Special report: 2008 Olympic Games

    BEIJING, Aug. 3 (Xinhua) -- An official Olympic-themed pin trading center was opened here on Sunday, providing a platform for pin lovers to exchange their collections as well as their experiences.

    Located in the Chaoyang Park in Beijing, the pin trading center is the second one established by Coca-Cola, with the authorization from the International Olympic Committee and BOCOG.

    According to the organizers, there will be four such pin trading centers setup in Beijing during the Olympic Games, one of which will be located in the international zone of the Olympic Village. And the other three, scattering in downtown area of Beijing, will all be open to the public.

    All the pins presented and exchanged in these trading centers will be related to the Olympic Games, both summer and winter ones. Some are officially produced by organizing committees and some are made by individual delegations or media to cover the games.

    "The exchanging of pins has already become a sort of culture and a means of communication. In order to collect these pins, I traveled to many Olympics host cities and also made a lot of friends," said Zhang Xu, a Chinese pin collector, who was busy "bargaining" in the trading center.

    The coming Beijing Olympic Games will not only be a sports gala for sports elites from different parts of the globe, it will also become a pin gala for enthusiastic collectors all round the world to celebrate.