(BEIJING, July 24) -- Dig it!

The second shipment of "Olympic Sand" from Hainan Island, weighing 7,000 tons, arrived at Tianjin Harbor before continuing on to its final destination at the Chaoyang Park Beach Volleyball Ground, the home of Olympic Beach Volleyball next summer here in the Olympic City.

The Federation Internationale de Volleyball Federation (www.fivb.ch) has strict regulations about the sand used for international competitions, including each and every granule's shape, size, color, and smoothness. The competition sand must be specialty sand and must not be rough or sharp in any way, to avoid injury to athletes. Additionally, the sand cannot be too white, as this would affect its appearance on television screens.

With this shipment, a total of 17,000 required tons of "Olympic Sand" has arrived in Beijing, enough to cover the eight volleyball courts within of the 20,000 sq m venue. The first 10,000 tons of sand were used to fill the main stadium as well as, two practice and three warm-up courts.

Two types of Hainan sand were chosen for the Olympic beach volleyball venue - light yellow sand and an off-white sand at a 6:4 ratio, respectively. The sand has been cleaned, separated and additional processes to select the final grains to be used in Olympic competition.

Hainan sand was chosen because its quality is comparable to and more economical than importing sand from Finland, Sweden, and Denmark.