On Closing Ceremony of the Beijing Olympic Games  Paul Yin

I was lucky again of obtaining a ticket of the Closing Ceremony of the Beijing Olympic plus a ticket of the basketball final. I departed for Beijing on Aug 23 in the wake of typhoon Parrot which hit Hong Kong directly the day before. There was a three hours delay of the flight as expected (better than cancellation anyway).

In the morning of Aug 24 at 10:30am, I took a crowded Line 1 subway reached Wukesong Indoor Stadium in forty five minutes, there were already people around trying to sell tickets at exorbitant price say over USD1500 per ticket with face value of RMB600. The walk and the security check weren't too bad and there was air conditioning inside the stadium. The game started at 12:00 o'clock for the Bronze: Argentina vs Lithuania. After Argentina won the game I began to get excited looking forward to the US Dream Team vs Spain. I was anxious to see my idols of the NBA namely Kobe Byrant, LeBron James and Jason Kidd. Eventually US won the Gold but Spain had played a fantastic game and lost only 11 points. It was already 5 pm when the US flag was ascending synchronized with National anthem and I realized that I had to rush back to the Bird's Nest for the Closing.

This time since I was familiar with the Nest¡¦s surrounding so it saved me lesser time to enter the stadium and I still could leisurely shoot pictures around. Later I bought a hot dog and that was my supper. During the ceremony the audiences were exciting all the time, first came the entertainers, then performers, VIP¡¦s, singers, volunteers, National flags and athletes followed by inflamed performances, fire works and so on. As more and more people were entering the stadium, noise, shouting, music, singing and hailing were ubiquitous. One could get hypertension within such an atmosphere.

The Olympic Closing Ceremony was ended with universal applause, not as sumptuous as the Opening but with full of joy and harmony which humankind has pursued for years. It would be hypocritical of me to say that the Chinese has organized the event without fraud for perfection is beyond reach. I can only say that China has relentlessly made a tremendous effort of achieving the goal of solidarity among nations (I was especially moved by a scene that Georgian and Russian female athletes greeted and kissed with one another).

While countries still selfishly fight for their own benefits, new fortunes will be made where the right solutions are found. To be frank I do not have a solution, I only own a common dream shared by millions regardless of their color, religion and tradition. .....that brotherhood of man transcends the sovereignty of nations....that service to the humanity is the best work of life.....JCI Creed Gold medal winner Paul Yin

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