China: Nine nations in one?
Thanksgiving turkey conundrum? The solution: Taobao
"Haibao is coming"
Nuclear fallout Beijing: Mao's underground city
'Stateless in Shanghai': Nov. 21 and 22
The closing ceremony of the Beijing Games was star-studded and glitzy as promised, but those that came expecting to be wowed off their socks as they were by the opening went away disappointed (read the reactions from China-based twitteratti). After all, Zhang Yimou and company did so spectacularly well in the opening they couldn't have possibly done better. Or could they? Quite frankly, we thought the ceremony was going to end after David Beckham's grand appearance and the Olympic flame was extinguished, but it went on for another good hour or so with Chinese singers belting out one song after another — from traditional Chinese folk tunes to pop to what have you. The grand finale featured performers representing 56 ethnic groups singing, “Please Stay, Guests From Afar,” and as John Branch of the New York Times notes, many of the athletes and fans decided to head for the exits when they realised the happy minorities were taking forever to wave goodbye. The fireworks though were definitely a highlight of the evening and were masterminded by Chinese artist and gunpowder expert Cai Guoqiang, whose personal exhibition at the Guggenheim Museum in New York was the best attended exhibition ever of a solo artist there.
add to stumble upon
add to reddit
post to facebookTips
Latest Video
Contribute
Latest Tip:
http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2009/11/18/book-change-has-come
[more]
It reminded me of the end of a Star Wars movies. I'm still trying to figure out what the one dream is.
The closing ceremony was very mediocre. It was dijointed, sloppily performed and a downright bore. Thank heavens for the Brits who will give the Games an injection of fun and style we have not seen since Sydney 2000. Speaking of Sydney, those Games remain the "best ever" and I agree. Beijing's Games were just too overshadowed by the morons who run the Central Government. The empty seats - especially when a Chinese athlete was not in the equation - was a very poor demonstration of the Olympic spirit. Apparently the Olympic Village was the worst ever in terms of design and atmosphere. Then there is everything and everyone who was faked.
The Games were fun and I loved being in the Jing. I loved the atmosphere of the very international crowds where I went. The volunteers were extremely friendly, if a little stupid. The choice of food at the venues was crap but at least the beer was cold. The city was spotless but people still spat and taxi drivers were not courteous.
IMHO the Games were just ma-ma-hu-hu. I expected better.
To Puhleas
I just wonder where all the photo opportunitist activists were gone last night, with so much a press exposure? At least they could chase in some yaks as Spaniars do.
You obviously smack of a poor loser, since USA isn't finding a lot to blow up this time, though with a Phelps. But maybe to avoid being a loser was the very reason to boycott China from very beginning。
You might say “I don't give rat ash to the gold chart”, but you are not smart enough to know even during the Cold War, there were important fun to grab the medals, where the medal haul often served as a proxy for real world event. World has changed, but that hasn't, especially when you see how Americans are shouting "USA USA."
As to your “everything and everyone were faked”. I can assure you at least all medals you won are not, especially the siver and bronze. They are real METAL, ok, which you took as glorious top collecter. Comfort yourself with thought that you even beat China in gold, combined together with little help from your lapdog British’s great performance. You seem not well informed that a loser is qualified to make a protest in Tiananmen, lol!
Next time in London, maybe you can serve as student volunteer and remind shabby Londoners to keep Opium pure on openning show, because any fake will deserve a boycoy. How can I forget that you can teach the torch crabbing mobsters to sing your newly-learnt Chinese national anthem. LOL!
Ah, ah,
We come from the land of the ice and snow,
From the midnight sun where the hot springs blow. How soft your fields so green, can whisper tales of gore, Of how we calmed the tides of war. We are your overlords.
LOL I think my point is made EastMan
Yes yes yes, your point is made:
you are your beloved leader Bushit's speech writer. LOL!
Sorry fuck features you guessed the wrong superior nation to your own again, keep on guessing, maybe one day when you are devoid of ignorance of the outside world. You can achieve this goal by reframing from tossing yourself off to the world of war craft, your national anthem or some prepubescent Chinese aerobics squad, thus saving time, no need to thank me.
Oh yeah Dali Lama you are the man.
Puhlease, you are a funny guy! The Brits' part at the handover at the closing ceremony was horrendous, if this is the sign of things to come in 2012, then God bless we Olympics fans. LOL!
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/othersports/olympics/london2012/2614357/Beijing-Olympics-London-2012-handover-blow-to-British-pride.html
Beijing Olympics: London 2012 handover blow to British pride
For the past couple of weeks it has been possible to feel an unaccustomed glow of pride at the achievements of our athletes at the Beijing Olympics. All those gold medals, fourth place in the league table – who would have dreamt it?
Then came yesterday's closing ceremony, and Britain's eight-minute window of opportunity to invite the world to London 2012 as the breathless BBC commentators put it. And guess what? We blew it spectacularly.
Amid the cast of thousands of thrillingly well-drilled Chinese dancers, acrobats, singers and fireworks technicians, a red, double-decker London bus chugged ominously into the bird's nest stadium.
There was some naff modern dance from British youngsters pretending to be standing at a bus stop, and a cute 10-year-old girl chosen by the viewers of Blue Peter appeared at the bus door to receive a football to deliver to David Beckham, who later kicked it into the crowd of massed athletes.
How did he feel about this hardly challenging task, he was asked earlier.
"It's very proud for London, very proud for myself," he replied inanely. What an archetypal British hero he is.
The roof of the bus eventually folded open to reveal green topiary depicting unrecognisable London landmarks and the X-Factor winner Leona Lewis rising up and up on a hydraulic lift and looking understandably uncomfortable in a dress that seemed to be made out of a couple of hundred yards of crumpled Bacofoil.
This was as nothing however to the horror of the raddled, sweat-drenched face of Led Zeppelin lead guitarist Jimmy Page, his snow-white hair unwisely tied back in a horrid little pigtail as he thrashed out the celebrated riff of Whole Lotta Love.
Unfortunately both he and Leona were virtually inaudible and all the palaver about toning down the song's famously filthy lyrics was unnecessary because you couldn't hear them anyway. The sound resembled a badly tuned transistor radio in a tin bucket, though elsewhere in the ceremony, and particularly when Placido Domingo sang, beautifully, it was perfectly acceptable.
In my time I've witnessed countless Royal Variety Performances and the opening ceremony of the Dome. This British fiasco was worse than any of them, and even at only eight minutes seemed interminable. No wonder London mayor Boris Johnson looked so uncomfortable beforehand. He must have known what was coming.
I have two tips for you, Boris. Keep your hands out of your pockets when attending high-profile events like this, and secondly fire whoever responsible for this fiasco and hire proper showbiz professionals – from Las Vegas if necessary – to handle the opening and closing ceremonies in 2012. Another toe-curling embarrassment like this would be unendurable.
Hi eastman - may I suggest a better translation engine, next time? Most of the points you are trying to make, no matter how hard you try, come across as gibberish - which doesn't really help your case.
It's actually no surprise that the closing ceremonies were an afterthought (literally), since the objective was met -- dazzle the world with the opening ceremonies, grab as much gold as is possible for any Ferengi... oh, right, and there's some closing ceremonies, somewhere... right...
I'd be curious to revisit the olympic venues a year down the road, to see how neglected they have gotten by then - I'll assume pollution levels in Beijing will be back up to pre-Olympics levels within 48 hours.
By the way - agreed on Britain not really coming across positively with their part of the handover ceremony... Ack!
To West man
--"keep on guessing" who you are?
I only guess who the next Miss Universe is, lol!