Special report: 2008 Olympic Games

    BEIJING, May. 10 -- Six-year-old Lin Zhonghua, a quintuplet, expects to derive a lot of fun from the Beijing Olympic Games.

    "It is not only a game for uncles and aunties (men and women), but also for us children," she said.

    The time for her and her four siblings to lap it all up arrives on Saturday, when the Olympic torch is relayed through the coastal special economic zone of Guangdong province.

    Lin and her sister and three brothers will play Fuwa - the five mascots of the Games -during the opening ceremony of the Shantou leg.

    They will share the stage with the first torchbearer Cai Yanshu - a world champion weightlifter who starts the 40-km, 11-hour relay.

    "I am also part of the Games," Lin said.

    And the quintuplets could wait no longer for their limelight to come. "Every time they return home (from kindergarten), they talk about the rehearsals. They see themselves as real Fuwa," said mother Lin Shaohua, referring to the cartoon figures who embody the characteristics of four of China's most popular animals - the fish, the panda, the Tibetan antelope, the swallow - and the Olympic flame.

    Born into a rural family from the village of Sangtian in Chaoyang district, Shantou, the quintuplets attend a bilingual kindergarten now teaching extra classes on Olympic basics.

    "Special meals are served and they are asked to take more physical exercise," said Li Shugai, head of the kindergarten, without elaborating.

    "All these efforts are meant to ensure a successful performance. It is very lucky for the city to have the quintuplets to play Fuwa," Li said.

    The link between the quintuplets and the five Olympic rings goes far beyond the number five, she said.

    "They are growing under the care and support from of a generous society, which reflects the Olympic spirit of friendship and harmony," Li said.

    The children each weighed little more than 1 kg at birth, and faced a battle just to survive.

    "It was hard for a rural family to pay for the medical bills, but the hospital treated them for free," Li said.

    The Lin family received more than 100,000 yuan (14,280 U.S. dollars) in donations after the babies were released from hospital.

    Two years later, they were accepted by Li's kindergarten and not expected to pay school fees.

    "When they first came here, they were much thinner than their peers. But now look at them," Li said.

    No doubt they will bring the cartoon figures to life.

    (Source: China Daily)