The 2014 Nanjing Summer Youth Olympic Games opening ceremony. (Photo by Yanyan)
NANJING, Aug. 16 (Xinhua News) The 2nd Summer Youth Olympic Games opened in Nanjing, Jiangsu Province on 16th August. The Chinese President Xi Jinping declared open of the games at the opening ceremony.
The Nanjing Summer Youth Olympic Games are another Olympic pageant hosted by China after the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games. They are international games on a huge scale with wide influences. The flame for Summer Youth Olympic Games was lit up in Nanjing, the capital of six dynasties, with integration of the ancient Chinese civilization with modern Olympic spirit. At 19:58, President Xi, together with his wife Peng Liyuan, and the IOC president Thomas Bach and his wife stepped into the platform and waved to the audiences.
Amid the euphoria, a thundering display of colorful fireworks exploded in the sky. The opening ceremony officially started.
The hands of the clock pointed to 20:05, the athletes\' parade began. Flags representing 203 National Olympic Committees and athletes successively marched into the arena. When the Chinese delegation entered the stadium, Xi Jinping stood up and waved to the Chinese athletes. They also received a warm welcome from the audience. China sent a delegation of 180 members this time, of which 123 players will participate in the competition. The Chinese delegation has the most players among all the delegations.
At 20:51, Xi Jinping said: “Now, I declare the 2nd Summer Youth Olympic Games start!”
8 reprehensive of Chinese excellent athletes holding the Olympic flag entered the Nanjing Olympic Sports Center Stadium. They passed the flag to 8 Chinese athletes who will attend the Nanjing Summer Youth Olympic Games. The Olympic flag was raised as the Olympic Anthem played in the background.
The athlete reprehensive Pan Zhendong, the referee reprehensive Zhou Qiurui and the coach reprehensive Li Rongxiang took the oath of fair play under the Olympic flag.
The young singer Lei Jia sang the anthem of Nanjing Summer Youth Olympic Games “Don\'t Stop Dreaming”. Meanwhile, teenagers riding bikes poured into the stadium from all directions and made perfect large-scale theatrical performance “Lightening Tomorrow”. The performances included overture “Youth”, “Chasing Dreams”, “Building Dreams” and “Realizing Dreams”, telling a story about Chinese Dream, World Dream and Youth Dream.
The exciting flame lighting ceremony began at 21:49. Under all of the lights, 6 Chinese athletes, including Lin Dan, Zhou Yang, Zhang Jike, Tang Yi, Cheng Ding and Cheng Ruolin relayed the torch in the stadium and the audience broke into enthusiastic applauses. The last torch bearer Cheng Ruolin climbed the Teleport Platform and marched to the front of armillary sphere with the runner square formation. Then, Cheng Ruolin lit up the armillary sphere with the torch. Immediately, the flame on the top of the armillary sphere flew to the Olympic cauldron. The sacred flame of the 2014 Nanjing Youth Olympic Games was lit up.
The Summer Youth Olympic Games was established under the initiative of former president of the international Olympic committee Jacques Rogge. The Nanjing Summer Youth Olympic Games set up 22 big game items and 222 small game items and added golf game and rugby game compared with the 1st Summer Youth Olympic Games. To encourage cooperation, the Olympic committee set up 15 mixtures of group items across countries and regions in 12 big game items. In addition, it also arranged 20 cultural and educational activities.
The aerial dance
Students from Songshan Shaolin Tagou Martial Arts School of Henan Province performed aerial dance at the opening ceremony of the 2014 Nanjing Youth Olympic Games, Jiangsu Province on August 16, 2014. [Photo by Song Zhenping]
Brave the wind and the waves
The artistic performance, giant ships brave the wind and the waves. Zheng He\'s treasure ships which set sail from Nanjing 600 years ago set sail once again, sowing the seeds of peace and friendship along the Silk Road on the sea. [Photo/Li Xiang]