Bei Jing Huan Ying Ni

A mascot in Olympics has been a old tradition which started long back in 1972 Munich olympics. The mascots help to bring up the spirit of olympics, the sportsmanship. They try to introduce rest of the world to a small element of history of the host nation.
2004 Athens olympics had the official mascots as Athena and Phevos, the siblings. This year at the Beijing Olympics Fuwa is selected as the official mascot. I found the story behind present mascot very interesting which made me write this post.
Fuwa literally means good luck dolls.Fuwa under the name has five members suggesting different charachteristics associated with them. They are presented in colors similar to the five colors of the olympic rings. They also represent four of the china’s most popular animals - the Fish, the Panda, the Tibetan Antelope, the Swallow -- and the Olympic Flame.
Most interesting story is about the names given to these mascots. They are given a rhyming two-syllable name. Beibei is the Fish, Jingjing the Panda, Huanhuan is the Olympic Flame, Yingying is the Tibetan Antelope and Nini is the Swallow. When these names are put together, it can be read as “Bei Jing Huan Ying Ni” that means "Welcome to Beijing".
Well there are many more meanings associated with these mascots. I wrote about the things I found most interesting about them. There is lot more to read and know about them which you can find this link.
http://en.beijing2008.cn/spirit/beijing2008/graphic/n214068254.shtml