Olympics 2008: China leaps onto world stage in style

BEIJING — An ecstatic China finally got its Olympic moment on Friday night. The astonishing opening ceremonies of the 2008 Olympic Games lavished grand tribute on Chinese civilization, China opened the Olympics on Friday with a burst of fireworks at a spectacular ceremony that wove ancient Chinese history with modern wizardry

Around 80 world leaders watched the show which celebrated imperial China, and skipped the fraught 20th century, when civil war, the Japanese invasion and hardline Communist rule left the nation mired in poverty.

"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.

Deafening firecrackers launched Friday's ceremony before a series of giant fireworks in the form of footsteps were set off, blasting above the heart of the capital, crossing Tiananmen Square as they progressed to the steel-latticed Bird's Nest.

The Games carry a $43 billion price tag, dwarfing the previous record of $15 billion splashed out by Athens in 2004, sweeping thousands of people out of their homes to make way for a host of state-of-the art stadiums.

National pride at the transformation of China has built steadily and the crowd roared its approval when high-stepping soldiers took the nation's red flag from the hands of a group of small children and hoisted it above the stadium.

The Games were due to be formally opened at around 11 p.m. by the president of the International Olympic Committee, Jacques Rogge. They run until Aug. 24, with 10,500 athletes from a record 204 nations chasing 302 gold medals in 28 sports.

Locals expect Chinese athletes to underscore their country's newfound strength by heading the medals table for the first time.

Friday's show, directed by local film maker Zhang Yimou, reached its climax before the athletes' parade, when a gigantic sphere representing the earth rose from the floor of the stadium, which filled with twinkling starlight.

The world's most populous nation has thus far resisted calls to curb its carbon emissions as it concentrates on growth, and its promise to stage a 'Green Games' has been belied by the hazy pollution which has clogged Beijing in recent days.