Jiang Xiaoyu (second left), executive vice-president of Beijing Organizing Committee for the Games of the XXIX Olympiad (BOCOG) and three other guests launch the "Olympic Families Tour Beijing" campaign in Beijing April 9, 2007. (Xinhua Photo/Tao Xiyi)

The Beijing Olympic Games organizers (BOCOG) will select 10 families through its official website to an Olympic-themed tour in Beijing and the co-host cities as it launched the "Olympic Families Tour Beijing" program here on Monday.

The tour is scheduled to begin on Aug. 8 this year to mark the one year count-down to the Beijing Games as 10 families, five from China and five from the rest of the world, will been chosen by internet users through BOCOG's bilingual official website in Chinese and English.

The participants must be families with at least three members and first registering with the official website www.beijing2008.cn to become a member of the Olympic families before submitting photos and introduction of themselves.

Once their information is verified by the organizers, these families will be open to the public voting.

The candidates will be narrowed down to 100 by the end of next month to enter the second-phase competition which runs until June 30 before the 10 winning families are picked.

"We hope that more foreign families get to know Beijing, to understand China through the program as they participate in it," said Jiang Xiaoyu, executive vice president of BOCOG.

"There is no frontier on the internet, nor in an Olympics. I think to invite these families to gather in Beijing will best illustrate our Olympic theme slogan One World One Dream," he said.

The winning families will visit the innovative "Bird's Nest" main stadium and the state-of-art swimming stadium "Water Cube" as well as the Olympic sailing site in Qingdao, Shandong province.

They will also watch some Olympic test events and get the chance to climb the Great Wall and have a look around in the Forbidden City in the Chinese capital.

Editor: Donald