The Best Use of Gunpowder

I headed to the south gate Chaoyang Park in Beijing to watch the Closing Ceremony of the Olympics last night -- I and swarms of thousands that is.

Crowds watch the closing ceremony in Chaoyang Park.

After paying the fee to enter, and being shoved and pushed in all directions heading in, we found that most of the jumbo television screen was blocked by a display aimed at a more-private gated gathering. Along with many others I tried to watch the show through the holes of a chain-link fence as invited guests of Coca-Cola sat on the grass and enjoyed the closing ceremonies -- Their children playing in a special playground area that could have sat hundreds.

But my goal was to watch the closing ceremonies like many Chinese people would (if they chose to leave the comforts of their home that is), so perhaps my experience was quite realistic. Not able to see the screen, I decided to give up and head to a restaurant at the west side of the park. The park is huge, about two-miles long by one-mile wide.

But when I got there, I found that there was a second Olympic viewing spot, and this one was open to anyone and comparatively less-crowded. View a photo gallery of my experience here. I arrived just in time to watch the London portion of the show, which was so.... disappointing.

The televised fireworks display and the actual fireworks in the park (next to the screen).

Here's it is in summary: A large red London double-decker rolled into the Bird's Nest stadium. Either they were being avant-guard or campy but dancers in black moved around before getting on all fours to allow a little girl to walk across their backs to the bus. Then the bus converted into a grassy London skyline, and Leona Lewis and Jimmy Page perform on top . David Beckham emerged from the bus (park crowd cheers). He kicked a soccer ball towards some Olympic volunteers. The one that caught it cradled it like a baby (more park cheers).

Three actors playing athletes boarded old-school plane stairs leading to... nothing. For many agonizing minutes they feigned confusion until finally one unfurled a Chinese scroll and the torch was extinguished. (Huh???) The "memory tower" was brought out which looked like a giant jungle gym. Dancers climbed it and danced around making cool formations with their dual-colored jumpsuits. Bolts of red fabric were unfurled from the tower and it looked like a giant flower. (That looked cool). Chinese pop stars gave a good rendition of "Wo Ai Beijing" (I Love Beijing) while the words "cheer up" is displayed in English (I was the only one that laughed). Placido Domingo, Chinese soprano Song Zuying sang. More musicians show up with traditional Chinese violins and some of the dancers zip-lined off the tower.

A family watches the fireworks from the street.

As the show winded down many of the spectators trickled out. I thought they might have been disappointed with the show, but actually they were trying to get a better view of the fireworks.

Turns out, the reason for the large crowds at the other end of the park was because that part of the park was one of the designated Beijing spots where fireworks would be set. The Chinese invented fireworks in the First Century A.D. and it's been a 2,000-year love affair ever since.

Crowds watched from the street to catch a view of the pyrotechnic display from behind some tall trees. Cars stopped in the street. People stopped arguing. Everyone looked towards the sky.

And then, it was over.

Forty-five billion dollars spent, 132 Olympic records set, Michael Phelps won eight golds, Afghanistan got it's first medal, 44 athletes were caught doping, Usain Bolt sashayed, Georgian and Russian shooters hugged, Yao Ming returns to Houston, somewhere Liu Xiang is thinking up his next move, and China won 100 medals, more than half of them golds.

As I headed home, I passed the world's largest Adidas store, and saw that the large statue of an Olympic athlete's jacket was no longer standing. Throughout the Games, whenever I passed by it, I was always in the way of people having their picture taken in front of it. There it lay on it's side, ready to be carted away.

In the words of Yao Ming:

"What can the Olympics leave for us? Not just the village, the stadiums, the facilities, but the things beyond them. What can we learn from the Olympics? A lot of people, not just athletes, every human in the world needs to think about the bigger picture, needs to think about what we can do to make this world a better place... I can’t find this answer for my country, for my people. Everyone must find out their own answer."