Critics say Beijing is splurging on electricity for dazzling Olympic lights, although the country is suffering a power crunch. Considering the Chinese tradition of Zhang Deng Jie Cai, meaning hanging up lanterns for festivities, however, one may see the reason why the government has spent so much effort on neon lights, flowers and streamers, he said.

    The idea of building antique style brick walls along the sidewalks outside vacated houses or unfinished construction sites, which some foreigners viewed as a fig leaf to hide a mess, actually came from the concept of tidying up one's home before hosting guests, Tang said.

    "We all know these projects can't be completed overnight. The idea is not to hide but to try to make our home as pleasant as possible to look at," he said.

    CHINA'S NEW ROLE

    Increasingly aware of how it is seen by the outside world, China has adopted a long-term vision to host the Olympics as not only a sports gala but a feast for culture.

    Exhibitions in the Capital Museum included, as many 3,000 cultural exchange activities involving almost all regions and continents are being staged in Beijing and its six Olympics co-host cities of Qingdao, Qinhuangdao, Tianjin, Shenyang, Hong Kong and Shanghai.

    Inside the Olympic village of northern Beijing, athletes may sit back, if they like, savoring Chinese tea and folk music, practicing calligraphy or watching a traditional drama.

    In a national Olympic education program, more than 400 million young people have been taught the Olympic motto, "Faster, Higher and Stronger". No parallel can be found in Olympic history.

    Rendall, the teacher, thinks it's necessary to pass on the Olympic spirit to the younger generation because the Games make even the poorest, smallest countries, whatever culture they represent, feel equal to others by merely being present.

    "Economic globalization has led to the free flow of capital and technology across the world and made competition and interdependence a normal thing among countries and regions. But it's culture that decides the specialty of each one and makes global exchange more active, enduring and efficient," said Yu Pei, director of the World History Studies of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.

    He foresees an increasingly sweeping cultural blend to come along with the summer Olympics, with the overture starting from China's opening-up and economic reform 30 years ago and the climax featuring a comprehensive dialogue between Chinese and Western civilizations.

    "Conciliatory but not accommodating," the doctrine proposed by Confucius more than 2,000 years ago, will remain the essence, in contrast to assimilation or elimination, Yu said.

    Unlike the Egyptian, Mesopotamian and Indian civilizations that were either destroyed or displaced, the Chinese civilization stands to be the longest continuous surviving ancient civilization, although the Han people at the core of Chinese civilization had been conquered by northern nomads as well as other "foreign" invaders such as Mongols and Manchus.

    The reasons, as Yu pointed out, are the special traits of Chinese civilization, underscoring diversity, tolerance, openness and modesty, which encouraged the Han people to seek the interface of two different cultures.

    In a recent interview with overseas media before the Games, President Hu Jintao said that one of the cultural heritages of the Summer Olympics would be to boost exchanges among different cultures.

    "If China, a rising power, can contribute anything to the Olympics in the new century, it will be to prevent conflicts and wars and to safeguard peace by boosting the blend among different civilizations," said Men Honghua, professor with the Institute for International Strategic Studies of the Party School of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China.