XXIX Olympiad opened in Beijing
"Stand up ! Stand up ! Stand up and unite together !" As the solemn anthem of the People's Republic of China hovering above the majestic Bird's Nest – China National Stadium in Beijing and the Five-star National Flag raising on the high mast, the passion of the Chinese people ran high. People were so proud to be Chinese. At eight o'clock pm, August 8, 2008 Beijing Time as the countdown sounds ends, the most-anticipated Summer Olympic Games opened in the Chinese capital. The great event makes Chinese century-old dream comes true.
Seven years ago, Beijing's successful bid of the Olympic Games 2008 has made Chinese people very excited. When the former President of the International Olympic Committee, Juan Antonio Samaranch announced the hosting city for the Olympic Games 2008 was Beijing, all the Chinese people cheered proudly. The successful bid was the result of endeavoring efforts made by the unity of the nation. The nation has seen the grand opening of the games today. The hosting of the Olympic Games marks the standing up of a great nation in the world.
The year 2008 is an extraordinary year for China, which has faced ice and snowstorm disaster, conspiracy in splitting up the country, powerful earthquake in Sichuan and large scale flooding in southern areas. These difficulties didn't block the successful hosting of the historical Olympic Games, because the Chinese people are so united in such harsh conditions to break every disastrous barrier. This year the nation has testified the strength of the hardworking people.
Attended by leaders of many nations including France, Germany and the United States, the opening ceremony is a grand spectacular indeed. It was directed by Chinese filmmaker Zhang Yimou. The musical score for the ceremony was arranged by Chinese composer Tan Dun. The final ascent to the torch featured Olympic gymnast Li Ning, who appeared to run through air around the top ring of the Bird's Nest. Featuring more than 15,000 performers, the ceremony lasted four and hours and a quarter and was reported to have cost over $100 million to produce. The opening ceremony was praised by spectators and various international presses as spectacular and even the "greatest ever". Sound and sight of every program are vividly depicted the very elements the Chinese culture. The spectacular is actually a miniature of a history of China. The twenty-nine firework displays set one by one looked like the twenty-nine footsteps that marched to the China National Stadium. The steps of fireworks represented the twenty-nine modern Olympic Games held in the world in history, including this occasion in Beijing. The electronically controlled ancient Chinese ink painting scroll was opened up on the pitch of the Bird's Nest Stadium. On this gigantic painting, dancers in black costumes with an inked hand and a foot danced on a large rectangular plate painted a beautiful mountain landscape, with sun shined at the right-top corner. Later this painting was vividly colored by small children.
The demonstration of Chinese characters was magnificent indeed. Men were in ancient costumes reading the classics of China aloud, while others were displaying Chinese characters by pulling the big character blocks up and down. 2008 people played traditional Taichi Boxing on the field. These athletes were all wearing white costumes and formed a circle. They also ran throughout the pitch.
There are 204 countries and regions to take part this Olympic Games. In accordance with Olympic Games' tradition, the national team of Greece entered first and the host country came last. Because Chinese is written in characters and not letters the order of the teams' entry was determined by the number of strokes in the first character of their respective countries' Simplified Chinese names. This made Guinea (几内亚) the second to enter following Greece as it only takes two strokes to write the first character in the country's name. Australia (澳大利亚) marched 202nd, just ahead of Zambia (赞比亚), which was the last country to march before China. The first characters of these countries (澳 and 赞) are both written 16 strokes respectively.
Announcers in the stadium read off the names of the nations in French, English, and Standard Mandarin with music accompanying the athletes as they marched into the stadium. The leading signs held by each delegation had their names in these three languages printed in a kind of Chinese calligraphy style. The signs were carried by young Chinese women in stylish Chinese red dresses. Led by NBA star Yao Ming and Lin Hao, a primary school student from the quake-affected Sichuan Province, the Chinese delegation paraded into the Bird's Nest. The 9-year-old Lin walked ahead of the 1,099-member delegation, side by side with the 7-foot-6 basketball player, who carried the National Flag.
Liu Qi, the head of the Beijing Olympic Organizing Committee, gave a speech in Putonghua. Jacques Rogge, the President of the International Olympic Committee, followed with a speech in English, praising the Chinese for their warm reception and effort. He urged the athletes to "have fun" and to reject doping. Afterward, Hu Jintao, the President of the People's Republic of China, formally announced the opening of the 2008 Summer Olympics.
At this point, the Olympic flame entered China National Stadium. The Olympic torch was relayed around the stadium by 7 Chinese athletes, and was finally passed on to Li Ning, the Olympic gymnast champion in 1984. Li was suspended by wires, then appeared to run horizontally along the walls of the stadium through to the Olympic cauldron, which at this moment was still undisclosed. As he ran along the upper wall of the stadium, the projection displayed an opening scroll, usually ahead of him, on which was beamed footages of previous torch relays. At the final moment, a spotlight revealed the final resting place of the Olympics flame. A colossal torch situated at the top of the stadium was lit by a large fuse.
Spectacular fireworks of various colors and shapes, some projecting Olympic rings, others flower outwards, fountain or float down, accompanied the ending of the ceremony.
