Prelude The
People's Liberation Army Navy Band performed the "
Welcome March" song to welcome
International Olympic Committee members and
Chinese paramount leader Hu Jintao. displayThe proceedings began by a flame and an ancient Chinese sundial, awakened by the light of time from the sky, lights up 2008 bronze
Fou drums. The drums, running like a time machine, formed giant digits (in both
Hindu–Arabic and
Chinese numerals) to count down the seconds to the Games. The digits were formed at ten-second intervals starting from sixty before switching over to one-second intervals for the final ten seconds. At the end, a huge fireworks display was set off at the top of the stadium.
Welcoming ceremony – The Song-Fou The 2,008 drummers played the bronze Fou drums and sang lyrics that quoted from
The Analects of Confucius: "Isn't it delightful to have friends coming from afar?".
Footprints of History and Olympic Rings The firework footprints were set off at the rate of one every second; each represented one of the 29 Olympiads, signifying the Beijing Olympics as the XXIX Olympiad of the modern era. The 29th footprint arrived at Bird's Nest and transformed into Star
Olympic Rings. Next, the rings were lift up by twenty "Dunhuang fairies" (
Mahayana Chan (
Zen)
Chinese Buddhist apsaras of the Mogao Caves).
National flag-raising ceremony Attention was then turned to 56 young children representing the
56 ethnic groups of modern China, and wearing respective costumes. They marched in the
flag of the People's Republic of China as a young girl in red, nine-year-old , was seen performing "
Ode to the Motherland", miming to the voice of
Yang Peiyi. Only one-third of "Ode to the Motherland" was sung, to save time. The flag of the People's Republic of China was then handed over to eight well-dressed
PLAGF Honor Guard Soldiers who carried the flag in a slow,
goose-stepping march over to the flag podium, and the Chinese national anthem "
March of the Volunteers" was sung by a 224-member choir while the flag was unfurled and raised, with red and yellow fireworks going off at the end.
Artistic section The theme of the Artistic section was China's history and art.
Scroll Painting '', translated as "All those within the four seas can be considered his brothers." At the prelude to the section,
Beautiful Olympics, a short film, was screened depicting the making of
paper, another of the
Four Great Inventions, ending with a rolled-up
scroll painting to set the stage for the next segment.
Ceramics,
porcelain vessels and other
Chinese fine arts artifacts were beamed on a giant
LED scroll, representing the first of the Four Great Inventions of China, paper, and displaying animated graphics, slowly unfurling. At its center was a piece of white canvas paper, which then ushered in a performance of black-costumed dancers whose hands hid brushes that had been dipped in ink. They performed a dance while leaving their trails on the block of white paper, reminiscent of Chinese
ink and wash painting. This was accompanied by the sounds of the
guqin, China's ancient seven-string zither, as played by Chen Leiji (S: 陈雷激, T: 陳雷激, P:
Chén Léijī). The LED scroll then showed an old, rare painting by
Wang Ximeng.
Written character The giant scroll was then moved aside to show a fluid array 897
movable type blocks that formed three variations of the character 和 (
Hé "harmony"), representing the third great Chinese invention: the movable type
press. The character was shown, consecutively, in
bronze inscription,
Seal script and
KaisScript (Modern Chinese script). Performers in
Zhou-era clothing representing the "
3000 Disciples of Confucius", carrying
bamboo slips, recited excerpts from the
Analects: "Isn't it great to have friends coming from afar?" () and "All men are brothers within the
Four Seas" (). The blocks changed into a small version of the
Great Wall, which then sprouted peach blossoms, the Chinese symbol for openness. At the end of the sequence the tops of the movable type blocks came off to reveal 897 performers, who waved vigorously to the crowds, indicating that the individual pieces of type block were not computer controlled and synchronized, but rather the combined efforts of 897 perfectly in-sync performers. performers
Opera The next segment saw ancient
terracotta soldiers and
Chinese opera, followed by a
Beijing opera puppetry performance. The
Wusheng type of Beijing opera performers was also enacted.
Silk Road segment A
Dunhuang fairy danced on the paper—which had been recoloured as a golden desert by projected illumination, and was held up by hundreds of men in clothing of ancient diplomatic envoys. A giant scroll showed the ancient
Silk Road. This was followed by a procession of men, in blue costumes, who with huge oars formed formations of
junks, symbolizing the expeditions of
Zheng He. A performer holding another great Chinese invention, the
compass (in its ancient form of a metal spoon floating in vessel), danced in the center of the giant LED scroll that showed images of sailing junks and maps of Zheng He's
seven voyages on Maritime Silk Road in the
Ming dynasty.
Li and Yue (Ritual and Music) This segment represented the prosperity of ancient China as "The State of Li and Yue." Accompanied by the music of
Kunqu, one of the oldest extant Chinese operas, the giant scroll expanded and showed several beautiful classic ancient paintings from the Tang, Song, Yuan, Ming and Qing dynasties. At this point, two rows of huge royal dragon pillars called
huabiao emerged, and stretched skyward, with the performers dancing to the ancient tune
Flowery Moonlit River in Spring, as pink and orange fireworks were set off overhead.
Starlight playing together with five-year-old Li Muzi on a white
grand piano Then followed the modern segment where pianist
Lang Lang and five-year-old Li Muzi performed a melody from the
Yellow River Cantata. Around the pianists a sea of rainbow-coloured luminescent performers swayed in wave-like unison to suggest the flow of the
Yellow River. The illuminated performers, symbolizing modern-day China, then arranged themselves in the shape of the Dove of Peace, which wings were then set into motion as the performers moved about. They formed the bird's nest shape of the
Beijing National Stadium. When a young girl flew a
kite – also a Chinese invention – above them in mid-air, the performers' lights flickered in an intricate pattern.
Nature A
Tai chi performance by 2,008 masters illustrated harmony with nature. They demonstrated martial arts while combining to form geometric mass human formations. A skit was shown with schoolchildren drawing and coloring on the paper scroll and chanting poetry. These were the same children who had represented the 56 ethnic groups of China. They symbolized a Green Olympics (to protect the world). As their sequence drew to an end, the giant white paper was lifted vertically to reveal a drawing of mountains and waters, with a smiling face as the sun. Then, there was an
illumination showing brightly coloured flying birds, symbolizing the rebirth of the
phoenix and the bird-nest stadium itself.
Dream The next segment was a celestial show and the arrival of
astronauts symbolizing
Chinese space exploration, with a gigantic, 60-foot, 16-tonne This was followed by red and orange fireworks in the form of
smiley faces. The representatives from the 56 ethnic groups danced a vigorous folk dance.
Parade of Nations The athletes taking part in the XXIX Olympiad parade of nations walked out to the centre of the stadium. In accordance with Olympic tradition, the national team of
Greece, which hosted the
last Summer Olympics, in
Athens, entered first, in honor of Greece's status as the birthplace of the Olympics, while China, as the host country, came last. Traditionally nations are ordered in
alphabetic order of the national language of the host country (or if there is more than one, the more dominant of the languages of the host city); as
Chinese writing is not alphabetic, the teams paraded by
stroke order of the first character of their respective countries' names in
Simplified Chinese. The first characters of these countries' names ( and ) are written with 15 and 16 strokes respectively. Announcers in the stadium read off the names of the nations in
French,
English (the official languages of the Olympics), and
Standard Chinese with music accompanying the athletes as they entered the stadium. The leading signs of delegations, carried by young Chinese women in red dresses, had their names printed in these three languages: the Chinese version in traditional
Chinese calligraphy; and above it in the other two languages, using a Roman alphabetic typeface that mimicked brush calligraphy. Chinese names of most states were condensed to their short forms when possible. For example,
Bosnia and Herzegovina (波斯尼亚和黑塞哥维那) entered as 波黑
Bō hēi in Chinese, while
Saudi Arabia (沙特阿拉伯) entered as simply 沙特
Shātè. One exception was the
Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, which entered in Chinese as its full designation (前南斯拉夫马其顿共和国) because of the
Macedonia naming dispute (though the country was sorted according to its short name, 马其顿). China entered as ''People's Republic of China/République populaire de Chine
in English and French, but simply as 中国 Zhongguo'' in Chinese,
the most common short name. The athletes walked along the tracks toward the center of the stadium, which was encircled by white-capped Chinese cheerleaders welcoming each contingent. As they did so, they would step on colored ink before treading on the Chinese painting done earlier by the children and the performance artists. Throughout the entire Parade of Nations, the Olympic athletes were treated to live traditional music ensembles, hand-picked by the Chinese Olympic committee from around the world. Each ensemble represented a continent from the five Olympic rings. The groups included Chinese orchestra, Scottish bagpipers Mains of Fintry Pipe Band (Fintry Pipe Band), Aboriginal musicians and dancers from Australia (William Barton), South African drummers (Drum Cafe), and North American mariachi group Mariachi Mujer 2000. Unlike in previous years, North and South Korea did not send a unified team; their athletes entered separately as
Republic of Korea (South Korea, ) and the
Democratic People's Republic of Korea (North Korea, ). Taiwan marched under the name "
Chinese Taipei" () as per a 1989 agreement and in the Olympics since then – and the Chinese media has followed suit, referring to Taiwan as
Zhonghua Taibei instead of the previously used and controversial
Zhongguo Taibei (, literally "Taipei, China"). The Chinese contingent, which was last, was led by
Yao Ming and Lin Hao, a 9-year-old
primary school student who had rescued two schoolmates during the
2008 Sichuan earthquake.
Protocol Liu Qi, the
President of the
Beijing Organizing Committee for the Olympic Games, gave a speech in
Mandarin welcoming the athletes.
Jacques Rogge, the
President of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), followed with a speech in
English, praising the Chinese for their warm reception and effort and urging athletes to "have fun" and to reject doping and performance enhancement drugs. This reminder was reiterated in
French. Afterward,
Hu Jintao, the
paramount leader of China, formally declared the Olympics open in Mandarin:
Olympic flag Afterward, the
Olympic flag was carried in by eight former athletes from China. They were: •
Zhang Xielin (table tennis) •
Pan Duo (Everest mountaineer) •
Zheng Fengrong (athletics) •
Yang Yang (A) (short-track speed skating) •
Yang Ling (shooting) • (swimming) •
Xiong Ni (diving) •
Li Lingwei (badminton) They then passed on the flag to the soldiers of the
People's Liberation Army (the PLA) and the
Olympic anthem sung while the flag was being raised, with a multinational choir of 80 children performed the anthem in Greek. They are the same children who escorted the Chinese flag and sang the national anthem on the earlier stage. Chinese
table tennis champion
Zhang Yining and arbiter
Huang Liping took the Olympic oath, representing the athletes and officials respectively. There was a short dance presentation, followed by bright yellow fireworks – representing the release of doves of peace.
Torch relay and lighting of the Olympic cauldron At this point, the Olympic flame entered the stadium as a
continuation of the Beijing relay leg from the outside. The Olympic torch was relayed around the stadium by seven athletes, and was finally passed on to
Li Ning, the former Olympic gymnast champion, the eighth and final athlete. The eight athletes were, in order: •
Xu Haifeng (shooting, China's first Olympic gold medalist in any event, 1984) •
Gao Min (diving, China's first repeat Olympic gold medalist in any event, 1988 and 1992) •
Li Xiaoshuang (gymnastics, China's first gymnastics all-around World Champion and Olympic gold medalist, 1992 and 1996) •
Zhan Xugang (weightlifting, China's first double Olympic gold medalist in weightlifting, 1996 and 2000) •
Zhang Jun (badminton, double Olympic gold medalist in mixed doubles badminton, 2000 and 2004) •
Chen Zhong (taekwondo, China's first and double taekwondo gold medalist, 2000 and 2004) •
Sun Jinfang (volleyball, member of team that won China's first major championship in a team sport) •
Li Ning (gymnastics, China's most decorated athlete at its first Olympics, 1984) Li Ning, who was suspended by wires, then appeared to run horizontally along the walls of the stadium through to the
Olympic cauldron, which at this moment was still not shown. As he ran along the upper wall of the stadium, the projection displayed a scroll opening ahead of him, on which was beamed footage of the entire
torch relay. At the final moment, a spotlight revealed the final resting place of the Olympic flame, which had appeared during the torch run. A colossal torch situated at the top of the stadium was lit by a proportionately large
fuse. A flurry of spectacular fireworks of various colours and shapes, some projecting
Olympic rings, others forming hoops, flower outwards, fountain or float down, accompanied the ending of the ceremony. The ceremony ended at 12:09 am, 9 August 2008
CST, which was later than the time originally planned: 11:30 pm, 8 August.
Encore As the audience started to exit the stadium, singers from Mainland China and Hong Kong came onto the stage to provide music as a way to stall the audience from leaving all at once.
Jackie Chan,
Karen Mok,
Han Hong, and
Sun Nan sang the first song, "Stand Up", while
Andy Lau,
Nicolas Tse,
Joey Yung,
Wakin Chau,
Wang Feng, and
Sun Yue sang the second song, "Cheering for Life." Since the ceremony was already over time by then, this portion was not televised in the CCTV coverage; however, it could still be partially heard in BBC and NBC coverage. ==Anthems==