Place and Time

            Former Chinese Olympic gold medalist Li Ning lit the Olympic flame for Friday's big finale.

Yao Ming, accompanied by a 9-year-old schoolboy who survived May's devastating earthquake in Sichuan province, carried the flag as China's Olympic team paraded into the Bird's Nest stadium.

In China, eight is the luckiest number.  That is why the host of the 2008 Olympic Games choose 8:00 PM local time on 08/08/08 for the opening ceremonies.  Fireworks shot out of Beijing National Stadium during the opening ceremony.

Beijing National Stadium, nicknamed the "Bird's Nest" was designed by Pritzker Prize-winning architects Herzog and de Meuron along with ArupSport and China Architecture Design & Research Group.  The 93,000 seat arena was built with 36 kilometers of unwrapped steel weighing 45,000 tons.