2008, August 8

In an impressive ceremony, fourteen thousand performers offered the 91,000 people in the National Stadium (called the 'Bird's Nest,') a history lesson in China's contribution to world civilization. With the roar of thunder, 2008 drummers were beating the fou, an old Chinese percussion instrument to count down the last seconds - chanting a phrase from Confucius (551-479 BC): "Friends have come from afar, how happy we are". The spectacular firework display that followed should remind viewers that China invented gunpowder during the Song Dynasty (960-1276 AD).

Image: Creative Commons (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/)

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