China staged the world's most glittering and glamourous spectacle to open the 29th Olympic Games in Beijing, Friday night. The show involved an excellent blend of high-tech digital displays, pyrotechnics and logistics with the grace and precision of the country's most famous gymnasts to an audience of nearly one hundred thousand people at the purpose-built Birds Nest Olympic Stadium in the presence of some of the top leaders of the world. Movie projection, laser lighting and flawless choreography fused together beutifully in a four-hour long presentation that began at 08:08 PM China time on 08/08/08. The highlight of the spectacular show was the dramatic lighting of the Olympic Torch. 'Li Ning, who as a gymnast [and] stunned the world with gravity-defying turns and somersaults, lit the Olympic cauldron after "space-walking" over the heads of 91,000 spectators at the National Stadium on Friday night,' reported China's Offical News Agency Xinhua in a story published in China's offical Olympic Games Website. That certainly was an awesome spectacle.
The BBC which had a team anchored by Mishal Husain and CNN which had a team anchored by Anjali Rao were disappointing in their lack of coverage of the opening ceremony from within the Birds Nest Stadium. In fact, anchors and newscasters of the two channels seemed totally unaware of the proceedings within, even as they were being broadcast live by others. This was despite the fact that a multitude of heads of state were in the audience including US President George Bush, French President Nicholas Sarkozy, Russian Prime Minister, Vladimir Putin and Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapakse, to name just a few.
Hats off to Dubai Sports for showing the entire four-hour ceremony live.
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