A Grand Opening on World Stage

BEIJING - Displaying its pride, its power, its past, and its passion for pyrotechnics during spectacular opening ceremonies that melded artistry, mind-boggling technology, and a nearly two-hour parade of athletes, China officially launched the 2008 Summer Olympics last night.

The Beijing organizers, who spent $47 billion in their fervor to create a new standard for these quadrennial international athletic gatherings, made it clear from the ceremonies' start, if it wasn't obvious already, that this XXIX Olympiad would set the bar extremely high for future Games.

President Bush, China's Hu Jintao, Russia's Vladimir Putin and France's Nicolas Sarkozy were among the world leaders who attended at the 91,000-seat National Olympic Stadium, their differences over subjects like Tibet, Iraq and Darfur at least temporarily deferred.

The presentation, which stretched over four hours, began with the pounding of 2,008 traditional fou drums and concluded with a tremendous crescendo of fireworks, a sky-lighting, earth-shaking display worthy of the ancient nation where that noisy art was invented.

Hu and the president of the International Olympic Committee, Jacques Rogge, spoke briefly to welcome the world to the Games that China had so eagerly anticipated as its official debut on the world stage.

"For a long time, China dreamed of opening its doors and inviting the world's athletes to Beijing for the Olympic Games," Rogge said. "Tonight, that dream comes true."

After the performances by a cast of 14,000, supported by tens of thousands of technicians, costumers, construction workers and others, more than 16,000 athletes marched in from a record 204 nations. The flags of those countries encircled the top of the stadium, just below a partial roof that was converted into a giant screen during the ceremonies.

"I knew this night would be absolutely astonishing," said Hein Verbruggen, the IOC's chairman of coordination for the Beijing Games. "However, the actual event exceeded all my expectations. This was an unprecedented and grand success."

The lighting of the Olympic cauldron, traditionally the denouement of these events, was performed by a former Chinese gymnast, Li Ning.

After taking the torch from another ex-Chinese Olympian, the 44-year-old Li was hoisted high into the air by nearly invisible wires. With the crowd roaring, he ascended to the illuminated rim of the stadium. Once there, he appeared to run around its circumference before igniting the cauldron, which will burn until the closing ceremonies on Aug. 24.

The compelling show, produced by Chinese film director Zhang Yimou, told the story of the art, culture and history of this ancient land, which only recently moved out of the self-imposed darkness that followed the 1949 Communist takeover.

It was filled with spectacular costumes, some of which transformed into glowing lamps; ethereal representations of Chinese calligraphy, opera and Confucian wisdom; and one technological marvel after another rising from the floor or descending from the smoggy darkness above the architecturally daring facility nicknamed the Bird's Nest.

Officials here estimated that the event would be watched by a worldwide television audience of four billion people. NBC, which announced earlier in the day that its ad revenue for the Games already had topped $1 billion, showed it to a prime-time American audience on a delayed basis last night.

It all took place on a sweltering night beneath skies thick with the pollution that could become an even bigger story when the 16 days of competition kicks into high gear today. (Rogge drew snickers earlier this week when he said: "This is not smog. This is fog.")

The opening ceremonies' timing, coming at 8 p.m. on the eighth day of the eighth month of the 21st century's eighth year, was planned to take advantage of that number's status as a good-luck charm here. Throughout the day in the capital city, long lines of Beijing residents lined up outside post offices to get the lucky postmark.

The Olympic Games have served many masters in the 112 years since their modern revival - television, commercialism and civic boosterism certainly among them. But perhaps more than any since Hitler's Berlin Olympics in 1936, these Games seem laced with political implications.

The XXIX Olympiad, with its architecturally stunning venues, its hundreds of thousands of smiling volunteers, and its landscaped and sparkling surroundings, was designed by China with a twin purpose in mind - to convince 1.3 billion Chinese that its 30-year transformation from Mao to the world's manufacturer had been successful, and to convince the wider world that it would be an economic, cultural and military force throughout the 21st century.

Earlier in the day, President Bush and his father, former President George H.W. Bush, opened the new U.S. Embassy in Beijing. The president plans to spend part of the weekend watching basketball, swimming and other events.

"There will be a lot of people pulling for you," Bush told the U.S. team. "We appreciate all the hard work you've put in to get to this spot, and I know you're excited about marching into the stadium, representing our country. So, I guess all we have to say is: Go for it. Give it all you've got. And God bless you."

Last night's ceremonies were so engrossing that they detracted from what typically was their highlight, the entrance of the athletes who will compete for 302 gold medals.

The Greeks, the Games' founders, led off the two-hour parade. They were followed by colorfully dressed teams that ranged from the one-person Tuvalu team - weightlifter Logona Esau - to the 639-person Chinese contingent, which was both the largest team and the biggest crowd-pleaser.

Other national contingents that were cheered loudest by the polite fans included Chinese Taipei and Iraq. Perhaps the only slightly controversial moment occurred when the stadium's TV screens showed President Bush and his wife cheering the entrance of the U.S. team. Jeering whistles could be heard mixed in with tepid applause.

The U.S. team, expected to battle China and Russia for gold and overall medal supremacy, was led by its flag-bearer, the 1,500-meter runner Lopez Lomong. Kobe Bryant, the Lower Merion High School graduate and star of the Los Angeles Lakers, received a loud ovation when he was recognized by the basketball-crazed Chinese.

The naming of Lomong, a refugee from the civil war in his native Sudan, was seen as a statement from the athletes who selected him. China's role as an arms supplier in Sudan's bloody Darfur region was the focus of many of the protests before the Games.

The Associated Press reported that three Americans who were detained and ejected from China after unfurling a banner reading "Jesus Christ is king" in Tiananmen Square landed in Los Angeles. Two others, detained after climbing poles near the Olympic stadium bearing banners with pro-Tibet slogans, were flown to San Francisco.

Thousands of fully uniformed Chinese soldiers were an overwhelming presence. A gleaming white tank was stationed on nearby Beichen Road. Surface-to-air missiles were positioned near the stadium. Virtually every intersection within miles was patrolled by police and soldiers.

A goose-stepping contingent of those brown-clad Chinese soldiers had a small role in the ceremonies, carrying and hoisting the Olympic flag after it was carried into the stadium by former athletes.

Capital International Airport, at least one subway line, many streets and bus routes were shut down during the event.

The New York Times reported that a Japanese airliner bound for the Chinese city of Chongqing turned around when Japanese authorities received an e-mail that a bomb on board would be detonated when the flight passed over the Olympic site. Authorities later said no bomb was found.

Just before the athletes' parade, the IOC said Brunei, a small country on the Southeast Asian island of Borneo, was dropped from the Games because it failed to register any athletes.

South and North Korea, which had marched together at the 2004 Games in Athens, entered separately this time. Officials initially reported that they would parade in back-to-back. Before the ceremonies, and without any additional explanation, organizers said that three nations - Fiji, Cameroon and Montenegro - would separate the two Koreas.

Still, none of that detracted from the ceremonies, which drew rave reviews from fans and athletes.

"I have been to many Games and many opening ceremonies," said Tom Hackett, a 66-year-old Australian here on a tourist visa. "But this is by far, by far, the most sensational of them all. Bodes well for the rest of the Games, doesn't it, mate?"