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| China celebrates its ancient past and modern power at the Olympics opening on Friday, seeking to shift the global focus from rights criticisms to sport. |
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The ceremony caps seven years of work that reshaped Beijing and sets the seal on an economic boom that has seen China and its 1.3 billion people become an emerging superpower. "The historic moment we have long awaited is arriving," President Hu Jintao told world leaders including US President George W. Bush at a welcome lunch.
More than 80 leaders and royals will attend the ceremony in the head-turning, metal-latticed Bird's Nest stadium. Advertising its new economic clout, China has invested $43 billion on the Games. Some $100 million, twice the 2004 Athens bill, has gone on "big bang" opening and closing ceremonies.
The show started at 8 pm on the eighth day of the eighth month, the number appropriately symbolizing fortune, before an estimated global audience of at least one billion. Thousands of spectators poured into the stadium hours ahead of the ceremony and were treated to pulsating Chinese dance troops, performing routines with titles like "Galloping horse dance", "Acrobatic Lion Dance" and "Flowery Drum Dance". Some 14,000 performers and 29,000 fireworks will give the Games a glittering start. Film director Zhang Yimou, whose work was once banned in China, has worked on the show for three years and promises to condense 5,000 years of history into one evening. The careful choreography extends well beyond the stadium.
"Friends have come from afar, how happy we are," an army of 2,008 drummers chanted, quoting the celebrated sage Confucius. Friday's ceremony caps seven years of work that has reshaped Beijing and sets the seal on an industrial boom that has turned the country into the world's fourth largest economy. However, the Olympic spotlight has also cast a harsh glare on the vast Asian nation, bringing the unrest in its Tibetan region to a wide audience and showing that China's leadership is not ready to brook any internal dissent. Pounding drums launched Friday's ceremony on a hot and humid evening before giant fireworks in the form of footsteps blasted above the heart of the capital, crossing Tiananmen Square as they progressed to the steel-latticed Bird's Nest. The authorities opened the vast square, scene of a doomed student uprising in 1989, to let people watch the pyrotechnics, prompting thousands of delighted Beijing residents to rush into the esplanade screaming "Go China!"
A security force of 100,000 police fanned out to prevent attacks and protests, while dissidents have been swept away. Many are being held under house arrest, while others have fled to distant provinces or been taken on enforced "holidays" by state security minders, human rights groups and activists said. "I can go outside, but I have to ride in the police car with my guards wherever I go," said Yu Jie, a dissident-writer. The elements, though, have proved hard to master. Authorities have closed factories and pulled millions of cars off the road, yet smog and haze enveloped the capital on Friday, obscuring views of the futuristic skyline.
RECORD COST
The Games carry a $43 billion price tag, dwarfing the $15 billion splashed out by Athens in 2004, and run until Aug. 24, with 10,500 athletes from a record 204 nations chasing 302 gold medals in 28 sports. Chinese President Hu Jintao declared the Games open. Befittingly for the world's most populous nation, Friday's show unleashed wave upon wave of humanity into the arena, revelling in past glories, like the invention of gunpowder, but also more modern triumphs, like putting astronauts into space.
The careful choreography of the ceremony extended well beyond the stadium and 100,000 police fanned out to prevent attacks and protests, while dissidents have been kept out of sight. UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon issued an appeal at the ceremony calling on warring nations to honour a traditional truce during the Games, but his message went unheeded with fierce fighting in Georgia during the day involving Russian forces. Further denting the Olympic ideal of harmony, the two Koreas failed to agree to march at the opening as a unified team even though they managed that in 2004 and 2000.
The 91,000-strong crowd saved its largest roar of the evening for the entry of the Chinese team, which is confidently expected to top the medals table for the first time and was headed onto the field by basketball player Yao Ming. Yao was accompanied by a young boy who survived an earthquake in the southwest of the country in May which killed some 70,000. "For a long time, China has dreamed of opening its doors and inviting the world's athletes to Beijing for the Olympic Games," Jacques Rogge, head of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), said. "Tonight that dream comes true. Congratulations, Beijing!"
TAIWAN CHEERED
There were also big cheers for the United States, North Korea and Iraq, and a thunderous applause for Taiwan, signalling a further sign of a thaw after years of icy relations. China has claimed sovereignty over Taiwan since their split in 1949 amid civil war and insists the self-ruled democratic island must one day return to the fold. US President George W Bush stood and waved a stars and stripes flag as the American team marched into the stadium. The Games are centred in Beijing, but will stretch more than 2,000-km, with equestrian events in Hong Kong, soccer dotted around the country and yachting in the eastern city of Qingdao.
The sporting action gets into top gear on Saturday with competition underway in 18 disciplines; including swimming and gymnastics, and seven gold medals up for grabs. Among the early competitors is US swimmer Michael Phelps, who could become the first athlete to win eight golds in a single Games and the most titled Olympian ever. But as in 2004, the build up to the Beijing Games has been marred by drug taking. A number of athletes have failed tests in the weeks leading up to the Olympics and officials have promised about 4,500 doping checks in Beijing to root out the cheats
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 Seven gold medals in Beijing on opening day
Let the Olympics, and the medal rush, begin. The first seven of 302 gold medals to be presented over the next 16 days at the Beijing Games will be contested on Saturday, including the high-profile men's cycling road race where Italian and Spanish riders are favored, and two each in shooting and judo. The host country could win the first gold medal presented _ Du Li is favored to win the women's 10-meter air rifle and could be standing on the podium by 11 a.m. Beijing time (0300 GMT).
Other golds will be awarded in women's weightlifting, where another Chinese competitor, Chen Xiexia, is favored, the men's 10-meter air pistol and the women's individual saber in fencing, where Americans are favored to sweep the medals. There are also qualifying heats in swimming, where Michael Phelps will begin his quest for a record eight Olympic gold medals while qualifying for the 400-meter individual medley. The final is Sunday morning.
Phelps is expected to be pushed by American teammate Ryan Lochte. The pair swam a memorable 400 IM final at the U.S. trials in June, when Phelps won in 4 minutes, 5.25 seconds, Lochte finished second and both went under world-record time. ``I'm just ready for it to be here,'' Phelps said.
Other preliminary competition begins Saturday in archery, badminton, beach volleyball, boxing, men's artistic gymnastics, rowing, sailing, and women's basketball, where last year's WNBA MVP, Lauren Jackson of the Seattle Storm, leads Australia against Belarus. Spain has five cyclists in the road race, and five with hopes of victory _ 2008 Tour de France champion Carlos Sastre; 2007 champion Alberto Contador; Dauphine Libere champion Alejandro Valverde; three-time world champion Oscar Freire; and Samuel Sanchez, third in last year's Spanish Vuelta and a multiple stage winner.
The riders have said they will work for each other. ``I will wait to see how I feel, because Valverde, Freire or Samuel Sanchez could be better than me on the day and maybe I will have to work for them. If so, I will be glad to do it, because the main objective is getting a medal for Spain,'' Contador said. Olympic and world champion Paolo Bettini of Italy is hoping to benefit from the lack of a front-runner in the Spanish team. ``It won't be a race only between Spain and Italy like they say it will. We're going to have to keep tabs on other opponents, too,'' Bettini said.
The 245-kilometer (151-mile) race is the longest in Olympic history and is expected to take seven hours to complete. The mass start begins at Yongdingmen Gate, the largest among seven gates in the outer city of Beijing. Construction began during the Ming dynasty in 1553 and took 215 years to complete. The race finishes at Juyongguan, about 80 kilometers (50 miles) outside Beijing, with a grueling climbing circuit near the Great Wall. The route also passes through the Temple of Heaven, the Great Hall of the People, Tiananmen Square, the National Stadium and the Olympic Tower. ``We thought the course could represent the past and the present of Beijing,'' deputy competition manager Tian Junrong said.
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