Beijing, China - Liu Xiang’s portrait may be hanging all over Beijing as the Olympics approach, but it is China’s race walkers who have brought their country consistently high-level performances in international track and field years before Liu’s breakthrough at the 2004 Olympic Games.

That hardware includes two Olympic gold medals: the 1996 women’s 10km Race Walk, won by Chen Yueling, and the 2000 20km Race Walk won by Wang Liping.

This weekend (Fri 18 / Sat 19) China continues its gloriously successful race walking tradition as its best walkers will test their competitive skills at the biggest venue of their careers: Beijing’s National Stadium, the Bird’s Nest, for the "Good Luck Beijing" 2008 IAAF Race Walking Challenge meeting 

This year the China stop of the IAAF Challenge comes to Beijing after previous years in Shenzhen, Yangzhou and Cixi to serve as the Olympic test event. It is the first time the spectacular, 91,000-seat Bird’s Nest will be open for competition.

The “Good Luck Beijing” Olympic test event series began last year, steeping China’s capital city in elite sporting events seemingly every week. Successful test events have included table tennis at Peking University, track cycling at the Laoshan Velodrome in western Beijing, and rhythmic gymnastics at Beijing University of Technology - and that was just in a two-week period in December. During April, Beijing is playing host to seven test events, of which the opening of the Bird’s Nest with the IAAF Race Walking Challenge surely among the most anticipated of events.

The men’s 20km event sets off at 9:00 a.m. Friday, April 18, local time. The women’s 20km event will follow at 3:00 p.m. on the same day, and the men’s 50km will be held on 19 April at 7:30 a.m.