More About the Closing Ceremonies

I wanted to share a bit more about our experiences at the closing ceremonies.

Right before the closing ceremonies, we had a conversation on the bus with one of our guides. He was telling us among other things that "yes, he was allowed to leave the country any time he wanted" because "it fits with the government's goal to make the whole world Chinese." That's a bit unsettling when you think about it, and this conversation came to mind several times during the closing ceremony. So instead of just being beautiful, the ceremony was also a bit sobering in terms of China's status as a world power. But not too much - as the mood was too fun to be very sobering!



This gal is the way I prefer to remember the Chinese. She was so obviously proud of her country and literally smiled like this for three hours straight.





We seriously would love to have toys like this! After the ceremonies were over,the guys on the bouncy stilts entertained the crowd with stunts for quite a while.



When they first built this human torch, it really looked like ants swarming on a banana or something. This would not be a good job for a claustrophobic person.



This isn't a very good picture, but I wanted to show how these acrobatic guys were right on top of us. Not a job for someone scared of heights!

Here are our jobs during the ceremony - much easier!