 is always associated with wealth, money, and fortune.

Since it is such a special and unique date and considered to be auspicious, many people around the globe will want to do something memorable in their life on this special day. Thousands of couples will be tying the knot on this day and many would-be parents had requested their babies to be due by caesarean section today.

Most visible event of all, China will kick off the 2008 Summer Olympic Games on 08.08.08 at 8.08pm Beijing time. Costing US$40 billion, it will be the most expensive games ever hosted in the history of the Olympics.

The biggest sports event on Earth will be set in motion with an epic extravaganza of an opening ceremony by 15,000 performers and 29,000 firework shells and which will last 3.5 hours, attended by more than 100 heads of states and national leaders and 91,000 spectators in the National Stadium and watched by a worldwide television audience of 4 billion people! That’s 8 billion eyeballs! It will indeed be One World One Dream.

Let the Games begin!