Olympic flame lit in Beijing
Friday, 08 Aug 2008 19:05
Beijing Games officially opened as Olympic flame lit in Bird's Nest Stadium after spectacular opening ceremony
The Olympic flame has been lit in Beijing as the 2008 Games officially began.
Earlier, 90,000 spectators and an estimated global television audience of one billion were treated to a three-hour spectacular opening ceremony.
More than 15,000 performers took part in the ceremony in the Bird's Nest Stadium which celebrated China's 5,000-year heritage and culture.
The ceremony took seven years to prepare and reportedly cost $40 billion (£20 billion), making it by far the most expensive in history.
Dancers, fireworks, drummers, wire acts and calligraphers were all in the stadium before athletes from competing nations arrived and the final legs of the torch relay were carried out.
British soprano Sarah Brightman sang a theme song alongside Chinese singer Li Huan, followed by Chinese president Hu Jintao officially opening the Games.
Zhang Heping, director of the Beijing Organising Committee, promised earlier this week: "The passion will be lighted on the night of August 8th, offering the hundreds of thousands of spectators in the National Stadium, as well as hundreds of millions of people outside a spectacular performance."
The games themselves have been surrounded in controversy ever since Beijing was announced at the host of the 2008 Olympics.
Human rights protestors repeatedly used the Olympic torch's procession from Greece to China, through seven continents, earlier this year to demonstrate against Beijing's human rights record and its handling of recent unrest in Tibet.
London, Paris and San Francisco all witnessed large-scale demonstrations against China's hosting of the Olympics.
Protests were still taking place in Beijing this week, with two Britons and two Americans detained by Chinese police after unveiling pro-Tibetan banners near the Olympic stadium.
There have been some high-profile boycotts of the games, including Oscar-winning Steven Spielberg who withdrew as an artistic adviser to the games claiming China was not doing enough to pressure Sudan into ending the "continuing human suffering" in Darfur.
There have also been huge concerns over Beijing's air quality. The city's severe pollution has caused many athletes to question whether their performance will be affected.
Marathon runner Paula Radcliffe said the pollution may affect her asthma and the US cycling team arrived earlier this week wearing face masks.
Security is a massive concern for the Chinese authorities and thousands of police officers and troops were deployed to ensure the opening ceremony and the rest of the Olympics passed without incident.