In addition, the badminton men's singles gold medalist Lin Dan was voted as the most valuable player (MVP).

[4] The President of the Olympic Council of Asia Sheikh Ahmed Al-Fahad Al-Ahmed Al-Sabah hailed the Games as "outstanding" and "one of the best ever.

"[5] Seoul and Amman dropped out before their bids were officially selected by the Olympic Council of Asia (OCA), leaving only two candidate cities—Guangzhou and Kuala Lumpur—by March 31, 2004.

[6][9][10] On April 15, 2004, the Government of Malaysia declared that it would not support the Olympic Council of Malaysia with a Kuala Lumpur bid due to the high cost of hosting the Games, estimated at US$366 million, forcing Kuala Lumpur to withdraw its bid and leaving Guangzhou as the sole bidder.

[27] The torch was lit at the Great Wall of China on October 9, 2010, and traveled around the Temple of Heaven in Beijing.

As originally scheduled, 21 cities were present on the relay route, with 2,010 torchbearers expected to carry it from October 12 to November 12, 2010.

It was a stylized representation of Guangzhou's "Statue of the Five Goats" (Chinese: 五羊雕像; pinyin: Wǔ yáng diāoxiàng; Jyutping: ng5 joeng4 diu1 zoeng6) fused with a running track.

[32][33] The five goat rams, four small and one large, were named A Xiang (阿祥), A He (阿和), A Ru (阿如), A Yi (阿意) and Le Yangyang (乐羊羊).

When read together, the Chinese names of the five rams are a message of blessing, literally meaning "Peace, Harmony and Great Happiness, with everything going as you wish."

(Chinese: 祥和如意乐洋洋; pinyin: Xiánghé rúyì lè yángyáng) This represents the hopes that the Games will bring peace, auspiciousness, and happiness to the people of Asia.

Le Yangyang is described as the tall, handsome, sunny and confident leader of the goat ram mascot team.

They featured the Emblem of the Olympic Council of Asia and Guangzhou's kapok flower on the obverse and the Maritime Silk Road image and the games' logo on the reverse.

The Maritime Silk Road image depicts a Chinese boat sailing on the sea, representing Guangzhou as the starting place of Maritime Silk Road, as the most important commercial center and entrepot of the Southern China, Hong Kong and Macau regions.

The Games aimed to create a competitive atmosphere for participating athletes while promoting unity, peace and friendship among Asian people regardless of differences in race, nationality, religious beliefs and language.

[39] Organizers started selling licensed Asian Games products with introduction of first batch in January 2008.

[40] On May 7, 2009, the Southern Metropolis Daily newspaper signed a contract with the Guangzhou Asian Games Organizing Committee (GAGOC) and became the exclusive online retailer of licensed products.

[41] The official theme song was released on September 30, 2010, and was called "Reunion" (Chinese: 重逢; pinyin: chóng féng).

The English version was translated by Chen Ning Yang, a Chinese-American physicist, and his wife, Weng Fan.

[45] On April 19, 2009, organizers announced that they had chosen Haixinsha Island on the Pearl River as the venues for the opening and closing ceremonies.

[46] The villages at the Asian Games Town was built on a 329,024 square meters land space which had 3,598 apartments in 49 buildings.

Guangzhou Baiyun International Airport was upgraded, in contracted with Crisplant (formerly FKI Logistex), to support massive volume of passengers.

[55] The ceremony was directed by Chen Weiya, assistant director of the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, and featured a cast of about 6,000 performers.

In the following calendar for the 2010 Asian Games, each blue box represents an event competition, such as a qualification round, on that day.

Famous Korean singer, songwriter, dancer, record producer and actor Rain also performed.

[129] On November 17, Yang Shu-chun of Chinese Taipei was abruptly disqualified with 12 seconds left in the first round of the taekwondo competition, while leading her opponent 9–0.

[130][131] The event quickly turned into an international incident, with officials, politicians and fans from Chinese Taipei, China and South Korea trading accusations of manipulation and fraud.

The authority pledged ¥600 million to fight the problem and ordered around 32 chemical plants to stop production by the end of 2009.

[138] A report from July 13, 2010, indicated that the air quality was rated at 95.07% in 2009, an increase of 12.01% since 2004;[139] this improvement eventually cost authorities ¥24 billion.

[140] Subsequent action from organizers to curb pollution included decreasing the movement of vehicles up to 40% and banning barbecue stalls in 11 cities.

[141][142] Between 2005 and 2008 about 150 Guolang villagers survived by growing tomatoes, beans, and cabbages while fighting the government for fairer compensation after their homes were flattened for Asian Games infrastructure.