Friday 12 November 2010: The 16th edition of Asian Games officially opened with a glitzy gala ceremony on Friday, culminating years of planning for a massive event that is set to reinforce China`s regional sporting dominance. Tens of thousands of Guangzhou residents welcomed the Asian Games to their city and played their part in a spectacular interactive "Festival of Harmony" with the athletes and officials from the Games’ 45 National Olympic Committees as they sailed along the Pearl River.
The opening ceremony began with a spectacular light and fireworks show with Chinese music building up the tempo. The 650 feet high tower of fireworks illuminated the entire sky, announcing to the world that the Asian games had arrived in the biggest part of the continent. For the first time in the history of sports, the mega-ceremony was not held inside a stadium, instead it was held along the Pearl River in Haixinsha Island.
Prior to the ceremony, Chen Weiya, the director of the ceremony, who was also the assistant director of the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, revealed in a special interview that the ceremony "will surprise the world". He was not off the mark by even a whisker as the water/light theme was something no one else in the world had thought of, and its seamless execution took the level of the Asian Games one notch above.
The ceremony was attended by State Council of China Wen Jiabao, President of Pakistan Asif Ali Zardari, Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva and Chief Secretary for Administration of Hong Kong Henry Tang. Organisers promised the largest lighting show ever seen at a major sports event, based around a theme prominently featuring the local Lingnan culture and they kept their promise.
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