BEIJING (AP) – Along with the usual complement of speedskaters and freestyle aerialists, China is packing its Olympic delegation with marketing managers and media handlers.

From security arrangements to ticket sales, China will be scrutinizing Turin’s staging of next month’s Winter Games. About 300 Chinese – among them only 70 athletes – will be making the trip, officials said.

China’s ambitions in Turin are more about planning Beijing’s Summer Olympics than about winning gold medals.

“It’s a last rehearsal for 2008,” said Gilbert Van Kerckhove, a Belgian whose Beijing-based consulting group advises the city and businesses seeking Olympic contracts. “It’s a reality check about the games.”

The tide of Chinese officials heading to Italy is a normal part of Olympic business. Olympic cities are obligated to play host to their successors and pass on tips.

So Turin will provide a lesson for Beijing, albeit a small one. The scope of the Olympics – athletes, venues, events, media – is much smaller for the winter than the summer.

“For a Summer Games host, the real value of the Winter Games is in the process,” said Shao Shiwei, a media official for the Beijing Olympic organizing committee.

Shao said 11 middle managers from the Beijing committee already are in Italy. Each will be there for the duration of the games to study such operations as credentials and venue management. Beijing organizers plan to cycle about 150 officials through Turin, some to study the logistics of the opening and closing ceremonies, others to run a publicity office for the 2008 Games.

All of which may overshadow the Chinese athletes, whose performance is expected to be modest. A Summer Games powerhouse, China is still a winter sports fledgling. Senior sports officials have said they expect to surpass the Chinese team’s previous Winter Games best of two gold medals, both in short track speedskating, in Salt Lake City four years ago.

Among those expected on the roster is Yang Yang, the speedskater who won both of China’s golds in 2002, as well as several promising athletes in freestyle skiing and snowboarding.

The Turin Games come as Beijing’s own preparations shift gears. The Beijing committee is about to bulk up, growing to 1,000 in staff from 600, Shao said. The increase comes none too soon, according to some.

While the city has been building stadiums and infrastructure at a dizzying pace, foreign businesses and some International Olympic Committee officials have voiced concerns about the finer points of operating an Olympics.

The IOC has urged local organizers to focus on media operations, with 20,000 members of the media expected in Beijing. Businesses have said plans for security systems and transportation appear to be falling behind schedule.

“Time is sort of running out. Some fear China is running behind on the details,” said Van Kerckhove, the consultant.

Shao said a firsthand look at how cities stage the Olympics is indispensable. At the Athens Olympics, he was struck by how small the photo centers had become since the Sydney Games. The difference, he realized, was that with the digital photo revolution having taken hold, large photo processing facilities were unnecessary.

But the transfer of knowledge from one host city to another does not always work. Beijing’s marketing department shadowed the Athens organizing committee for the 2004 Games and afterward told committee official Alexandra Oikonomidou it was unhappy with the information she provided, complaining that it was incomplete.

“By the end of the games you feel so demotivated. You’re about to be unemployed,” said Oikonomidou, who now works on Olympic sponsorship accounts for a China subsidiary of the public relations firm Ogilvy & Mather. “You get the best figures you can at the time.”

AP-ES-01-17-06 1304EST