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What it's like saying goodbye here at the closing ceremony
By Alan Abrahamson
Posted Sunday, August 24, 2008 4:39 AM ET
BEIJING -- Several minutes of massive fireworks. A frenzy of dancing and flag-waving around and on the memory tower.
Paul Gilham/Getty Images
BEIJING - AUGUST 24: Fireworks ignite over the National Stadium during the Closing Ceremony for the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games on August 24, 2008 in Beijing, China. (Photo by Paul Gilham/Getty Images) And it's over.
The ceremony is over. The 2008 Beijing Olympics are over.
"Good night, everyone," the announcer says over the big speakers.
Hard to believe. I was there in Moscow in 2001 when China was awarded these Games.
It has been an incredible ride.
I will, of course, be glad to be back home in California. But, truly, I will be sad to leave Beijing and China. At the risk of repetition: it has been a privilege to be a part of chronicling these "truly exceptional" Olympics. We are not likely to see another quite like them.
--
Curtain call: all the performers pour onto the field for the final number.
Oh, wait: just as at the opening ceremony, there's Jackie Chan singing. Again. I never thought I would write, "Jackie Chan is singing," once in my life, much less twice.
--
More singing.
Wei Wei, China's biggest pop star and Sun Nan, a Chinese singer and songwriter. They belt out "To Overcome."
--
Placido Domingo comes next, along with Chinese actress and singer Song Zuying.
They're performing a song called "The Flame of Love."
Domingo is of course one of the so-called "Three Tenors," along with Luciano Pavarotti and Jose Carerreras. Remember Pavarotti singing at the ceremonies in Torino in 2006?
No knock on "The Flame of Love." Me, I'll take "Whole Lotta Love."
--
We shoulda known. Zeppelin's "Whole Lotta Love" was blasting out over the speakers here at the Bird's Nest Friday night, at the conclusion of the evening's track and field.
And here we -- Joe Battaglia and I, the two of us with the pleasure and privilege of covering track with both here and at the U.S. Olympic Trials in Eugene, Ore. -- thought someone in China was just a Zep fan.
--
Now time for what's called the "carnival" part of the show, and it kicks off with a song that those of us here have heard repeatedly, day after day, "Beijing, Beijing, I love Beijing."
It's one of those bouncy songs that you can't get out of your mind. Until you stop hearing it, and then you can't remember even one note. Which I suppose is songwriting genius of a sort.
The memory tower walkers are now rappelling down from the top of the tower. Some are zipping down to the far reaches of the field via guy wires. Again, incredible.
--
The tower, whihc looks like a non-leaning tower of Pisa, is now revealed to be filled with hundreds of people on its sides, some dressed mostly in red clingly uniforms and baseball hats, some in shiny metallic uniforms.
They perform outrageously an exquisite synchronized ballet on, around, atop and over the tower. An idea outrageous in its imagination, stupendous in its execution.
Their display is followed by the appearance of 16 huge "lucky cloud yarn strips" that extend from the memory tower over the field.
As the Olympic cauldron is extinguished, flashlights go on throughout the audience, purporting to signify that the flame lives on.
Outside the Bird's Nest, it's time for a barrage of fireworks.
Alexander Hassenstein/Getty Images
BEIJING - AUGUST 24: Footballer David Beckham looks on during the Closing Ceremony for the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games at the National Stadium on August 24, 2008 in Beijing, China. (Photo by Alexander Hassenstein/Bongarts/Getty Images) --
(未完,有兴趣的朋友可以查看链接!)
http://www.nbcolympics.com/blogs/blog=alanabrahamsonsblog/postid=254757.html#zai+jian+from+birds+nest?GT1=39003
