By Tan Yingzi (China Daily)
Updated: 2007-08-09 07:05

The dreams of the Marino family came true when they were named as one of the winners of the Web-based "Olympic Families Tour Beijing" competition.

"It's a great, great dream. We never thought we could make it," Argentinian businessman Vicente Antonio Marino, 46, said, as his family arrived in Beijing on Monday.

The 10 winning families from China, Argentina, South Africa, the United States and Germany, beat off competition from more than 12,600 other families from 62 countries and regions to emerge victorious from the three-month contest.

The competitors published their photos and stories about the Olympics on the campaign website.

The contest drew more than 14.3 million votes via the Internet and mobile phone.

From August 6 through 14, the winning families will visit the Olympic venues, watch three test events in Beijing (rowing and canoeing), Hong Kong (equestrian events) and Qingdao (sailing), along with getting an introduction to Chinese culture and history.

Marino, a diehard sports fan, wearing a blue and white striped Argentina soccer jersey, learned about the competition while visiting the official website of the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games for tickets.

The head of the family wrote all the stories on their Olympic-themed blog and son Jair Nahuel Marino, 14, translated them from Spanish to English.

"Our relatives, friends and many other people in Argentina voted for us. They wanted us to represent our country in Beijing," Jair said.

After just two days in Beijing, the family is excited about what they have already experienced.

"It's an incredible city! A very big city!

"Everything is just so wonderful," Jair said. "We have dreamed about this for three months."

Back in Argentina, the Marinos have become something of a celebrity family.

"The whole city of Mar del Plata and even the whole country know about us," said Monica Deborah Tepper, 45, an accountant. "We were interviewed by newspapers, radio and television."

She said: "A lot of friends have already asked us to bring gifts from China and we have a very long shopping list."

The couple from Pretoria, South Africa, Sheleph and Matthys Louis Burger, are both equestrian fans. They named their family "Go Hong Kong" in the competition.

"You can't believe how much I'm looking forward to the trip to Hong Kong on Friday," said Sheleph Burger, 52. She took up dressage at the age of 35 and has watched four equestrian world championships since 1990.

"Beijing is huge! We don't have that big a city in South Africa.

"In our country, there's a lot of media publicity about the preparations for the Beijing Games. We've seen pictures of the Olympic venues," she said.

"Everyone in the world knows the name Beijing, but just being in Beijing is quite something," said Matthys Burger, 51, who works for the South African national telecommunication company.

Sheleph Burger found the Olympic Family Tour Beijing campaign while searching for tickets to the equestrian events.

"A lot of people thought I wouldn't win, and a lot of people thought this would never happen. When it eventually happened, everybody was so excited," she said.

(China Daily 08/09/2007 page5)