Pyrotechnics mix with pageantry as Beijing welcomes marvelling world

WITH uncharacteristic extravagance, they danced in a new chapter in Chinese history.

In Beijing's feast of pageantry and pyrotechnics, the costliest and most ambitious opening ceremony of any Olympic Games enthralled a watching world.

The grandest of welcome parties, long a fiercely guarded secret, unfurled in a colourful and artistically masterful succession of tableaux, costumery, and technical feats.

In front of 91,000 spectators in the National Stadium and a global television audience of one billion, the proceedings in the Bird's Nest made even the pomp of Athens and Sydney seem modest in comparison.

Allan Wells, who took the 100m gold in Moscow in 1980, said yesterday's ceremony will in all likelihood serve as the springboard for the most successful Games ever.

"What I saw of the ceremony was exceptional," said Mr Wells. "The colour and fireworks were simply remarkable. It is a country with a hell of a heritage, and we could only expect something this phenomenal.

"These opening ceremonies are all about one-upmanship. Sydney was the last Games to receive real praise for its show, but the progress is clear.

"You have to take your hat off to the Chinese – if they are hosting the Games to try and impress the rest of the world, then it looks like they are going to succeed."

As the Games started at the eighth hour of the evening of the eighth day of the eighth month of the eighth year of the century, the Chinese went out of their way to ensure fortune was on their side for the three-and-a-half hour drama performed before world leaders. But it was discipline and professionalism which won the day, not sheer luck.

Years of planning ensured the kaleidoscope of 35,000 fireworks exploded in the Beijing night with unfailing synchronicity, and rendered armies of thousands of dancers a perfect symmetry of motion.

The show began in a blaze of explosive white light, before exactly 2,008 drummers emerged, playing the fou, a traditional Chinese instrument, and 29 giant firework "footprints" – representing the number of modern Olympic Games – lit the night.

A light-show followed, with vast illuminated Olympic rings hauled up from the floor of the stadium, while a total of 10,000 performers paraded below them.

The lighting of the cauldron, meanwhile, was performed by former Chinese gymnast Li Ning, who won three golds at Los Angeles in 1984.

Hoisted by wires to the top of the stadium, Ning circled the circumference as though he was spacewalking, then used his torch to send a torrent of flame spiralling upward to light the Olympic flame.

The ceremony included the now customary trapeze artists, who hovered above the crowd, some dressed as spacemen, celebrating China becoming only the third nation to put a man in orbit in 2005.

Whales and animals were projected on to the interior lip of the Bird's Nest, a fusion of ethnicities suspended by wires gambolled around a giant globe.

As it segued from theme to theme, one key subject underpinning the show was a celebration of China's ancient history, with performers dressed in lavish outfits from different imperial dynasties.

The choreographer, Zhang Yimou, who is China's most successful film director, paid homage to some of China's greatest inventions – the compass, gunpowder, paper and printing – as well its ancient art and the magnificence of the Great Wall.

Only occasionally did the message beneath the aesthetic wonders jar, such as the recital of Tang Dynasty poetry by an assembly of local schoolchildren.

In a country home to 16 of the world's 20 most polluted cities, verse such as "We plant trees/We grow seeds/The sky is blue" seemed less than apposite.

Nor did the show's script contain any political material, with an absence of references to Chairman Mao and the class struggle, or China's more recent conflicts and controversies.

After the song and dance came, of course, the athletes, a snaking, camera-snapping mass from 204 countries, among them Roger Federer and Kobe Bryant.

Veteran swimmer Mark Foster led Great Britain's contingent, around 130 of the 313- strong team taking part, including Andy and Jamie Murray, and 14-year-old diver Tom Daley.

"If I never win an Olympic medal, that was my Olympic medal," said a proud Foster.

As Team GB made their way into the stadium, the Princess Royal rose from her seat to gain a better view. The British athletes wore white jackets with Union flag buttons, with the gold piping inside inscribed with the words: "Inspired, Proud, Determined, Passionate".

lN NUMBERS

15,153
types of costume featured in opening ceremony

44,000
LEDs in the ground screen that relayed pictures to the world

18
composers involved in the music during the ceremony

287
points on National Stadium where fireworks were let off

179,400
bottled drinks sold in stadium during the ceremony

258,000
square metres of stadium floor

300
tonnes of lighting equipment used in ceremony

110
minutes of music specially composed for the ceremony

Success in the pipeline for opening band

THEIR ranks include a painter and decorator, a meat inspector and a fireman, none of whom would claim mastery of their chosen pastime.

But after catching the eye of a Chinese talent scout while playing a festival in France, a little-known Scots pipe band played a starring role at yesterday's opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympics.

The Mains of Fintry Pipe Band – accustomed to gigs of a more modest scale, such as the Broughty Ferry Gala or the Newburgh Highland Games, performed a few numbers inside the National Stadium as they represented all of Europe.

The band, whose members hail from the Dundee area, were invited to the prestigious ceremony after a Chinese scout spotted them play in Confolens, near Limoges in France.

The band thought the request was a practical joke when the Olympics organiser, Kexin Zhang, sent them an e-mail.

Eddie Wighton, a piper, said: "Never in a million years would I have imagined we would have an opportunity like this.

"All our players are volunteers. We didn't even have a full set of uniforms (before Beijing]."

Sharon Wighton, a drummer with the band, added: "We don't place the emphasis on competition – we just like to have a good time."

Pipe Major Richard Smith, who has been playing for more than 30 years, said: "It is a great honour and a pleasure. My only trouble has been selecting 16 members to play from our band of 26 – no easy task but I was a very popular man for a time."

During their stint in the ceremony, the band performed Scotland the Brave as the athletes made their way into the stadium.