Special report: 2008 Olympic Games

    BEIJING, July 6 (Xinhua) -- The People's Bank of China (PBOC), the country's central bank, is to issue a commemorative bank note with a face value of 10 yuan (1.46 U.S. dollars) from Tuesday to mark the Beijing Olympic Games, the bank said in a statement on Sunday.

    The PBOC said it would issue a total of 6 million such notes, which would be circulated in the currency market with the same denomination as the ordinary 10-yuan notes.

    The new note, in cyan, is 148.5 millimeters long and 72 millimeters wide, according to the central bank. While the ordinary 10-yuan notes are in cobalt black, 140 millimeters long and 70 millimeters wide.

    On one side is a picture of the National Stadium, or the Bird's Nest, the main venue for the Games in August. Above the picture is the emblem of the Beijing Games, "Chinese Seal, Dancing Beijing". The picture of national stadium and the emblem are both set against the backdrop of the Temple of Heaven, one of the country's best-known landmarks.

    This takes the place of the portrait of the late Chinese leader Mao Zedong and China's national emblem on the ordinary 10-yuan notes.

    The other side features the famous ancient Greek marble statue of a discus-thrower, Discobolus, portraits of athletes and the Arabic numeral "2008".

    These replace the drawing of the scenic Three Gorges, but the name of the PBOC in Chinese pinyin, Mongolian, Tibetan, Ugyur and Zhuang, remains in the top right corner.

    The central bank also said it incorporated watermarks and other technologies to prevent counterfeiting of the notes.

    A clear watermark appears on the picture of the National Stadium in the shape of the Arabic numeral "10" and the Games of XXIX Olympiad in the Chinese characters, said the bank.