Dancers perform on a tower during the closing ceremony for the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games at the National Stadium, also known as the "Bird's Nest" on August 24, 2008. The Beijing Olympics officially closed today bringing down the curtain on a glittering 16-day long sports extravaganza. The next Summer Games will be held in London in 2012.[Agencies] Click for more photos
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BEIJING--The competitions are over and the party begins, all medals were given out but the memory stays. In a lavish closing ceremony illuminated by a fireworks extravaganza, the world's top athletes joined their Chinese hosts to celebrate the success of the 29th summer Olympic Games on Sunday night.
When the Olympic flame, after 16 days of burning in the National Stadium, or the Bird's Nest, in north Beijing, went out at 9:24 p.m. Sunday, a gala of songs and dances was staged in the stadium, turning the ceremony into a big party.
Surrounded by several thousand Olympians, all in casual wear and jubilant mood, nearly 3,000 Chinese performers and volunteers started a spectacular circle dance, around a 20-meter-tall "Memory Tower," which resembled the heaven-reaching Babel.
"These were truly exceptional Games!" hailed International Olympic Committee (IOC) President Jacques Rogge, before he declared the Games closed in front of 91,000-strong spectators, including Chinese President Hu Jintao who inaugurated the Games on August 8 and dozens of foreign leaders and world dignitaries.
"Through these Games, the world learned more about China, and China learned more about the world," said the IOC chief, who thanked the Chinese people, the "wonderful volunteers" and the Games' organizers in his closing speech.
The over-two-hour closing ceremony started at 8 p.m. with splendid fireworks forming a huge circle, a symbol of perfection, harmony and endlessness in the Chinese culture, over the Bird's Nest.
And its climax arrived when the cauldron was doused in an affectionate way with a reminiscent touch: Three athletes ascended a boarding ladder truck with the radio announcing a London-bound flight, and gazed at the sacred flame atop the stadium. One of them took out and unfolded an exquisite Chinese painting scroll, while the bowl rim of the Bird's Nest, which is a 500-meter-long, 14-meter-wide circular screen, changed into a "red track" and the spectacular and memorable scenes of the Games were projected on it, day by day.
The Olympic flame went out slowly as the athlete folded the painting again. But at the same time, a fresh "flame" was lit in the stadium, with 396 performers on the "Memory Tower" simulating fire with their bodies and the entire audience turning on the torch lights in their hands.
"The fire of the Chinese people's passion to embrace the world will burn forever," said Liu Qi, president of the Beijing Organizing Committee of the 29th Olympic Games (BOCOG), at the ceremony.
Describing the Games' duration as "16 glorious days which we will cherish forever," the IOC president said the world would "long remember" the achievements in Beijing by "new stars" and "stars from past Games."
As the most watched Games in history, with an estimated 4.5 billion TV and Internet viewers, these Olympic Games in Beijing are sure to be remembered, with history made, records toppled, dreams fulfilled, and tears of joy or sorrow shed here.
These Games have attracted the most participants -- from a record 204 countries and regions -- while reporting the fewest doping scandals, with only six athletes, none of them a gold medalist, failing to pass the 4,500 random and post-competition tests so far.
These Games have witnessed the rise of Asia, as China, with home advantages for its athletes, topped the gold medal table with a record haul of 51 golds, 15 more than the second-placed United States, and Mongolia and Bahrain celebrated their first ever Olympic gold in wild ecstasy.
