by Sajid Khursheed 

 

BEIJING, Feb. 6 (Gwadar Pro) - The Spectacular Opening Ceremony for the Beijing Winter Olympic 2022 was held at the National Stadium on Feb 4, 2022 at 8:00 pm Beijing Time. It was an awesome opening ceremony with the theme of “Together for a Shared Future”. The venue also hostedthe Opening Ceremony for the Beijing Summer Olympics 2008, 14 years ago in a stunning performance. It was really an honor for me to attend Beijing Winter Olympic 2022 as well as Beijing Summer Olympic 2008. The ceremony is like an apt reflection of China’s grand determinations on the world stage, as Beijing becomes the only city in the Olympic history to have hosted both Summer and Winter Games, so I am really proud to be a foreigner Beijing citizen living and working here for more than 18 years.

 

The actual ceremony was supposed to be four hours but due to COVID limitations and the cold weather, the ceremony ran for just over half an hourand featured around 3,000 performers show outstanding performances. The Beijing Winter Olympic will be held in three different venues including Beijing, Yangqin and Zhangjiakou.

 

It was one of the most exciting and wonderful ceremonies I have ever seen in my life. The arrangements made by the Chinese government are fantastic. All the arrangements for athletics, officials, international dignitaries, visitors, etc. were super awesome. The Beijing National Stadium was full of colorful LED lights and flags of 91 participating countries. The good thing is as many other countries’ Presidents and Prime Ministers were there for the Winter Olympic ceremony, our Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan was also there to support the Pakistani and Chinese teams.

 

The show opened with a high-tech cutting-edge technology performances. In keeping with Chinese status as a global leader in technological innovation, the opening ceremony made up for its relatively low number of participants with an extraordinary display by laser lights, enormous LED screens, and firecrackers.

 

The Olympic torch was a hovering snowflake. As always, the ceremony’s peak came with the lighting of the Olympic flame. And in an astonishing effort, the Chinese Olympic decision-makers went for a design in the shape of a snowflake, containing of distinctive flakes with the names of every participating country this year, in a gesture to the Beijing Olympics’ “Together for a Shared Future”. Meanwhile, the torch itself contained a red line demonstrating “the winding Great Wall, the skiing courses at the Games, and mankind’s relentless pursuit of light, peace, and excellence,” according to its designer, Li Jianye. Let’s hope it instigates this year’s athletes to pursue their own form of fineness over the next 16 days of exhibiting events.

 

Here, I want to mention one very important thing. I would like to congratulate all those hundreds of volunteers who are working day and night in the cold weather. They always have smiling faces and welcome the guests and I wish them Happy New Year in order to make this very important event successful.

 

I am hoping that this event will be one of the best events in all Winter Olympics and I wish all the best to all Chinese and international players participating in this event. Go Beijing, Go China.

 

This article originally appeared on Gwadar Pro.