From Beijing: Jia You- China, by Zhang Yimou

Chinese movie director Zhang Yimou was behind todays imperial opening show of the XXIX. Olympiad, with 15.000 participants, and 91.000 visitors in the National Stadium, called the Bird’s Nest. Chinese artist, Cai Guo Qiang was director of visual and special effects and the second chinese art superstar Ai Weiwei, was involved in the design of the Bird’s Nest stadium.

A mix reality show with embedded projections and interactive parts. A realtime movie, orchestrating actors, the public, video projections, movable sculptures, interactive light installations, acrobats, music and sounds, fire works and flashes, partly reminding me of the game world of worcraft. The only one who was looking like a iron mask was Vladimir Putin, maybe because he had a live link to the ongoing war in South Ossetia.

Here some numbers: Beijing inhabitants 15 million people, plus 100,000 police. China has spent $43 billion in building roads, stadiums, parks and subway lines.

10,000 athletes from 205 countries will compete in 28 events for about 300 gold medals. China a nation of 1.3 billion people and 653 participating athletes, its clear China will win.