Liangzhu jade cong

Hangzhou Olympic Sports Centre Stadium:  With a theme based on water and tide, which are integral parts of city life here and promoting principles of simplicity, sustainability and cost-effectiveness, Hangzhou displayed before the guests from across the continent a spectacular opening ceremony that blended the power of technology and beauty of art and captured the distinctive Chinese cultural heritage.

The 90-minute-long programme captured China's cultural heritage and romantic imagery through the melding of its thousands-of-years-old civilisation and modern technology through stunning visuals, showcasing the dedicated efforts of the Chinese path to modernisation. It was a presentation that combined Eastern aesthetics and a viewpoint that can connect with a global audience and expresses the country's goodwill and aim of building a community with a shared future through an interplay of Chinese style and Asian appeal.

Water and tide were the abiding themes of the opening ceremony representing the surging tides of Asia, presenting different themes of "water" in its different forms -- mist, fog, West Lake, Qiantang Tidal Bores and the thousand-year-old Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal and the water conservation system of the Archeological ruins of Liangzhu City -- which are found in and around Hangzhou to bring out the connection between life and environment.