On the Shanghai and Shenzhen stock exchanges, investors have been falling over themselves to buy shares in listed companies in these sectors.

Aware that Atlanta, Sydney and Athens all enjoyed an economic Olympic boom, no one wants to miss out on China's Olympic business winners -- whether they are big-time multinationals or single-room workshops.

"When Beijing won the bid to host the Olympics, voices were heard saying that foreign-funded companies would not be given sufficient access," said Zhang Wenkui, Deputy Director of the Enterprises Institute under the Development Research Center of the State Council and marketing consultant for the Beijing Organizing Committee.

"At that time, foreign firms thought China's market was not open enough," Zhang said. "Interestingly enough, when FAW won the first Beijing Olympics Global Partnership, most of the complaints were from Chinese enterprises."

In 2005, United Parcel Service (UPS), a US-based courier, was granted the First Olympics Sponsorship. In 2006, the company opened its first retail centers in Shanghai and is thinking of setting up network outlets in colleges and hotels.

"This is no coincidence," said Yuan Gangming, a well-known economist with the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.

"UPS may have spent 100 million US dollars on the sponsorship bid and may not recover all that money from the Beijing Olympics themselves," he said, "but the potential benefits from cultivating the market and developing their image are incalculable."

China's express delivery market was worth more than 10 billion yuan in 2006 and is growing by 30 percent annually. Research conducted by Samsung, the Korean electronics giant, showed that 70 percent of Chinese people pay attention to sports, far higher than runner-up Italy with only 50 percent.

These statistics explain why the heavyweights, such as UPS, pre-invested so much.

Few events can focus global attention like the Olypmics. China is using the Games to build its image. So are firms.

The Beijing Olympics will not only generate direct profits but also establish a publicity stage watched by the county's 1.3 billion people, said Jeff Immelt, Chief Executive Officer of General Electric (GE).

Awarded an Olympic partnership, GE is promoting its power-generator renting business to Beijing's stadiums.

"GE's Beijing infrastructure and Olympic stadium sales will reach 800 million US dollars by 2008," Immelt said.

Companies from China and overseas are all trying to get in on the act and profit from the Beijing Olympics in one form or another.

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