Opening Ceremony

First off I have to say, there probably wasn't a better way to spend three hours in Beijing than to watch one of the most extravagant shows on earth. The Chinese government was not joking when they said they utilized nearly ten thousand people for the various acts. The final figure would end up being nearly fifteen thousand performers with nearly five thousand members of the army and military sector.

My aunt and uncle were able to obtain tickets to the actual event, but from what I've heard from them afterward, they ended up watching the jumbotron more than the actual performers. These sort of grand scale events are made for TV. To emphasize that fact even more, the director of the entire ceremony is a renowned Chinese/HK action movie director Zhang Yi Mo, who is known for his attention to detail, which is much better suited on a television screen anyways.

I spent my opening ceremony in my dorm with the company of a fellow ONS volunteer. Her dorm on campus does not have a TV so she came to watch it in my room instead. It was a very interesting experience as her knowledge of Chinese customs and cultures and my love for sports and athletes in general made for some interesting home commentary.

The ceremony was absolutely fantastic in all of its aspects, but the drummers at the begginning blew me away. The coordination required to successfully pull off something like that is just mind-boggling. Congratulations to China on an amazing job and good luck to London to create its own legacy.