When Li Ting and Sun Tiantian beat the Spanish women pair in the tennis double final on August 23, Beijing's Sanlitun bar street was flooded with cries of triumph at China's first Olympic tennis gold medal.

With Chinese athletes winning so many medals at the 2004 Athens Olympic Games, bars are selling two or three times as much beer as normal, reported Monday's China Daily.

"People come here to share the charged atmosphere of watching world-class sports, and our turnover doubles when China competes for medals," said Zhang, who owns a bar in Sanlitun.

CCTV-1 and CCTV-5, two of China Central Television's channels, have also benefited from Olympic frenzy with a record 82 per cent audience viewing figure during the opening ceremony of the Games, according to CVSC-Sofres Media (CSM), far exceeding previous projections of 50 per cent.

Li Ning, a sportswear brand in China named after a leading Chinese gymnast, has seen sales jump of clothes worn by athletes on the podium in Athens.

"Many come here to buy sportswear after watching Chinese athletes' outstanding performances on TV," said a sales assistant in one Li Ning store in Beijing. "We now sell 20 to 30 sets a day, about three or four times normal sales."

In South China's Guangzhou, TV sales in some big department stores and electric appliance supermarkets have risen by 20 per cent as people buy PDP (plasma display panels) or LCD TVs for better-quality sports viewing.

Book sellers have also seized the opportunity to boost sales. In East China's Qingdao, bookshelves are loaded with Olympics-related books. The major bookstores are packed with customers, who are eager to know more about the history and development of the grand event.

It is not only by watching TV that some Chinese have been brought closer to the big event. Shanghai Maofeng Flag Co Ltd, a 10-year-old private company, beat competitors to produce 32,000 decorative flags in two months in time for the Olympics.

"We now understand the needs of international sports pageants for flags," said Pan Liguo, office director of the company. "I hope we can be part of the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games as we have got some experience."

In addition to flags, "made-in-China" tags are seen on Olympic mascots Athena and Phevos, and seats in Athens' gymnasiums. But the Chinese companies are not simply interested in short-term revenue, they are now thinking ahead to the Chinese Games.

But some sectors, like the movie industry, are affected by the Olympic coverage. Movie attendance has declined since the games began, as audiences stay at home to watch the Olympics.

"Attendance of blockbusters such as Spiderman II is lower than we expected. I think generally our revenue will be several million yuan less than last year's summer," said Weng Li with the Chinese Film Group Corporation.

But like all the others, Weng was happy to see such strong performances by the Chinese players. "Even myself, I choose to watch our athletes competing and feel proud to see our national flag hoisted," he said.

Source: China Daily