One Year On: Beijing 2008 Olympics

Just over one year since the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games flew out of the starting blocks, I found these statistics on the magnitude of the opening ceremony on a Chinese business website:

“In the past two years, I dared not slack at my job. I have never led such a huge team, with so many performers, staff and volunteers," said Zhang Yimou, Artistic Director of the Opening Ceremony. “There is one simple sentence from the bottom of my heart, ‘I hope you enjoy yourselves tonight.’”

The 2008 Beijing Olympics Opening Ceremony officially “combined the ancient elements of Chinese culture with modern forms of performance.”

Fireworks erupted from 287 points on top of the Bird's Nest National Stadium, 12 positions across the Olympic Green and 29 locations across the city. A total of 11,456 fireworks were set off from atop the Bird's Nest National Stadium, and another 8,428 in central areas of Beijing.

110 minutes of music was specially created by 18 composers, with 2,583 special lights, 15,153 sets of costumes in 47 styles, 516 sound amplifiers and 160km of power cables used for the show.

Some 4.5 million visitors have visited the Bird's Nest National Stadium since it opened to the public in September 2008, with the adjacent Water Cube National Aquatics Centre having received 3.8 million people, according to the Beijing Tourism Board.