Opening Ceremonies Part 2

So I didn't get to this last night right after the Opening Ceremonies and before the tape-delayed NBC broadcast, so hopefully you've already seen them on TV. Wow! The Chinese really set the bar high for the next venues (Vancouver in Winter 2010 and London in Summer 2012).

We started by watching the "artistic" portion of the Opening Ceremonies on a live feed provided to the media. The sheer number of people involved in the spectacle and the precision and artistry involved were a real sight. Fireworks featured very prominently and they were going off all over the city. The pre-ceremony featured a swooping helicopter shot of a coordinated set of fireworks in the shape of feet "walking" across the city toward the Birds Nest stadium, and each major piece of the process was punctuated by them, ending in another incredible fireworks show over the Olympic Green and other places in the city (we could only see the ones near us due to the smoggy conditions, of course). My favorite part was the coordinated drum routine near the beginning, but it was all quite awesome. By the time those of you in the States are reading this, they'll have aired or possibly even been posted on the NBC's website.

Once the Parade of Athletes began, we used those special credentials we got to go walk around on the Olympic Green. Security was incredibly apparent(and I'm sure there was plenty that we couldn't see), but once in, we were able to walk around most places, including right alongside the Birds Nest stadium while the events were going on inside. We saw some of the parade of athletes (but not the US folks) and took some neat pictures which can be found here. One of my colleagues also posted a YouTube clip of us watching the events from the hotel.

After walking around a bit, we headed to a co-worker's 12th-floor hotel room that faced the stadium and hung out there so we'd have a great view of the flame lighting and fireworks. It was really great to see the event unfold right there in front of us!