Beijing 2008: meet the mascots
A cartoon panda and Tibetan antelope（藏羚羊）are the newest Olympic players. They were among five mascots introduced last Friday for the 2008 Summer Games.
The announcement（宣布） was made at a nationwide gala（庆典）, marking the 1,000-day countdown（倒数计时） to the event.
The Five Friendlies
The five mascots are called the Five Friendlies. They are a panda, fish, Tibetan antelope, swallow（燕子） and the Olympic flame（火焰）. Each mascot the color of one of the Olympic rings, they also represent the sea, forests, fire, earth and air.
The Five Friendlies are called “Beibei,” “Jingjing,” “Huanhuan,” “Yingying” and “Nini,” which together mean “Beijing Huanying Ni” or in English – “Welcome to Beijing”.
The Five Friendlies will join the games slogan（口号） “One World, One Dream” and running man symbol which looks like the Chinese character for “capital.”
The Five Friendlies is the most number of mascots any Olympic Games has had in more than 30 years. The Salt Lake City and Sydney Games both had three.