The 3 hour opening ceremony commenced at 8pm (GMT+8) on a warm and humid evening in Beijing, China. Thie spectacular event was attended by over 91,000 attendees from various walks of life in the "Bird's Nest"
Performance repertoires included Lang Lang and Sarah Brightman, together with Liu Han.
The retired Chinese gymnastics Olympian, Li Ning, was carried through the air to light the Olympic cauldron.
Excellent photography footage can be found from Boston & National Geographic, Chicago tribune here , here and here
