The opening ceremony of the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics kicked off on Friday night, the culmination of preparations that were beset by the COVID-19 pandemic and criticism over human rights in China that led several countries to mount a diplomatic boycott.
Held on the first day of Spring by the Chinese calendar, the event began with a performance by dancers waving glowing green stalks meant to convey the vitality of the season, followed by an explosion of white and green fireworks that spelled the word "Spring".
After that, the Chinese flag was passed among 56 people representing China's different ethnic groups before the flag was raised and the national anthem performed.
On a three-dimensional cube resembling a block of ice, imagery from each of the previous 23 Winter Games was carved by lasers. The block was then "broken" by ice hockey players, enabling the Olympic rings to emerge, all in white.
That was followed by the traditional "parade of nations", with the announcement of "Hong Kong, China" generating applause in the stadium.
Friday's ceremony began shortly after President Xi Jinping and International Olympic Committee Chairman Thomas Bach entered the iconic Bird's Nest stadium, its rim bedecked by the flags of the 91 competing nations and regions.
Directed by Zhang Yimou, reprising his role from Beijing's 2008 Summer Games triumph, the event was to feature 3,000 performers on a stage comprised of 11,600 square meters of high-definition LED screen resembling an ice surface.
All of the performers are ordinary people from Beijing and nearby Hebei province, with "the Story of a Snowflake" its central thread.
With temperatures of about -4C (25F) at the start, the show was set to be about half as long as the four-hour marathon that opened the 2008 Games, also at the Bird's Nest.
The crowd itself was pared down, with organizers deciding last month not to sell tickets to Olympic events to curtail the spread of COVID-19. A "closed loop" separates competitors and other personnel from the Chinese public throughout the Olympics.
REUTERS