Today we open arms and celebrate

[Myth_buster_1]

Pathetic is the only word that comes to mind at such posts.

You don't have to lick the Chinese **** every now and then and prove to them that India are their enemies. They are quite capable of looking after themselves. They are much smarter than you and that is why they are progressing so much better.

China has done a great job of organizing the Olympics and kudos to them.

good job vinod..

 

[Trooper]

it is beautiful!!

 

[kvLin]

square matrix of Fou,an ancient Chinese drum

when struck,the drums shine and hence make patterns,words and numbers. below is a countdown for the ceremony.

Giant coming, totally 29 footprints(made of fireworks) alone the center line of Beijing city.

View attachment 68f37484d7a3601a7673a6516cbdc3cd.jpg

stars gather down to the ground of the bird nest and form a symbol of the five rings, then the rings slowly stand up.

a huge scroll (used to record the chinese culture and history) is slowly unfolded

 

[Myth_buster_1]

simply awesome! i watched live Olympic ceremony and it was worth watching every single minute specially first 45 minutes!

 

[kvLin]

dancers' ink painting

and their painting in the impresionistic manner

peope in a famous Chinese painting, which makes another classic works

and it get more and more tridimensional

the cloud pillars are called Huabiao in Chinese, which is a typical Chinese symbol

display of typography

 

[kvLin]

the great wall

a diamond shape, a Chinese symbol and typical vignette indicating a welcoming manner both in ancient han and tibetan culture.

finally a chinese word, HE (Harmony), in its modern style.

Confucianism

Chinese classic opera-the Kun Opera

Chinese ancient textile process

Trade in ancient times

Tai-chi, and circular form indicates tolerance and amalgamation in classic chinese culture.

 

[kvLin]

the silk road on the sea--story of Zhenhe's long voyages in Ming dynasty.

the modern chapter

a young kite runner girl on grass land

 

[kvLin]

one world,one dream

theme song-You and Me, by Liuhuan and Sarah Brightman

the smiling face on the ground are painted umbrellas, while those in the sky are made of fireworks

 

[pingfeng]

Haha, evry chinese applaused when Pakistan team entered the BirdNest stadium in opening ceremony, and they were so special! You know chinese regards them specially and cheer for their every victory!
I watched the ceremony and it's really amazingly excellent in expressing chinese ancien culture and history and opening mind to the modern world! Pride, pride!!

 

[kvLin]

Grand spectacle closes Beijing Olympics

"Tonight, we come to the end of 16 glorious days which we will cherish forever,"

"Through these Games, the world learned more about China, and China learned more about the world."

"These were truly exceptional games,"

Jacques Rogge
President of IOC

full story: Grand spectacle closes Beijing's Olympics - CNN.com

 

[Neo]

Thank you KvLin for daily coverage of this memorable Olympics and congrats with your 100 medals, quite an acomplishment!

For the first time in Olympics history China has won more gold than any other competing country!

 

[gpit]

Approximately 11,028 athletes from 204 NOCs participated in 302 events in 28 sports.[1]

Afghanistan,[2] Bahrain,[3] Mauritius,[4] Sudan, Tajikistan[5] and Togo[6] won their first Olympic medals. Serbia won its first medal as an independent NOC, having previously won medals as part of Yugoslavia and Serbia and Montenegro.[7] Singapore won its first medal as an independent country, its only previous medal having been won in 1960 as a self-governing British colony. Bahrain, Mongolia (which had previously held the record for most medals without a gold)[8] and Panama[9] won their first Olympic gold medals. A total of 88 countries have won medals, and 55 of them have won at least one gold medal.

2008 Summer Olympics medal table - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

China becomes the only country that wins more than 50 Gold Medals since 1988. See how China grows since 1984 through the following interesting historical review of medals

Olympic Medal Count Map - 2008 Beijing Olympics - Interactive Graphic - NYTimes.com

China has done splendidly in the competition and organization, but seems still need improvement in other aspects which are a necessity to become a truly great power: a controlled tolerance to good-intentioned dissidents, which, IMO, is more difficult than running the Olympics:

Despite the designation of three protest areas, not one of the over 70 petitions from various international groups was granted, leaving these areas empty for the duration of the games. Rogge said he found it "unusual" that none of the protest applications were approved.

Criticism, Praise and Anticipation: 2008 Beijing Olympics draw to a close - Nachrichten English-News - WELT ONLINE

 

[Flintlock]

As BBC put it:

"Beijing has done things that democracies simply cannot justify to their people. It will be quite impossible to top the scale of this event."

 

[gpit]

As BBC put it:

"Beijing has done things that democracies simply cannot justify to their people. It will be quite impossible to top the scale of this event."

What's the fuss?

Of course Western democracies justify the occupation of sovereign Iraq, but no others give it a $hit!

 

[gpit]

A Biblical Seven Years

By THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN
Published: August 26, 2008
Beijing

After attending the spectacular closing ceremony at the Beijing Olympics and feeling the vibrations from hundreds of Chinese drummers pulsating in my own chest, I was tempted to conclude two things: “Holy mackerel, the energy coming out of this country is unrivaled.” And, two: “We are so cooked. Start teaching your kids Mandarin.”

However, I’ve learned over the years not to over-interpret any two-week event. Olympics don’t change history. They are mere snapshots — a country posing in its Sunday bests for all the world too see. But, as snapshots go, the one China presented through the Olympics was enormously powerful — and it’s one that Americans need to reflect upon this election season.

China did not build the magnificent $43 billion infrastructure for these games, or put on the unparalleled opening and closing ceremonies, simply by the dumb luck of discovering oil. No, it was the culmination of seven years of national investment, planning, concentrated state power, national mobilization and hard work.

Seven years ... Seven years ... Oh, that’s right. China was awarded these Olympic Games on July 13, 2001 — just two months before 9/11.

As I sat in my seat at the Bird’s Nest, watching thousands of Chinese dancers, drummers, singers and acrobats on stilts perform their magic at the closing ceremony, I couldn’t help but reflect on how China and America have spent the last seven years: China has been preparing for the Olympics; we’ve been preparing for Al Qaeda. They’ve been building better stadiums, subways, airports, roads and parks. And we’ve been building better metal detectors, armored Humvees and pilotless drones.

The difference is starting to show. Just compare arriving at La Guardia’s dumpy terminal in New York City and driving through the crumbling infrastructure into Manhattan with arriving at Shanghai’s sleek airport and taking the 220-mile-per-hour magnetic levitation train, which uses electromagnetic propulsion instead of steel wheels and tracks, to get to town in a blink.

Then ask yourself: Who is living in the third world country?

Yes, if you drive an hour out of Beijing, you meet the vast dirt-poor third world of China. But here’s what’s new: The rich parts of China, the modern parts of Beijing or Shanghai or Dalian, are now more state of the art than rich America. The buildings are architecturally more interesting, the wireless networks more sophisticated, the roads and trains more efficient and nicer. And, I repeat, they did not get all this by discovering oil. They got it by digging inside themselves.

I realize the differences: We were attacked on 9/11; they were not. We have real enemies; theirs are small and mostly domestic. We had to respond to 9/11 at least by eliminating the Al Qaeda base in Afghanistan and investing in tighter homeland security. They could avoid foreign entanglements. Trying to build democracy in Iraq, though, which I supported, was a war of choice and is unlikely to ever produce anything equal to its huge price tag.

But the first rule of holes is that when you’re in one, stop digging. When you see how much modern infrastructure has been built in China since 2001, under the banner of the Olympics, and you see how much infrastructure has been postponed in America since 2001, under the banner of the war on terrorism, it’s clear that the next seven years need to be devoted to nation-building in America.

We need to finish our business in Iraq and Afghanistan as quickly as possible, which is why it is a travesty that the Iraqi Parliament has gone on vacation while 130,000 U.S. troops are standing guard. We can no longer afford to postpone our nation-building while Iraqis squabble over whether to do theirs.

A lot of people are now advising Barack Obama to get dirty with John McCain. Sure, fight fire with fire. That’s necessary, but it is not sufficient.

Obama got this far because many voters projected onto him that he could be the leader of an American renewal. They know we need nation-building at home now — not in Iraq, not in Afghanistan, not in Georgia, but in America. Obama cannot lose that theme.

He cannot let Republicans make this election about who is tough enough to stand up to Russia or bin Laden. It has to be about who is strong enough, focused enough, creative enough and unifying enough to get Americans to rebuild America. The next president can have all the foreign affairs experience in the world, but it will be useless, utterly useless, if we, as a country, are weak.

Obama is more right than he knows when he proclaims that this is “our” moment, this is “our” time. But it is our time to get back to work on the only home we have, our time for nation-building in America. I never want to tell my girls — and I’m sure Obama feels the same about his — that they have to go to China to see the future.