Thrilling spectacle as Beijing wows the world again

Featuring Chinese festival culture and a technology-enhanced visual spectacle, a stunning ceremony took the world's breath away on Friday night as President Xi Jinping declared the opening of the Beijing 2022 Olympic Winter Games.

Fourteen years after impressing the world with a grand show to open the 2008 Summer Games, Beijing delivered again, wowing an international audience with a celebration of not just the highest level of winter sports, but also the traditional Spring Festival, during the opening ceremony of the 24th Winter Olympics. The event was held at the same iconic venue as in 2008－the National Stadium, also known as the Bird's Nest.

To the excitement of the on-site crowd and people across the country watching on TV, Xi announced the opening of the Games, making the Chinese capital the first city in the world to host both summer and winter editions of the Olympics.

The Friday opening was set on the same day as lichun, or beginning of spring－the first of 24 solar terms on China's lunar calendar－to represent the organizers' wish for friends around the world to usher in a new spring together.

An opening performance featured children blowing on a dandelion and sending the white seeds into the air. Fireworks then went off, shifting into the Chinese characters for lichun and the English word "spring" and lighting up the sky above the stadium.

Following a national flag raising ceremony, a giant LED screen on the ground illuminated the floor in aqua blue to make it a huge "ice rink", thrilling the crowd.

A giant ice block then rose above the ground, with 24 laser beams shot from the roof engraving the ice cube to carve out the names of the 23 previous Winter Games' hosts, before eventually freezing on 2022 Beijing.

Six performers dressed in ice hockey suits then took the stage to strike the ice cube with puck shots emulated by light beams, breaking the ice apart to reveal crystals in the shape of the Olympic Rings at the center of the stage.

Describing it as an "ice breaking" moment, the ceremony's creative team expected the segment to encourage the world to break barriers, resolve conflicts and understand each other with equality and respect, according to the media guide for the ceremony.

The creative team was led by renowned film director Zhang Yimou, who also was the mastermind behind the 2008 Games' opening show.

The delegations of participating National Olympic Committees then marched into the stadium under the Olympic Rings, with their respective flags shown on a giant screen high above, and were warmly welcomed by volunteers and spectators on the stand.

To rousing cheers from the home crowd, the Chinese delegation marched in to the accompaniment of the famous song Ode to the Motherland, with men's Olympic bronze medalist speed skater Gao Tingyu and women's skeleton racer Zhao Dan bearing the flag for the host squad.

China will send 176 athletes, the most since the country's Winter Olympics debut at the 1980 Games, and 211 coaches and officials for competition in 104 medal events out of a total of 109 at the Beijing Winter Olympics. The Games will take place in three hosting areas－Beijing's downtown, its northwest Yanqing district and co-host Zhangjiakou, Hebei province－until Feb 20.

A traditional power in ice sports, such as short-track speed skating and figure skating, China is ambitiously expanding its strength to more snow-based sports and is aiming for the biggest medal haul at the home Games.

The short-track speed skating team, which has earned 10 of the total 13 Winter Olympic gold medals that China has won, is aiming to get the entire delegation off to a flying start on Saturday by competing for gold in the mixed relay event.

Following a promotional video dedicated to athletes who have worked hard to realize their Olympic dreams, Cai Qi, president of the Beijing Organising Committee for the 2022 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games, and International Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach each gave a speech.

"As we are celebrating the Chinese Year of the Tiger, we are pleased that you, the Olympic athletes, coaches and distinguished guests from across the world, have come together in Beijing for the celebration of the 2022 Olympic Winter Games," Cai said in his speech.

Bach called on the world to set aside disputes and stay together, using the Beijing 2022 Games as common ground for all cultures to bridge differences.

"In our fragile world, where division, conflict and mistrust are on the rise, we show the world: Yes, it is possible to be fierce rivals, while at the same time living peacefully and respectfully together," said the German former Olympic fencing champion.

"This is the mission of the Olympic Games: bringing us together in peaceful competition. Always building bridges, never erecting walls. Uniting humankind in all our diversity," he added.

As the highlight of the ceremony, seven torchbearers－current or retired Chinese athletes born from the 1950s until the 2000s－completed the final relay legs inside the stadium. Then the youngest two－men's Nordic combined athlete Zhao Jiawen and women's cross-country skier Dinigeer Yilamujiang from the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region, jointly set a Beijing 2022 torch at the heart of a snowflake that was raised and hung over the stadium as the Games cauldron.