It began at 20:00 (8:00 PM) China Standard Time (UTC+08:00), on 8 August 2008, due to the significance of the number 8, which is considered to be auspicious[1][2][3][4][5] and is furthermore associated with prosperity and confidence in Chinese culture.

[8] The ceremony was directed by Chinese filmmaker Zhang Yimou, who was the chief director, and whose international reputation rests partly on work banned in China.

Its core planning team comprised some of the best artists and technology experts in the world, including Yu Jianping, Lu Jiankang, Cai Guoqiang, Chen Qigang, British stagecraft designer Mark Fisher, Chen Yan, Sha Xiaolang, Japanese designer Eiko Ishioka, Xu Jiahua, Cheng Xiaodong, and Tan Dun.

[citation needed] In 2006, BOCOG initially chose American filmmaker Steven Spielberg, Yves Pepin, head of the French entertainment group ECA2, and Sydney Games opening ceremony director Ric Birch as special consultants.

[22][independent source needed] In February 2008, Spielberg pulled out of his role as advisor in protest over China's alleged continuing support of the Sudanese government and the ongoing violence in the Darfur region.

[24] Taiwanese filmmaker Ang Lee was also part of the team creating the opening and closing ceremonies of the Games; his nationality was omitted from official statements.

The 2,008 drummers played the bronze Fou drums and sang lyrics that quoted from The Analects of Confucius: "Isn’t it delightful to have friends coming from afar?”.

They marched in the flag of the People's Republic of China as a young girl in red, 9-year-old Lin Miaoke (林妙可 Lín Miàokě), was seen performing "Ode to the Motherland", miming to the voice of Yang Peiyi.

At the prelude to the section, Beautiful Olympics, a short film, was screened depicting the making of paper, another of the Four Great Inventions, ending with a rolled-up scroll painting to set the stage for the next segment.

Ceramics, porcelain vessels and other Chinese fine arts artifacts were beamed on a giant LED scroll, representing the first of the Four Great Inventions of China, paper, and displaying animated graphics, slowly unfurling.

Performers in Zhou-era clothing representing the "3000 Disciples of Confucius", carrying bamboo slips, recited excerpts from the Analects: "Isn't it great to have friends coming from afar?"

A Dunhuang fairy[clarification needed] danced on the paper—which had been recoloured as a golden desert by projected illumination, and was held up by hundreds of men in clothing of ancient diplomatic envoys.

A performer holding another great Chinese invention, the compass (in its ancient form of a metal spoon floating in vessel), danced in the center of the giant LED scroll that showed images of sailing junks and maps of Zheng He's seven voyages on Maritime Silk Road in the Ming dynasty.

Accompanied by the music of Kunqu, one of the oldest extant Chinese operas, the giant scroll expanded and showed several beautiful classic ancient paintings from the Tang, Song, Yuan, Ming and Qing dynasties.

At this point, two rows of huge royal dragon pillars called huabiao emerged, and stretched skyward, with the performers dancing to the ancient tune Flowery Moonlit River in Spring, as pink and orange fireworks were set off overhead.

[citation needed] Around the pianists a sea of rainbow-coloured luminescent performers swayed in wave-like unison to suggest the flow of the Yellow River.

As their sequence drew to an end, the giant white paper was lifted vertically to reveal a drawing of mountains and waters, with a smiling face as the sun.

China entered as People's Republic of China/République populaire de Chine in English and French, but simply as 中国 Zhongguo in Chinese, the most common short name.

[41][42] The Chinese contingent, which was last, was led by Yao Ming and Lin Hao, the 9-year-old primary school student who had rescued two schoolmates during the 2008 Sichuan earthquake.

Jacques Rogge, the President of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), followed with a speech in English, praising the Chinese for their warm reception and effort and urging athletes to "have fun" and to reject doping and performance enhancement drugs.

Afterward, Hu Jintao, the paramount leader of China, formally declared the Olympics open in Mandarin:[45] Chinese: "我宣布，北京第29届奥林匹克运动会…开幕！"; pinyin: Wǒ xuānbù, běijīng dì èrshíjiǔ jiè àolínpǐkè yùndònghuì…kāimù; lit.

Chinese table tennis champion Zhang Yining and arbiter Huang Liping took the Olympic oath, representing the athletes and officials respectively.

The eight athletes were, in order: Li Ning, who was suspended by wires, then appeared to run horizontally along the walls of the stadium through to the Olympic cauldron, which at this moment was still not shown.

[47] A flurry of spectacular fireworks of various colours and shapes, some projecting Olympic rings, others forming hoops, flower outwards, fountain or float down, accompanied the ending of the ceremony.

[51][52][53] The following dignitaries were confirmed to be present at the ceremony:[54] Liu Yan, one of China's top Chinese dancers, fell from a three-metre high platform during practice on 27 July 2008 and sustained severe spinal injuries.

"[59] The South Korean Seoul Broadcasting System (SBS) secretly filmed rehearsals of the opening ceremony and leaked parts of it, violating a prohibition by the Organizing Committee.

[61] The Organizing Committee investigated the unauthorized filming,[62] and on 6 August 2008, banned SBS cameras inside the stadium during the ceremony as reprisals for the leak.

[63] The song "Ode to the Motherland" appeared to be sung by Lin Miaoke at the ceremony, but it emerged she had mimed her performance to a recording by another girl, Yang Peiyi.

Hein Verbruggen, IOC Member and Chairman of the Coordination Commission for the Games of the XXIX Olympiad, called the ceremony "a night to remember", "a breathtaking culmination of seven years of planning and preparation" and "an unprecedented and grand success" that exceeded all his expectations.

[19] Asia Times, although praising the show as "stunning opening ceremony ... with its panoply of color, painstaking choreography and sweeping portrait of Chinese culture and history" referred to the games as one devoid of "fun" in its article headlined "Awe (but no laughter) in Beijing.