In Photos: 2011 Universiade Games Opening Ceremony

I’m not afraid to admit that when I walked into Shenzhen Bay Stadium, found my seat (in the photographer row!) and took a long look around at the spectators, the lights, the pre-ceremony show…I cried a little.

Because of the security procedures in place for the venue (President Hu Jintao was to be there, after all), we were required to be at the stadium by no later than 4 pm.

This required us leaving the hotel at 2 pm.

The Opening Ceremony wasn’t until 8 pm.

Dusk at Shenzhen Bay

So we accepted our fate, begrudgingly, and hopped on a 2 pm bus from the hotel to the Futian Transport Center. At Futian, we encountered some questionably “strict” security screenings, then boarded a different bus to the actual Stadium.

We arrived before 4 pm. Oh goody! Four hours till showtime.

Media Workroom

As you can see above, the Media Workrooms at the venue were pretty vanilla. They weren’t willing to hand out wireless passwords either, which was a nice introduction for the Young Reporters to the frustrations of trying to access Internet in China.

We killed a lot of time playing cards.

Luckily, we didn’t have to wait the full four hours as the pre-show started around 7 – I’m assuming anyway, as we were in our seats at 7:30 and the pre-show was already in full swing.

I couldn't believe I was in the Photographers' Row.

I somehow had the good fortune of being given a seat in the Photo Positions. Maybe because I was technically a “mentor” in our program, I’m not sure. The Young Reporters were grouped together elsewhere, on the ground floor of the stadium.

The photog next to me was not messing around.

The show began, and just like Beijing in 2008, Shenzhen did not disappoint. A whirlwind of acrobats, dancers, singers, enthusiastically jumping volunteers; not to mention all the lights, sounds, and colors — every corner of the stadium had something different to watch.

Pretty neat trick: hiding men behind the doors. We didn't even know the panels were doors!

The first act of the ceremony went by pretty quickly. Then the dragon/kung fu/screen-of-many-purposes opened, and thousands of athletes were revealed to be waiting behind it!

That meant only one thing — it was time for the Parade of Nations:

The flagbearer from Iraq was so enthusiastic, he had to be escorted off the red carpet to move on.

I surprised myself when I actually felt a connection to the Singapore team when they walked out.

Americaaaaa

Not surprisingly, the delegations that received the largest amounts of applause were Hong Kong, Macau, Taiwan, and the PR China.

Everyone jumped up for the Chinese delegation

Then, speeches by outgoing FISU president George Killian (full text) and the president of the Organizing Committee, Yuan Guiren (full text).

Speech time with the FISU and Universiade logos

Then Hu Jintao stood up and solemnly swore he was up to…no wait, wrong story.

Hu stood up and declared the 2011 Universiade Games officially open.

Hu's that?

The final five torchbearers ran around the length of the stadium, passing the flame onto each other. The final torchbearer was the famous Shanghai hurdler, Liu Xiang.

Liu Xiang's in there somewhere.

The five then reconvened at the top of the stadium, and together lit the pathway to the torch, which flickered and raced to its final destination, National Treasure-style.

Universiade Torch out in Shenzhen Bay

Because of this Universiade’s effort to keep the Games “green,” real fireworks were not used in the Opening Ceremony. Instead, after the Torch was lit, simulated fireworks exploded on the grand multi-purpose screen of awesomeness.

I think fake fireworks work just as well as the real thing

But the show still wasn’t over! Out came this dazzling angelic violinist, who played on an angled piece of ice/glass while also rotating full circle around the stadium:

I poke fun, but it was actually a lovely performance.

Then more acrobatics, with a projection in the back to recall the good old days of books and learning and university (cue your alma mater):

We're flying through the shelves!

There was more dancing, more performing, some professional singing. The grand finale was a song and dance number to the tune of Do-Re-Mi, which was so jubilantly cheesy and silly that both my boyfriend (watching live on the web from Singapore) and my Mom (watching live on TV from Shanghai) texted me at the same time to say just that.

The end.

Confetti covered the stadium as the torch blazed. The dancers kept twirling and the singers kept belting, as everyone made their way to the exits, full of hope and excitement for the next ten days of competition.

I left, all smiles, full of hope and excitement for much, much more.

Just the beginning.