Countdown clock. “Sponsored by official timekeeper Omega, a three-story neon clock stands directly to the east of Tiananmen Square in front of the National Museum of China. This Mao-era edifice was built in 1959 to commemorate the 10th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic; separate wings display cultural artifacts and exhibits related to the Communist Party and modern political history. Soldiers march back and forth all day, seemingly guarding the clock, which displays the days, hours, minutes and seconds remaining before the opening of the Games at 8:08 P.M. on August 8, 2008. (Because the word ‘eight’ in Chinese sounds like the word for ‘prosperity,’ it’s considered the luckiest number on the calendar.)”©Alex Miller