"Sydney 2000," by Wang Jinjun, published by the Chinese Writers Publishing House, 423 pages. Price: 20 yuan (US$2.4).

When Wang Jinjun got the idea to write the book "Sydney 2000" three years ago, he did not expect it to be so popular in China that it would attract such intense attention from readers and the media both.

The book is selling well in bookstores across the country.

About 100 newspapers, magazines, radio and TV stations have given coverage of Wang and his new book on the Sydney Olympic Games. More than 20 newspapers across the country have been reprinting chapters of the book.

"Why is my book so well-received? The right timing is the major factor," said Wang, 44.

On August 28, 2000, the International Olympic Committee Executive Board selected five official candidate cities, namely Beijing, Istanbul, Osaka, Paris and Toronto, to battle it out to host the world's most coveted sporting event in 2008.

The host city will be selected at the International Olympic Committee session when the final votes are cast next July in Moscow.

"Beijing now enters the second phase in its bid for the 2008 summer Olympic Games," said Wang. "Chinese people around the world are showing more and more enthusiasm about the Games."

A large number of them will fly to Sydney to cheer for Chinese Olympic teams in mid-September.

Reportedly the book is the only one about the 2000 Sydney Olympic Games on China's book market.

"The book serves as a guide for people interested in the year's biggest international sports event," said Wang.

Wang, from the Tujia ethnic group in Hunan Province, has been a farmer, soldier, photo-journalist, newspaper editor and once studied mass communications in Australia.

As a member of the Chinese Writers Association and Chinese Professional Photographers Association, Wang has published a couple of books since the early 1980s, including poem and essay collections, books of photographs and three best-selling non-fiction works - "Hong Kong: My 1997," "Macao: My 1999" and "Australia Through My Eyes."

In the preface to the book "Sydney 2000," Anthony Taylor, Cultural Counselor of the Australian Embassy in Beijing, writes: "In this, his second book on Australia, Wang Jinjun reports on the city itself, the people who live there, and the many twists and turns of the story that will have as its closing chapter the staging of the Games.

After the book "Sydney 2000," Wang plans to write another one about Beijing's bid for the Olympics 2008. He has already set up close relations with the Chinese Olympics Committee and the Beijing in 2008 Olympic Games Bid Committee.

(21DNN 11/29/2000)