Resurgent China opened the Olympics with volleys of fireworks at a spectacular ceremony that wove ancient Chinese history with modern wizardry and aimed to draw a line under months of political controversy.
Drums thundered, firecrackers exploded and 14,000 performers flowed through the Bird's Nest stadium in a dazzling extravaganza that presented a benign image of China and offered up a vision of global harmony echoing the Games' motto "One World One Dream".In a heart-stopping climax, Li Ning, a Chinese gold medal-winning gymnast, was hoisted high above the stadium on wires. In slow-motion, he simulated racing around the rim before setting the giant Olympic cauldron ablaze.
Around 80 world leaders watched the pageant which celebrated the achievements of imperial China, totally ignoring the fraught 20th century, when civil war, the Japanese invasion and hardline Communist rule left the nation mired in poverty.
By Crispian Balmer Reuters
pictures reuters
