By Sportswriter Chang Ailing
BEIJING, Aug. 8 (Xinhua) -- When a huge Chinese painting scroll slowly unfolded at the center of the National Stadium in the start of the Olympic opening ceremony on Friday night, no one expected that the idea of scroll, as a symbol of the Chinese civilization, could, in four hours, lead to the magic ignition of the Olympic Cauldron, the symbol of the Olympics in modern era.
Huge crowds were in festive mood as many audiences arrived at the stadium, known as the Bird's Nest, nearly four hours before the opening ceremony. The focal point for many was the final leg of the Olympic torch relay.
At around 11:55 p.m., the first torch bearer, China's first Olympic champion Xu Haifeng ran into the Bird's Nest holding high the "Lucky Clouds" torch. Amid deafening cheers, Xu passed the torch to China's former "Diving Queen", also Olympic champion, Gao Min.
The audience held their breath and waved red silk scarves and flash torches as if being bewitched as the torch was being passed from one torch bearer to another.
When the torch was passed to the last bearer, China's sporting icon Li Ning, the former "Prince of Gymnastics" was suddenly lifted into the air and started jogging along a "track" -- a vertical circle wall on the top of the Bird's Nest -- leaving audiences gasping with disbelief.
As Li was running mid-air, an ancient Chinese "scroll" dotted with lucky clouds slowly unfolded on the track, on which the around-the-globe journey of the Beijing Olympic torch was projected.
As Li was running, the whole audience was shouting and waving in excitement. When the torch reached the leg of Beijing on the mid-air scroll, Li stopped and held high the torch to a kindling pipe. To the roars from 91,000 people packing the stands and thousands of athletes in the center, Li lit the Olympic cauldron, which was attached on top of the Bird's Nest without a supporting column, igniting a magic start to the 29th Olympic Games.
Other torch bearers joining the final leg were also Olympic champions, including former gymnast Li Xiaoshuang, former weightlifter Zhan Xugang, former badminton player Zhang Jun, taekwondo athlete Chen Zhong and former volleyball player Sun Jinfang.
Several Chinese athletes had been tipped to light the Olympic flame at the opening ceremony, including gold medal hurdler Liu Xiang, basketball star Yao Ming and paralyzed former gymnast Sang Lan. But the honor fell on the former gymnastic superstar, who is now a successful entrepreneur.
Li, a household name in China, stunned the world in 1982 when he swept six out of the seven gold medals in the World Championships. At the 1984 Los Angeles Games when China participated into the global gathering after 30 years of absence, Li won three gold, two silver and one bronze medals.
In his 17-year sporting career, Li garnered 106 gold medals at various international and national events and was crowned at world championships 14 times. However, Li's ability to represent a newer, more confident nation was not confined to the pommel horse and the rings.
After a setback at the 1988 Games, Li retired and started a sporting-goods business named after himself. So far his company has had nearly 5,000 stores operating in China, trailing only giants Nike and Adidas in the domestic market.
The Beijing Olympic flame, lit in ancient Olympia on March 24, covered a distance of more than 130,000 kilometers on five continents and more than 20,000 torchbearers carried the flame on its way to the ceremony. The global torch relay travels the longest route and involves the most people in the history of the Olympics.
The torch was also brought to the top of Mount Qomolangma, the world's highest peak, on May 8.
The inspiration of the Beijing Olympic torch originates from the pattern of lucky clouds, which demonstrates the idea of friendship and harmony. The concept has a more than 1,000-year history in China and is a symbol of Chinese culture.
The design of the torch is based on Chinese paper scroll. The red repaint which can be dated back to the Han Dynasty makes the Olympic torch of the Beijing Games different from all others.
Commemorating the theft of fire from the Greek god Zeus by Prometheus, the origin of the Olympic flame lies in ancient Greece, when a fire was kept burning throughout the celebration of the ancient Olympics. The fire was formally reintroduced at the 1928 Summer Olympics in Amsterdam, and it has been part of the modern Olympic Games ever since.
