Fireworks

BEIJING -- Hu Jintao, president of the People's Republic of China, and Jacques Rogge, president of the International Olympic Committee, arrived in the Bird's Nest together. So it was time for fireworks.

This is Rogge's second Summer Olympics as IOC president, but he still seems like just the orthopedic surgeon from Belgium that he is. There is nothing particularly presidential, and certainly nothing regal, about the way he carries himself. He has not adopted that Juan Antonio Samaranch air. I'm not saying that's a bad thing.

We were told upfront that there wouldn't be a lot of Chinese cliches in the ceremony, you know, like dragons and rickshaws. But the first quote uttered was one from Confucius.

"Friends have come from afar, how happy we are.''

Not one of his more profound, I think, but it worked for this occasion.

-- Randy Harvey

Photo added at 9:27 a.m. Friday

Photo: Fireworks explode above the Bird's Nest during Friday night's Opening Ceremony of the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games. Credit: Peer Grimm/EPA

Comments

[Scott Grandi]

And it says on the hat in Chinese, "Today is my birthday".