17th Jiangsu Games

Last night we went to the opening ceremonies of the 17th Jiangsu Games.  We got picked up by people from the FAO who were the ones to “gift” us with the tickets to the event.  We walked down to the stadium together.  As we got the the stadium, I got into taking photos using Maureen’s camera as the use of a professional camera was not allowed.  Thankfully Maureen’s camera is a good digital camera so I ended up with a good number of photos to choose from for today’s post – maybe too many as it was difficult to choose.

The stadium was packed.  Thankfully we had the FAO staff to help us navigate through to find our seats.  Not speaking much Chinese is a real liability in situations like this.  We got to our seats only minutes before the production started.  We were entertained by huge numbers of performers.  One set had hundreds of seniors in white silk doing t’ai chi, and another huge group of seniors doing an assortment of “fan” dances.

The scenes were impressive.  The choreography was outstanding and the lighting was breath-taking.  We thought about the Jeux du Canada Games which would be the closest equivalent back home, and realised that we never come even close in terms of celebrating to this extent.

What made it a bit more special was the fact that our students were involved in the production in many ways.  Some were volunteers, some worked in the press area, some helped out with costumes and some, like my International Trade students sang in a choir as back up to a man with an incredible voice.

Of course, to end the whole thing, it was necessary to have an incredible display of fireworks.  The sheer volume of fireworks going off simultaneously circling around the stadium over and over again left the air completely saturated with smoke and ash.  With the event finally over after almost three hours of entertainment, we walked home to quietness, glad that we had been able to have this experience to add to the many others.