The number eight is lucky in Chinese numerology, because its pronunciation in Cantonese sounds like the word for prosperity.

So, when the Opening Ceremony of the Games of the XXIX Olympiad commence at 8:08 PM on August 8th, 2008, it won’t by by coincidence, but by design.

8:08 on 08/08/08. Get your lucky 8-balls ready.

Timing is one of the many steps taken by local organizers to ensure the Chinese capital welcomes the world in the grandest of styles, hosting what many believe will be the greatest spectacle in the 112-year history of the modern games. From innovative venue design to elaborate plans to strike down bad weather, to mice testing food at the Olympic Village and lectures on proper etiquette, China is leaving nothing to chance.

Since it was named the host city on July 13, 2001, Beijing has undergone an extensive citywide renovation, spending an estimated $40 billion on construction and infrastructure upgrades. This dwarfs the estimated $2.1 billion Olympic operating budget largely financed by television and sponsorship fees. By comparison, the final tally for Athens 2004, after infrastructure upgrades including tram lines, ring roads and airports was somewhere between $15-20 billion.

“Everything is new for me,” U.S. table tennis player Gao Jun told the Boston Globe’s John Powers. Jun, who returned to her homeland as part of a pre-Olympic tour for American athletes and officials, lived in Beijing before emigrating to the U.S. in the early 1990s. “Most places, I can’t recognize. I‘m thinking, where is this, where is that?”

The city has met every construction timeline with flying colors. In fact, Beijing set an Olympic precedent three years ago when IOC president Jacques Rogge urged local officials to slow down the process to ease the financial burden on the host city. This, as Athens was busy using the Opening Ceremony to officially nail the final peg in its Olympic Stadium, mocking construction delays that nearly moved the games elsewhere. As of publication, all but one 2008 venue has been completed, the “Birds Nest” Olympic Stadium, which is expected to be finished early next year, leaving plenty of time to sort out the building’s kinks and hold a few critical test events.

“From what we have seen so far, the preparations for Beijing 2008 are truly impressive in every regard,” Rogge told the media at a countdown celebration in Tiananmen Square. “I don’t think we have ever seen preparations on this scale.”

And if that $40 billion figure wasn’t staggering enough, according to the USOC’s chief of sport performance, Steve Roush, the Chinese Olympic Committee could spend an estimated $400-500 million training elite athletes in the years leading up to Beijing.

Much of China's funding for the Beijing Olympics is going to 100 to 150 athletes, while the USA is funding 2,500 to 3,000 potential 2008 Olympians, Roush told USA Today. "I think now they are targeting their very best with the most resources."

As the host country, the Chinese will have an entry in every Olympic event.

Speaking of athletes. Here are five that bear watching over the next 12 months.

Nastia Liukin (USA) – Gymnastics

A two-time world champion and the defending U.S. all-around, beam and bars title holder, Liukin has spent most of 2007 recovering from ankle surgery. The Russian-born product of two champion gymnasts trains under the watchful eye of her father, Valeri, a two-time Olympic gold medalist, at the World Olympic Gymnastics Academy in Plano, Texas, the same gym that produced 2004 Olympic all-around winner Carly Patterson.

Yao Ming (CHN) – Basketball

A likely candidate to light the Olympic cauldron, Ming has thrived on basketball’s biggest stage, averaging 25.1 points per game in 2006-07, despite fracturing his right tibia in December. The first pick in the 2002 NBA Draft averaged a double-double in 2005-06, with 22.3 points and 10.1 rebounds per game. Ming was also the leading scorer at the 2006 FIBA World Championships with 25.3 points per game and finished fourth in rebounding with nine boards per game. In Athens, Ming scored 27 points and picked up 13 rebounds in a victory over Serbia and Montenegro and threw in 39 more in a victory over New Zealand.

Yuu Darvish (JPN) – Baseball

Darvish is already being hailed as the next Matsuzaka with good reason. At just 19, Darvish became the ace of the Nippon Ham Fighters, winning his last 10 starts of the 2006 season with an ERA in the low 2s. The son of an Iranian father and a Japanese mother who met while at Florida State University, Darvish has a plus-fastball with a slider, sinker, change-up and a knuckle curve, all coming from the stretch position. In his first 10 starts of 2007, the 6-foot-5 187-pound Darvish threw seven complete games, striking out 81 in 80 innings with an ERA of 2.03.

Michael Phelps (USA) – Swimming

Eight medals in Athens, six of them gold, for the Maryland native who many believe is the greatest to ever dive into the pool. Beijing will be the third Olympics for Phelps, who first appeared in Sydney as a 15-year-old. At the 2007 World Championships in Melbourne, Phelps was simply golden with five individual titles and two team titles, setting five World Record times in the process. He currently holds six world records, 11 U.S. records and an astonishing 38 U.S. national titles.

“I have a goal sheet next to my bed,” Phelps told NBC’s “Today Show” earlier this month. “My coach has the same goal sheet. We’re the only two who know those goals.”

Asafa Powell (JAM) - Track and Field

The world’s fastest man decided against moving to the U.S., instead choosing to train in Kingston. He set the 100-meter world record in 2005 in Athens and has since equaled that time twice, once in England and the other in Switzerland. He was named World Male Athlete of the Year in 2006 by the IAAF for winning all six 100-meter races in the IAAF Golden League. Beijing would be Powell’s second Olympic trip; he finished fifth in the 100 meters in 2004 and pulled out of the 200 meters after qualifying for the final.