This must be the greatest Olympic opening ceremony at all times. After the long wait, finally China kick off their dream in showing the world the New China.
BEIJING - Once-reclusive China commandeered the world stage Friday, celebrating its first-time role as Olympic host with a stunning display of pyrotechnics and pageantry — topped by the unworldly sight of a flying gymnast, traversing the heights of the stadium to light the flame and begin the Summer Games.
Now ascendant as a global power, China welcomed scores of world leaders to an opening ceremony watched by 91,000 people at the eye-catching National Stadium and a potential audience of 4 billion worldwide. It was depicted as the largest, costliest extravaganza in Olympic history, bookended by barrages of some 30,000 fireworks.
It ended in spectacular fashion, when China’s first Olympic superstar, 1984 gymnastics triple gold medalist Li Ning, was hoisted by wires to the top of the stadium, circled the entire circumference as though he was spacewalking, then used his torch to send a torrent of flame spiraling upward to light the Olympic flame in a huge cauldron overlooking Beijing.
That was preceded by the parade of athletes, climaxing with the entry of the 639-strong Chinese team; It was led by flag-bearer and basketball idol Yao Ming alongside a 9-year-old schoolboy who survived May’s devastating earthquake in Sichuan province.
The welcome — by a frenzied, chanting, flag-waving crowd that sought to cool itself with paper fans in the stifling heat — was thunderous. And moments later, the crowd erupted again when President Hu Jintao declared the games open.
President Bush and Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin were among the glittering roster of notables who watched China make this bold declaration that it had arrived. Bush, rebuked by China after he raised human-rights concerns this week, is the first U.S. president to attend an Olympics on foreign soil.
Already an economic juggernaut, China is given a good chance of overtaking the U.S. atop the gold-medal standings with its legions of athletes trained intensely since childhood. One dramatic showdown will be in women’s gymnastics, where the U.S. and Chinese teams are co-favorites; in the pool, Chinese divers and U.S. swimmers are expected to dominate.
Live from the Opening Ceremonies …
Hello from inside the Bird’s Nest, where things are hot, humid, and heavy with anticipation. (Gotta love open-air stadiums). According to the countdown clock, there’s about 10 minutes left before the Opening Ceremonies start.
The Chinese are doing their version of the wave, the orchesta just started playing, and there are probably thousands of drummers (I think) lining the field.
Check back for highlights throughout the evening (or morning back in the States!).
7:55 p.m. Very cool sight. The drums are lighting up to create various patterns while being played, and the crowd has red, green, blue and white lights twinkling in the stands. Now the drums are being used to countdown the final minute …
8:05 p.m. Remember what I said about Chinese symbolism? We’ve checked and there are 2008 drummers on the field … BUT, despite the hype about starting at 8:08:08, things actually kicked off a several minutes early.
8:24 p.m. Every now and then, between the dancing tribesmen and illuminating scrolls and pneumatic blocks, the music dips just enough so that you can hear the buzzing of the many helicopters patrolling overhead. …
8:50 p.m. About an hour into the show, look for the lime-green colored dancers to also start glowing with blue and white as as they break formation, shimmy around, and ultimately stack on top of each other to form a mini, fluorescent Bird’s Nest.
9:10 p.m. At long last, the parade of nations begins with Greece entering the stadium, as tradition call for. And this time, the folks from Angola, Afghanistan, Antigua and the like get a break, as they aren’t going by alphabetical order. The U.S.? No. 140 in line. China? Last at No. 205.
9:42 p.m. Who says the Warriors aren’t represented here? Ex-Warrior Sarunas Jasikevicius is marching on by as the flag-bearer for Lithunia. In all, five NBA players will have the same honor: Dirk Nowitzki for Germany, Andrei Kirilenko for Russia, Manu Ginobili for Argentina, and Yao Ming for China.
9:52 p.m. Eesh. Not sure what Spain was thinking, but the men are in ghastly red suits, the ladies in equally loud yellow attire. And to top it off, everyone is wearing red shoes.
9:55 p.m. Iraq, followed by Iran. Can’t quite tell if those were cheers or jeers from the 91,000, but there was definitely a response.
10:05 p.m. Uh oh. Just got reprimanded, err … “interviewed” by the Xinhua News Agency, the main state-run news outlet here. The reporter asked what I’d remember from the Opening Ceremonies, and I said the atmosphere. How different it is when you’re actually hearing the drum beats and seeing the dancers live. He asked me which acts stood out, and I mentioned the drummers, the scroll writing, and the taiqiquan performance.He asked what I learned about Chinese history. I didn’t know how to answer. He asked how different the Opening Ceremonies would have been in the U.S. I didn’t know how to answer. He asked again what I’d learned about Chinese history. I still didn’t know how to answer. So he told me I must not know Chinese history and that I should pay attention next time. Seriously.
10:07 p.m. Double uh oh … they just handed us rain ponchos. Guess the Chinese goverment can’t control the weather after all …
10:27 p.m. Out comes the U.S., wearing navy blue (or black) jackets and white pants, and getting the loudest cheers of the night behind Chinese-Taipei and Hong Kong. President Bush is being shown up on the jumbotron, clapping from the stands, probably surrounded by 2008 security guards. Three minutes later, the team is still streaming out. Here come the NBA guys bringing up the rear. The rear of the rear? LeBron James.
10:46 p.m. The poor folks from Greece have now been standing out here for an hour and a half …
10:49 p.m. Just looked up and noticed that the Olympic cauldron in now in place. Sort of a red and gold patterned sheath that curls right out of the stadium’s upper rim.
11:03 p.m. Hey, it’s Germany’s Dirk Nowitzki with short short hair and the Olympic rings shaved in, courtesy of team barber and Clipeprs center Chris Kaman. (Speaking of the NBA, Andrei Kirilenko’s now taking a picture with Jazz teammates Deron Williams and Carlos Boozer).
11:08 p.m. Well, it’s 8:08 a.m. in San Francisco, and the biggest cheer of the night here can only mean one thing: It’s China’s turn. The 7-5 Yao is carrying the the flag and little boy from Sichuan, who saved two of his classmates during the big May earthquake, barely comes up to his hip. Crowd is chanting “jiayou,” which literally translates into “add gas,” but is the Chinese way of cheering someone on. As in, Go China.
11:37 p.m. Hu Jintao, the president of China, just officially declared the Games open. Only one mystery left: Li Ning, the gymnast, is supposed to light the cauldron, but no one knows exactly how …
11:45 p.m. Two and half hours and counting for the lads from Greece. Thankfully, it’s much cooler than it was earlier …
12:01 a.m. Spoiler alert: Li Ning, was just raised via cable up to the stadium’s rim, several hundred feet in the air, and is “running” a lap around the stadium. Hope he’s not afraid of heights! (The rim’s been used all night as a giant projection screen). Lap done, pipeline lit, and boom, Olympic cauldron flaming away! Fireworks galore!
12:08 a.m. Consider the Opening Ceremonies closed, more than four hours after the first fireworks went off. And what do you know? It didn’t rain after all …
The run-up to the games had epic story lines — China investing $40 billion to build the needed infrastructure, reeling from the catastrophic earthquake in May, struggling right up to Friday to diminish Beijing’s stubborn smog. China’s detentions of political activists, its crackdown on uprisings in Tibet and its economic ties to Sudan — home of the war-torn Darfur region — fueled relentless criticisms from human rights groups and calls for an Olympic boycott.
Second-guessed for awarding the games to Beijing, the International Olympic Committee stood firmly by its decision. It was time, the committee said, to bring the games to the homeland of 1.3 billion people, a fifth of humanity.
“For a long time, China has dreamed of opening its doors and inviting the world’s athletes to Beijing for the Olympic Games,” IOC President Jacques Rogge said in his speech. “Tonight, that dream comes true.”
Rogge mentioned the Sichuan earthquake, saying the world was moved “by the great courage and solidarity of the Chinese people.” And he exhorted the assembled athletes, as role models for the world’s youth, to “reject doping and cheating.”
