GUANGZHOU, Guandong, China – Amidst an explosion of fireworks and a burst of multi-colored laser lights, Guangzhou entertained, regaled and awed friends from across the continent on a stage as big as the city itself in grand opening ceremonies of the XVI Asian Games Friday night on Haixinsha Island.
At the count of 10, fireworks rumbled like thunder into the skies, the 600-meter Guangzhou Tower, a slender glass masterpiece and China’s tallest, glowed to near breaking point at the speed of white light, spewing fireworks in the shapes of big footprints and smiling faces.
Below, by the banks of the Pearl River, fountains, flower mines and giant Roman candles – 40,000 in all – bathed an area five kilometers wide in a grand welcome gesture by the China’s third largest city.
Performers played, sang, danced, skied, swam, dived and rowed on the wet stage of the ultra modern stadium in an inspiring, bigger-than-life presentation depicting the host city as the great town port of yesteryear and a beautiful city of the future.
And deep into the night, an Olympic champion – two curious little kids peeping beneath his arms – mistakenly ignited a firecracker that sent a long stream of bright, white light straight into the sky, sparking a roar of fire in the sacred urn above.
Chinese Prime Minster Wen Jiabao himself traveled from Beijing to this southern city 120 kilometers from Hong Kong to grace the grandest, most lavish opening rites of the last half-century.
Amidst the deafening sound of fireworks and the glare of pyrotechnics, he declared the Games open, ushering in 15 days of competition for the 476 gold medals at stake in the biggest Asian Games ever held in the world’s largest continent.
In a three-hour show, Guangzhou carried the spectators down memory lane, to various stages of its long and proud history, from long, long time ago when Chinese traders plowed the high seas in search of buyers of silk.
Little children frolicked on stage, their arms waving to spectators, a child stood carelessly on a leaf above a jet of soaring water, women in translucent garbs in the shape of octopuses danced on stage, mermaids danced in unison in the quiet pond and jetskiers raced in serene waters in some of various images showing Guangzhou’s past, present and future.
A battalion of Chinese warriors beat giant drums, creating a frightening sound so loud a small drop of water turned to a giant bubble, then to a pond and instantly to an open sea where rowers fight off violent waves to bring their ships to safer waters on the ancient mariner Silk Road.
In a climactic touch to a great spectacle, Olympic diving champion He Chong drew the flame from the last torch bearer in a relay of five runners, the final stage from a 12,215 km journey, and lit the giant cauldron on an inverted V-shaped giant stand from the spark of a firecracker.
In a departure from traditional opening rites, this city at the southern border of China welcomed each of the 45 participating countries aboard as many boats bedecked with the landmark buildings of their country.
Led by a mother boat, the foreign boats cruised on the Pearl River, which in mediaeval times became the wet corridor that guided Chinese boats to the mouth of the China Sea to the far reaches of the earth.
The beautifully lit boats glided on a straight line in a 9.3-kilometer journey that ended on Haixinsha Island, the athletes and officials cheered from the bank of the river by thousands of residents as they made their way stealthily on the glistening waters in the shadow of lighted bridges and buildings.
Delegations, dressed in their national costumes, marched in the parade of nations, past the grandstand where the Chinese Prime Minister sat with foreign and local dignitaries.
The Philippines emerged in the middle of the parade, wearing the blue and white national uniforms and led by standard bearer and former Asian Games equestrian gold medalist Mikee Cojuangco.
China paraded its own contingent of over 1,000 athletes clad in a sea of vibrant Chinese red, ready to do battle and win the war.