By Xinhua writers Zhou Xiaozheng and Wang Jimin
BEIJING, Aug. 8 (Xinhua) -- Carrying Pierre de Coubertin's dream of "solidarity, peace and friendship" to the world's most populous country, the 29th summer Olympic Games opened in the Chinese capital Beijing on Friday, 112 years after the Games' modern revival.
At 23:37 Beijing time, at the invitation of International Olympic Committee (IOC) President Jacques Rogge, Chinese President Hu Jintao declared open the Games, before an ecstatic audience of 91,000 in the full-packed National Stadium, or the Bird's Nest, and several billion TV viewers worldwide.
Passion culminated in the stands around zero hour Saturday, when 45-year-old ex-gymnast and triple gold medalist at the 1984 Los Angeles Games Li Ning set ablaze the cauldron atop the stadium in a stunt-like fashion, "running" around the 500-meter-long rim of the steel-framed Bird's Nest with computer-controlled wires tied to his waist.
"Today, the Olympic flame lit in Olympia has come to the end of its odyssey and will be kindled to adorn the night sky of Beijing," said Liu Qi, head of the Games' organizing committee, who called it a "dazzling historic moment."
The global relay of the Beijing Olympic flame, covering a record distance of some 137,000 kilometers (85,000 miles) in 129 days, was marred by sporadic protests of pro-"Tibet independence" activists overseas and had to be halted for three days at home as the whole nation mourned the loss of nearly 70,000 lives to the May 12 Wenchuan earthquake.
While there was no doubt the night should be celebrated as a joyful and exciting gathering of the world, the devastating 8.0-magnitude earthquake whose aftershocks is still being felt was simply an unavoidable topic.
"You have chosen as the theme of these Games 'One World, One Dream." That is what we are tonight," said International Olympic Committee (IOC) President Jacques Rogge. "As one world, we grieved with you over the tragic earthquake in Sichuan Province."
Shortly before his speech, the entry of the 1,099-member Chinese delegation, co-led by 7-foot-6 basketball star Yao Ming and an unknown kid from the quake zone, stirred up the deeply-buried emotions of the Chinese audience.
The entire stadium gave a standing ovation when the 9-year-old Lin Hao, a second-grader from a primary school in the epicenter Wenchuan who risked his life to save several schoolmates from the collapsed building, walked briskly on the lap and waved a national flag and an Olympic flag at the same time with both hands.
"China is great!" "Go China!" "Go the Olympics!" shouted the Chinese crowd, while some foreign reporters, still puzzled with the kid's identity, asked their Chinese colleagues: "Is this Yao's son?"
As the cauldron burst into flames, a shower of fireworks lit up the skyline of Beijing, with the Olympic rings shining over the Tian'anmen Square, and rainbows arcing above both the Bird's Nest and the Great Wall.
No matter where they were - skyscrapers in Shanghai or survivors' tents in quake-ravaged Sichuan, the 1.3 billion Chinese were staying up late this mid-summer night, to witness history.
For the first time in the Olympic history, a record 204 countries and regions -- almost the entire Olympic Family except for Brunei, which dropped out for failing to comply with the IOC registration requirements -- sent their athletes to Beijing.
With bands from five continents playing welcome tunes in turns, the nearly two-hour parade of the athletes started with Greece, the country that nurtured the Olympic Games over 2,800 years ago, as usual and ended with the host.
The march-in sequence was quite different from those of the previous Games, as the order of entry was decided by the number of strokes of the first character of a delegation's Chinese name. Under the new rule, Guinea, whose name begins with a two-stroke character, walked second while Zambia, with 16 strokes, became the 203rd.
More than 80 foreign leaders and international dignitaries, including U.S. President George W. Bush, Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and IOC Honorary President Juan Antonio Samaranch, were seated in the VIP stand along with top Chinese leaders. They rose from time to time to salute athletes from their countries.
The home crowd welcomed the Chinese, Chinese Hong Kong and Chinese Taipei delegations with roaring cheers and thunderous applause.
Among all participating countries and regions, China has sent in the most athletes, and its star-studded 639 lineup formed a sharp contrast to the country's embarrassing Olympic debut at Los Angeles in 1932, where only one Chinese sprinter took part.
The Chinese Hong Kong and Chinese Taipei delegations have 72 and 133 members, respectively.
The United States and Russia, which are widely expected to join the host as the biggest winners in Beijing, sent in more than 600 athletes and nearly 500 athletes respectively. The "Big Three" in all grabbed 258 out of the total 929 medals, with 94 golds, at the previous games in Athens.
The Iraqi delegation, a group of 10 including the flag bearer, strode into the stadium and stole the limelight from many larger delegations. The cheering audience waved hands or flags to salute the athletes from that war-torn country, who almost missed the Games for a row over "political interference" between Baghdad and the IOC.
With all delegations ushered in, Chinese table tennis player Zhang Yining and gymnastics referee Huang Liping, holding a corner of the Olympic flag, took the oath on behalf of all athletes and referees, vowing to keep the Games competition fair and clean.
Beijing, which pledged to deliver a "clean" Games, has enforced the tightest ever doping control measures, which will test nearly half of the competing athletes.
The four-hour opening ceremony on Friday was kicked start at 20:00 sharp, with a countdown ritual and a firework presentation that many would only describe as original and thrilling.
Awaken from darkness by a beam of light from a sundial atop the Bird's Nest, a formation of 2,008 young men in grey robes switched on and off 2,008 LED-embedded Fou, a 3,000-year-old percussion instrument similar to today's drum, to flash out -- in both Chinese and Arabic numerals -- the last seconds of the seven-year countdown to the Beijing Games, which started on July 13, 2001.
Twenty-nine colossal footprints, created in the sky by fireworks explosions and symbolizing the pace of the successive summer Games, traveled all the way along the central axis of Beijing, from the ancient city gate of Yongdingmen in the south to the futuristic Bird's Nest in the north. Sparkles fell into the center of the stadium and "lit up" the floor -- to bring out the shining Olympic "Dream Rings" on a huge LED screen and proclaim the arrival of the Olympiad.
"For a long time, China had dreamed of opening its doors and inviting the world's athletes to Beijing for the Olympic Games. Tonight that dream comes true. Congratulations, Beijing," said the IOC chief.
The earliest written record of this dream was an article published on a 1908 issue of the Tianjin Youth magazine, which first raised the question -- When will China be able to host the Olympic Games? When Beijing, after one failed bid in Monte Carlo 1993, turned out to be the winner in Moscow 2001, more than a million local residents took to the streets for a sleepless night of wild celebrations.
"This is a job 100 times more demanding than directing a blockbuster movie, because I'm responsible for celebrating the realization of a century-old dream and showcasing a 5,000-year civilization," filmmaker Zhang Yimou, who became the chief artistic director for the opening ceremony in 2006, once said.
At least he has made a good try. The four ancient inventions of papermaking, movable-type printing, compass and gunpowder, the Silk Road, the seafaring adventure of Zheng He - which was 87 years earlier than Christopher Columbus, and the latest space exploration that plans to launch three astronauts for space walk later this year .. in the 50-minute art performance that involved over 16,000 performers, Zhang seized every second to demonstrate China's glorious past and promising future, and recount its earlier attempts to integrate with the world.
"I love it. It combines the Chinese ancient history with the modern high technology," Paduld Sri Rohana de Pettagan, an official from the Sri Lankan Olympic Committee, said of the one-hour show, which involved more than 16,000 actors.
With the "globe" turning amid 2,008 smiling images of kids all over the world, Chinese singer Liu Huan and British soprano Sarah Brightman, hand in hand atop the gigantic ball, jointly unveiled the Games' theme song -- You and Me.
"For dreams we travel, thousands of miles, we meet in Beijing; You and me, from one world, forever we are one family," they sang.
Interpreting the idea of "One World, One Dream" a week ahead of the Games, the Chinese president told the international media:"The Chinese people want to join hands with people of all other countries to write a new chapter for the international Olympic Movement, and create a better future for mankind."
For those Sichuan residents who still live in tents or temporary plank houses, their future is also being kindled by the Olympic flame kept in the Bird's Nest some 1,600 kilometers away.
"It is a great thing that our country is hosting the Olympic Games, which shows China is growing more and more strong," said 76-year-old Hu Yunfang, a resident of Qingchuan County in Sichuan.
Hu and his family, who still lived in a tent for fears of the aftershocks, finished dinner early for the live broadcast of the Games' opening.
"We will fear no disaster if our country is strong, and we can sure rebuild our homeland from scratch," said Hu.
