23. Largest ever team from China

China will field its largest Olympic team to date when about 570 athletes contest 28 sports in Beijing.

But Chinese sports officials are trying to downplay predictions that the nation will scoop the most gold medals, affirming US and Russia as sporting powerhouses.

At the 2004 Athens Games, 407 Chinese athletes participated in 26 sports and finished second on the medal tally after the US.

24. Lowest ticket prices

Taking into account China's average purchasing power, BOCOG ensured a low-price policy for Beijing Olympic and Paralympic tickets.

Opening ceremony prices were capped at 5,000 yuan ($641) per head, while the lowest price to a sports competition was 30 yuan ($4).

Closing ceremony tickets ranged from 150-3,000 yuan ($19-385), preliminary competition tickets from 30-300 yuan ($4-39) and tickets to the finals cost between 60 and 1,000 yuan ($8-128).

BOCOG also reserved about 14 percent of all domestically sold tickets for students at the handsome price of 5 yuan ($0.6) and 10 yuan ($1.2) for preliminaries and finals respectively.