Beijing Olympics - Opening Ceremony
Follow updates from our man inside the Bird's Nest as the world waits with bated breath the much-anticipated opening ceremony to the world's most expensive Olympic Games.
By Jim White in Beijing
Last Updated: 12:30PM BST 08 Aug 2008
All ready for the off: Over 90,000 spectators gather in the Bird's Nest for the much-anticipated opening ceremony Photo: Getty
12.30pm A word about the stadium
From the outside its tangled steel bird’s nest construction is astonishing, one of the architectural wonders of the modern sporting world, and visible from at least three feet away in standard Beijing fug. It feels solid, too. A colleague and I gave one of the huge supporting struts a crisp rap with the knuckles on the way in and there is nothing hollow about it. Inside, though, things are visually less dramatic. It has the same three-tiered look of Wembley, the red plastic seats are reminiscent of the Emirates, the roof might be the inspiration for the new covering across Wimbledon’s centre court. This is what you might call sporting globalisation. Like the British high street, everywhere in the sporting world is beginning to look the same.
16.16pm Here come the hosts...
What a great noise. And what a great sight. The Chinese have arrived to tumultuous cheering. And they’re marching behind Yao Ming, all seven and a bit feet of him, carrying the Chinese flag, wearing a big grin. It’s some visual statement that. Some statement of intent. And he’s walking in with a tiny little kid. Aaah. The Chinese team is almost as big as the American. It goes on for ever. All round the stadium, people are waving the China flag. And lighting their red torches. And chanting China China. I’m looking forward to these games, if they mean this much to the locals, they are going to be something to remember…
and between 12.30 and 4.16....
Beijing Olympics opens with dazzling ceremony
The Beijing Olympic Games have got underway with a dazzling display of fireworks, acrobatics and music at the opening ceremony.
Last Updated: 4:55PM BST 08 Aug 2008
After years of planning by officials and training by athletes, the ceremony began just before the scheduled start time of 8.08pm in the Bird's Nest, China's national stadium.
Thirty-five thousand fireworks lit up the sky above 10,000 dancers and performers in the stunning stadium. An army of 2,008 drummers pounded out the countdown to the Games.
Twenty-nine colossal "footprints of fire" shot into the sky and "marched" through the city to Tiananmen Square in a dazzling, rolling display of pyrotechnics.
The huge cast chanted the words of a famous Confucian greeting: "Friends have come from afar, how happy we are."
Eighty world leaders including US President George W Bush and Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin were among the 91,000 people in the audience.
Around one billion people were expected to watch coverage of the ceremony on television.
The show, choreographed by China's most successful film director, Zhang Yimou, was a celebration of ancient Chinese history, with performers dressed in lavish costumes from different imperial dynasties.
A record 204 national teams began their lengthy parade through the stadium - not in the traditional alphabetical order but in a sequence based on the number of strokes it takes to write their names in Chinese.
The Games will officially begin when the Olympic torch, which was lit in Greece more than three months ago, lights the Olympic flame. That honour will fall to Li Ning, a former Chinese gymnast.
The torch has travelled more than 85,000 miles across 130 cities on its way to the Chinese capital, where the method of lighting the Olympic flame was being kept a closely guarded secret.
Beijing's international airport has been closed for the ceremony, and an extra 100,000 soldiers and police deployed onto the streets of the capital.
Chinese President Hu Jintao today told international dignitaries that the Beijing Olympics was an opportunity for both China and the world.
"The Beijing Olympic Games is an opportunity not only for China but also for the whole world," Mr Hu said in his toast at a welcoming banquet for foreign leaders and other VIP guests, including International Olympic Committee President Jacques Rogge and Honorary President Juan Antonio Samaranch.
"We should carry forward the Olympic spirit of solidarity, friendship and peace, facilitate sincere exchanges among people from all countries, deepen mutual understanding, enhance friendship and rise above differences, and promote the building of a harmonious world featuring lasting peace and common prosperity," said Mr Hu.
China has come to a standstill for the ceremony, as there has been overwhelming support for the Games from the Chinese public, many of whom see it as the most exciting event of their lifetime.
The timing has been chosen to coincide with the luckiest possible minute this millennium. In a nation where eight is a lucky number, 8.08pm on the eighth day of the eighth month of the eighth year is as auspicious as is possible.
Gordon Brown, the prime minister, has chosen not to come to the opening ceremony, though he will be at the closing ceremony for the handover of the Olympic flag to London.
Earlier George W Bush explicitly indicated that China had a few more laps to go when it came to building a free society.
As the US president opened a massive US Embassy in Beijing on Friday, he prodded China to lessen repression and "let people say what they think."
The communist nation, which tolerates only government-approved religions, has rounded up dissidents ahead of the Olympics and imposed Internet restrictions on journalists that some say amount to censorship, all contrary to Beijing's commitments when it won hosting rights for the games.
A pro-Tibet group said today that three Americans had been detained trying to protest near an Olympic venue.
Footnote
Georgia conflict escalates as Russian tanks enter South Ossetia
Russian tanks have entered South Ossetia hours after Prime Minister Vladimir Putin warned Georgia that its attack on South Ossetia will draw retaliation.
Mr Putin, on a trip to Beijing to attend the Olympics opening, sharply criticised the Georgian attack and warned it will draw retaliatory actions. He spoke after meeting briefly with US President George W Bush in Beijing.
