China Fest'08

The Chinese rolled out the red carpet to athletes from 204 countries in a spectacular opening ceremony at the Bird’s Nest on Friday.
It was an entertaining show of colour and splendour — a rare treat meant to floor the world-wide television audience — to mark the beginning of the 29th Olympic Games here.
The floor was the magic canvas and the Chinese put technology to optimum use in scripting breathtaking pictures through light and shade, in multiple dimensions, starting with the five Olympic Rings being lifted from the ground by ‘flying’ acrobats.
It was a ceremony that attempted and succeeded in improving upon the novelties of such exercises in the previous editions.
As thousands of performers achieved harmony to the beat of the drums and captivating music, the Chinese also captured the essence of their 5000 years of civilisation in a fashion that defied description.
Billions of dollars may not have succeeded in clearing the air of the smog, but the Chinese children with school bags and props, painted blue skies and white clouds in a jiffy at the centre, perhaps to recall for the elders the memories of the past when nature was at its pristine best.
The thousands of athletes may not have been able to enjoy the marvels of human elegance and choreographic excellence, as they had to wait outside the stadium for the march past. But they had the memories of a lifetime while trooping in, 204 of them with their national flags, including Roger Federer for Switzerland and Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore for India.
The star basketballer, Yao Ming, carried the flag for the host, as he had done in the last Olympics in Athens.
As per the tradition, Greece, the birth place of the Olympics, was the first country to march in and the host was the last to enter the stadium, in an exercise that lasted nearly two hours.
Table tennis star Zhang Yining took the oath of honour on behalf of the athletes of the world. The athletes are the ones who would hold centre-stage for the next fortnight and the cultural show literally set lofty standards.
Mercifully, for the 91,000 spectators including many dignitaries from abroad, not to speak of the performers in the middle and the athletes, rains stayed away as nature bowed to the wishes of a country of 1.3 billion.
The Chinese have set the tone for the Games. The mission of topping the medals table remains for the host.