The 2008 Beijing Olympics Opening Ceremony was held at the Beijing National Stadium or "Bird's Nest". It began at 8:00 PM or 20:00 China Standard Time on the 8th of August 2008. The number 8 is associated with prosperity and confidence in Chinese culture. The ceremony was directed by Chinese filmmaker Zhang Yimou and the event was comprised of 15,000 cast. It was said that it was the most spectacular Opening ceremony at the history of Olympics ever produced.

A rich assembly of ancient Chinese art and culture dominated the ceremony. It opened with the beating of Fou drums for the countdown. Subsequently, a giant scroll was unveiled and became the show's centerpiece. The official song of the 2008 Olympics was performed by Britain's Sarah Brightman and China's Liu Huan, and was titled You and Me.


Former Chinese gymnast Li Ning ignited the cauldron.

The entry parade of the competing athletes was in a different order from previous Olympic ceremonies, because it was not in ordinary alphabetical order of the names of the competing nations but in order (lowest first) of how many strokes are in their Chinese character transcriptions; for example, Australia was near the end because the first character of the Chinese name of Australia has 15 strokes.


Reviews of opening ceremony from around the world called it spectacular and devoid of politics.




Source:Wikipedia.org