The 2008 Summer Olympics (officially the Games of the XXIX Olympiad) and the 2008 Summer Paralympics (officially the XIII Paralympic Games), both commonly referred to as Beijing 2008, were two international multi-sport events that took place from 8–24 August and 6–17 September, respectively, in Beijing, China.
Bidding & Interim[]
1999–2003[]
The applicant city bid logo for Beijing was unveiled on 11 December 1999. Beijing was declared as a candidate city on 3 July 2000, and added the Olympic Rings in due course. The city was awarded the games on 13 July 2001.
Olympics[]
2003–2008[]
Designer:
Guo Chunning
Typography:
Custom
Launched:
3 August 2003
The contest to create the official logo for the 2008 Olympics was launched on 4 January 2003. The winning design, created by Guo Chunning and officially named "Dancing Beijing", was unveiled at a ceremony at the Temple of Heaven in Beijing on 3 August of that year. It depicts the Chinese character "jing" (京) against a red background, stylized to look like a dancing or running person. The character "jing" is the second half of the name Beijing, and means "capital"; it also slightly resembles the character "wen" (文), which means the "Humanities Olympics".
