On the 27^th of July this year the Olympic opening ceremony will get underway in East London marking the start of 17 days of fierce sporting competition. China will seek to defend the first place in the medal table it achieved four years previous in Beijing as the world turns its eyes to England.

Over the next ten weeks D J Clark will be reporting from London, to find out how the preparations are going, how London seeks to compare to the Beijing games and what lies in store for the Chinese athletes and audience. In the first part he introduces the event.

By D J Clark

Animation: Xu Jiye

Video/Images: D J Clark, LOCOG, London Partners

Producer: Flora Yue

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See more videos at: D J Clark's Video Column

About D J Clark

D J Clark has worked worldwide as a multimedia journalist for more than 20 years. As well as working for China Daily he runs an MA course in Multimedia journalism at Beijing Foreign Studies University and is the Director of Visual Journalism at the Asia Center for Journalism in Manila, Philippines.