“Friends have come from afar, how happy we are.”
This ancient quote from Confucius welcomed the world for the opening ceremonies of the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing today. As the most expensive opening ceremonies to date, the anticipated grandeur did not disappoint.
The games were declared open by Chinese President Hu Jintao, to a stadium of over 90,000 spectators and millions of viewers world wide. To quote Jacques Rogge, President of the IOC as he spoke of China’s dream of hosting the Summer Olympics, “Tonight, that dreams comes true.”
The ceremonies opened with a spectacular display of fireworks, acrobats and 2,008 drummers creating a rhythm of majesty and expectation for the evening ahead. Children representing 56 different ethnic groups in China delighted spectators as entered the stadium. In total more than 14,000 performers and participants took part in the spectacular.
More than 100 heads of state from world governments were in attendance, including U.S. President George W. Bush, Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, Crown Princess Mary and Crown Prince Frederik of Denmark, Princess Letizia of Spain, among others.
As the ceremony went on, a giant scroll unfurled a representation of China’s history, including The Great Wall of China, Tiananmen Square and the dramatic thousands of terra cotta soldiers of Emperor Qin Shi Huang. Singers Sarah Brightman and Liu Huan sang the official Beijing theme song entitled “You and Me” from the top of a majestic globe in the center of the stadium.
Oscar-nominated filmmaker Zhang Yimou was the mastermind behind the amazing opening ceremonies. His goal was to create a theme that would be about “the ancient and long history of the Chinese nation…” Zhang Yimou was assisted by the man known as the driving force behind the opening ceremonies in Sydney, Los Angeles and Barcelona, Ric Birch.
