Sports

China opens Olympics spectacularly
by Magdalena Rosova

China opened the Summer Games in stunning fashion Friday with fabulous fireworks and majestic drama presenting Chinese ascendance as a global power.

Although, disputes about human-rights and environmental problems preceded the games, 91,000 people packed into the National Stadium for the opening evening.

The most expensive and probably the largest opening ceremony in history was visited by huge amount of world leaders and the probable TV audience was 4 billion people.

The climax was the parade of athletes. Basketball idol Yao Ming, flag-bearer, entered with 9-year-old boy Lin Hao, who survived earthquake in Sichuan province.

Notable spectators were President Bush and Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin. Bush is the first U.S. president, who attended an Olympics on foreign soil.

China invested $40 billion to Olympic infrastructure and faced criticism of breaking human rights in home-land and Tibe; many called to boycott the games.

The story presented on Friday showed 5,000 years of Chinese history, from the Great Wall to astronauts, emphasizing Chinese art, music and science. There were no references to Chairman Mao, the class struggle, or the recent conflicts in the show. Approximately 15,000 people were in the cast and crew.

A record number of delegates, 204 athletes, paraded through the stadium, with names such as tennis player Roger Federer and basketball star Kobe Bryant. The U.S. team was cheered loudly, Bush rose from his VIP seat to welcome them by waving.

Hundreds of Tibetan exiles demonstrated outside the Chinese embassy in Katmandu, Nepal. An anti-China protestant set himself on fire in Turkey.

Despite of that, record number of ticket was sold, thousands volunteers joined in Olympic duties. China finds the Olympic as a great triumph.


related story: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2SH9soN4p10

by Magdalena Rosova for PocketNews (http://pocketnews.tv)

PocketNews is a new real-time news broadcaster delivering the latest and hottest news right to your pocket ! With global clients who want to be kept up to date, PocketNews is everyone's way of keeping in touch with the World.<br><br><font size=2>These news are original content from young talents around the world and are selected for you by Chris Cantell.</font><br>
posted by Lucia Adamova

Labels: CantellTV, Chris Cantell, Christopher Cantell, digital broadcasting, SigEx Foundry, SigEx Telecom, Sports

posted by Blog TechSource @ 1:08 AM