Did everyone catch the opening ceremony of the 2008 Summer Olympics?!?
At exactly 8:08 pm on the 8th day of the 8th month, the Beijing Games finally began!
At a cost of over $50 million, in front of 80 world leaders and a worldwide audience of four billion, China was determined to prove that it could stage the greatest show on earth. And they certainly did!!!
The heart-stopping explosion of fireworks. The 2008 drummers. The stunning nod to China’s invention of paper scroll and calligraphy. The human brushes. The lighting of the Olympics cauldron. It was stunning, stunning, stunning!!!!
Your favourite part?
20 Comments
As a Canadian who was supposed to get the Games, I wanted to hate it, but it was really marvelous. Each second was incredible. Made the Athens games look cheap.
ARRGHHHHHHHH! I missed it! Traffic jam, stood 3 hours on the “autobahn”. And from what I saw in the news, I missed a fantastic show. Not my day.
Looks cool, though I am so glad that I am not a citizen of that country for sure.
Im not a big fan of the games…….Only small portions of it.
.
TGIF BITCHES
Looks amazing! I will be watching for sure.
How about
Freedom of Speech
Human Rights
for the oppressed people of China.
They did not deserve the games.
The censoring of the internet and state conrolled media.
Will watch it tonight. It looks like they put on a spectacular show.
I agree with you Mimi however it’s done. The dragon has risen and won’t be retreating anytime soon. All we can hope is international pressure continues however you are seeing the start of a superpower in the making and one that won’t be taking kindly to people telling them what they can and cannot do. In 25 years time, they will be THE superpower.
Anyhoo, the Olympics have begun and now it’s all about the athletes. I’m excited to watch the opening ceremonies tonight and all the wonderful world athletes in the coming weeks. Time to cheer and be inspired.
A wonderful event i’m sure—if the air polution there does not kill you before the games are over……my wife travels to China a couple of times a year on business and says the air there is absolutely terrible–like a gray fog over most of the cities. The Olympics should never have been held there just for that reason.
NUKE CHINA NOW!
I am so proud of my country. I was, I am and I will always be. Thank you so much fadedyouthblog for sharing these beautiful pics to everyone.
People will believe anything that they wanted to believe. But we the chinese people have another saying: unless you see it with your own eyes, dont believe it .
When something new something fresh something exciting happens, some people dont understand it. Because they are so use to the old thing and they believe old is always good. Chinese people dont have that habit now, we believe in new, higer, longer, stronger.We are not afraid of challenge. We used to think old is good and that didnt end up well, chinese people suffered the pain that “old” brought us.
We have our own traditions, we have our own thoughts, we also have our own point of the view to this world. We are grateful for all the accepting and understanding, and we are also very very cheerful to be part of the modern world and actually could do something to make it better, easier. We love peace and we will do anything anytime to protect and hold the peace flag up and high. Because we knew, how did it feel to suffering the pain of conflagration of war.We paid.
We know that and we will never make it happened by our own hands.
The reason we are holding this great event, I think, not just that we Can, but also we want to be friends, make friends.We open our heart and soul and our mother land to the world. All we are looking for is a lit bit more understanding so the world could really have the chance to see, to listen. Even more wonderful, maybe, just maybe, have the chance to know the truth, the truth that was covered by so many excuses, differ cultures and misunderstandings.
Also, the most important, Olympic spirits! This dose not belong to any single country but to the whole world. We the people on this earth united together. This is the festival of us all. This is the celebration of all the human-beings.So glorious and marvelous. China give a Big Big THANK-YOU to the world that gave us this great opportunity to hold this Big Big heavenly Party.
So lets enjoy. My friends.
Yeah it was pretty fantastic!! I still think Sydney was the best though. I was in Australia for those Games which really added to the ecxitement and it was just a huge step for Australia to show the world how awesome we are. We dominated those games as well
I’m really looking foward to them this year though, much more than Athens.
loved it! made me proud to be a chinese (though i m not from china)
That’s $500mil not $50mil. $50mil would have gotten you about 15 minutes of really good but “not great” fireworks, a flag to wave, and maybe a collage film of all the the nations. China went all out and it cost a whole lot more than $50mil would’ve bought.
Btw, if we can allow a Communist country to host the Olympics, we can end the embargo in Cuba. To not do so is the height of hypocrosy by the USA and other democracies who agree with America about Cuba. I’m a Cuban American against the Embargo, and find it a amazing that everyone forgets that China is a communist nation just as Cuba is, but different rules apply.
One more thing. My beef is with the American government in bed with the Chinese government that denies it’s people the freedoms they deserve, and for their allowing their desire for oil to ignore what it’s doing to the people of Darfur.
A fabulous, fabulous show. Stop being so negative, people. This is about beauty and comeraderie and the spirit of the games.
Cera, stop being dismissive, ignorant, and accepting “because it’s all so pretty and shiny.” Nothing at all negative about having an issue with how people are forgetting that China IS NOW and WILL BE a communist regime once the party is over. Your blaise blaise attitude is a prime example of why China is easily buying the world up without a fight.
TheMirror - Shut the fuck up. How many comments are you going to post on here. “By the way… blah blah blah. No one even cares what you’re saying. Pack up your soapbox and get a life, asshole. And don’t push the anti-Asian stuff on me. I’m Korean American, you commie. You’re the one from the communist nation. Freak.
Cera, I’m going to post as many as I choose to, and since I can handle my business without cussing and getting juvinile, I guess I’ll need to treat people like yourself to MORE of the truth. You obviously aren’t real up on reading for comprehension because otherwise you’d have come away with the fact it’s the G O V E R M E N T, and not the people I leveled my opinion on, and did not………….I REPEAT……I said not one anti ASIAN word., I highly doubt you’re Korean because your intelligence just isn’t suggesting you’re more than a 12 yr ld who thinks Tiananmen Square is some property on the Monoply game board. Go back to sleep because you’re wasting your time and mine.