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閱讀理解
CHANGCHUN, China-President Hu Jintao was the surprise guest in the last multi-sports Games to be hosted in the country before the 2008 Olympics with the opening ceremony of the 6th Asian Winter Games on Sunday．
Altogether, more than 1,100 athletes and officials from different countries and regions-including 160 from China and a single skier from Palestine-have registered to take part in the Games, which run until February 4．
“Today for the first time representatives of all 45 OCA members are with us which is a great achievement for the organizing committee．”said Olympic Council of Asia(OCA)chief Ahmad Al-Sabah．
China dominated the main Asian Games in Doha in December but their winter athletes, who have won just four of their country’s 114 Olympic gold medals, are unlikely to do the same．Unsurprisingly, the loudest cheers were reserved for the Chinese party but there were also warm welcomes for the Hong Kong, Macao and Chinese Taipei athletes．
Japan, which has entered 100 athletes, topped the medals table at the last Games on home soil．Their delegation also received plenty of applause despite being in city which served as the capital of the puppet state of Manchukuo after the Japanese army invaded China in the 1930s．
The North and South Korean athletes marched together under the same flag just as they did in Doha, although they will compete separately．South Korea were second in the medals table in 2003 and will need to continue their traditional dominance of the short-track speed skating to retain that position from the Chinese．
There has been a lack of snow at the Beidahu ski resort near Changchun, but organizers have used artificial(人造的)snow to make up the shortfall．
China will be banking on such stars as freestyle skier Han Xiaopeng, who surprised everyone at Turin in 2006 to win China’s first－ever Olympic skiing medal, and women’s 500-meter short track skating Olympic champion Wang Meng．
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