CHINA: Spectacular fireworks display sets Beijing alight six days before start of Olympics

Record ID: 610015

  • Title: CHINA: Spectacular fireworks display sets Beijing alight six days before start of Olympics
  • Date: 3rd August 2008
  • Summary: PERFORMERS OUTSIDE BIRD'S NEST PERFORMING INSIDE BIRD'S NEST PERFORMERS WALKING AROUND OUTSIDE BIRD'S NEST PEOPLE WALKING ON STREET (SOUNDBITE) (Mandarin) MS. WANG, 65-YEAR-OLD LOCAL RESIDENT SAYING: "The bus I took was very crowded. Many people come here to watch the fireworks. We are so excited. I came a long way here and maybe I can only watch the fireworks for just a couple of minutes. But I still feel it worthwhile and I am very happy." SPECTATORS WATCHING (SOUNDBITE) (Mandarin) MR. CHEN, A WORKER SAYING "The Olympics is a once-in-a-life-time event. I think I will remember it for my whole life."
  • Embargoed: 18th August 2008 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: China
  • Country: China
  • Topics: Sports
  • Reuters ID: LVAEK0UGIETW5SP4IS0FQO9YJQ1C
  • Story Text: As dusk fell over Tiananmen square in the heart of Beijing on Saturday (August 2), thousands of Chinese from all over the country came out to wait patiently for part of the rehearsal for one of the biggest shows in the country's history.
    As well as the opening ceremony to be held at the "Bird's Nest" National Stadium, a huge fireworks display will also be held on the square next Friday (August 8) to mark the opening of the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games.
    Security was high on the square, lodged in the minds of many internationally as the site of the 1989 massacre, as Beijing gears up for its monumental security effort over the coming weeks.
    The lowering of the national flag draws hundreds of people, most tourists from outside of the capital, to Tiananmen every day, but many were there on Saturday for a far older pillar of the country's culture - fireworks.
    Originally rumoured to be starting at exactly eight minutes past 8pm, the same time that the opening ceremony will start on August 8 2008, the rehearsal for the Olympic fireworks did not start proper for another two hours, leaving many wondering if the wait was worth the while.
    When they did start, however, crowds gasped and cheered at a three minute display that featured perfectly circular explosions in the colours of the five Olympic rings, as well as dramatic fountains of multicoloured fire.
    Fan Jixia, a Beijing resident originally from central Shaanxi province, was visibly moved that China would hold the Games in leas than a week.

    "For China to hold the Olympic Games in our own home in 2008, I feel extremely happy and proud for our country," Fan Jixia.
    A young delivery worker from central Henan province living and working in Beijing was equally excited.

    "I'm very excited and very happy to have the Olympic Games in China. Come on Olympics, come on China!" he said.
    A few kilometres due north of Tiananmen square, another rehearsal was also taking place on Saturday night.
    Thousands of people also flocked to fly-over bridges and main streets near the "Bird's Nest" to watch the fireworks that accompany the secret dress rehearsal for the Olympics opening ceremony.
    You should not expect anything less from the nation that invented gunpowder, and fireworks are certain to play a major role in the three-hour spectacular that China hopes will help dispel the political controversies dogging the Olympics.
    The lavish opening ceremony which will draw on some 10,000 performers and could net a global television audience of more than four billion people.
    Chinese workers involved in the Olympic project and some of their families and friends were given tickets for the lavish rehearsal, filling the 90,000-seat national stadium to near capacity.
    Though only a few people had the luck to go inside the stadium to watch the full dress rehearsal on Saturday night, many others still made their way into areas close to the Bird's Nest.
    People burst into applause when they saw the first fireworks rising above the stadium after waiting eagerly for hours.
    A local resident surnamed Wang said she spent hours on a crowded bus to get from the far west of Beijing to the stadium located in northern part of the city. The 65-year-old lady thought it worth the travel.

    "The bus I took was very crowded. Many people have come here to watch the fireworks. We are so excited. I came a long way here and maybe I can only watch the fireworks for just a couple of minutes. But I still feel it worthwhile and I am very happy," said Ms. Wang.
    For many Chinese, the games are a chance to showcase their huge and diverse country to the outside. The Games signal China's ascent from poverty and isolation to a place at the summit of the global community. It now has the world's fourth-largest economy.

    "The Olympics is a once-in-a-life-time event. I think I will remember it for my whole life," said Mr. Chen, who like many others thinks the games will boost the patriotic sentiment among his fellow countrymen.
    The series of rehearsals for the opening ceremony have been held under tight security but have been somewhat overshadowed by the release onto the internet of a video clip filmed by a South Korean broadcasting network SBS showing part of the rehearsal performance that took place on July 30.
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