The People's Daily, the leading and most influential newspaper in China and the voice of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, published an editorial on Monday to hail the successful conclusion of the 2008 Beijing summer Olympics Games. The editorial is read as follows:
The sacred Olympic fire went out slowly Sunday evening at the National Stadium after burning 16 full days and nights. The landmark Bird's Nest stadium to release the Olympic dream watched the pyrotechnics light up the night sky and put with its ceaseless tenderness a full spectacular, satisfactory stop to the 29th Olympic Games.
The 16-day sport event has brought fiery passion and great joy to Beijing, a brilliant historic city filled with vis and vigor, and to the Olympics, a great "theatrical stage" for both the physique and spirit of the humanity, and presented us a wealth of splendid and legendary stories.
With more than 10,000 athletes from 204 countries and regions worldwide taking part and an audience of 4.5 billion around the globe, the Beijing Olympics is the biggest-ever Games with the largest representation of participating nations and regions, and it also represented the greatest event in term of scale in the Olympic history. Sport is joy of gods and the motive force of life, and the Olympic flag has united the world into one big Olympic family than ever before. So it is the glory of Beijing and even the greater glory of the Olympics.
We are unwilling to bid farewell to the 16 days and nights as we have enjoyed to our hearts' content the great joy and pride bestowed by the Olympic Games.
Jamaican sprinter Usain Bolt sets the 100m new world record; US swimmer Michael Phelps wins eight gold medals in swimming events, and Defending weightlifter of China Li Chunhong breaks three world records in women's weightlifting 69 kg event鈥�The Olympics has kept renewing its records and is alive with the dream for athletes to undo themselves and exceed their limits.
There is a show of both power and gracefulness, as well as of great feats of the human spirit and will. Despite losing her leg only a year after she just missed qualifying for the Olympics, South African amputated swimmer Natalie du Toit still competes and still succeeds in taking part in an Olympic Games. China's fencer Luan Zhujie is so daring that she picks up a fencing sword at the age of fifty. Bantamweight Badar-Uugan Enkhbat has won Mongolia's first gold, and Abhinav Bindra becomes the first Indian athlete to win an individual event at the Olympics. Such sports sensations have thrilled the entire world with an aspiration to be "faster, higher, and stronger". The superb performance of countless athletes has upgraded the spirit of sports to a new height.
We are unwilling to bid farewell to 16 days and nights as we have struck up the Beijing chapter of unity, peace and friendship.
People of different nationalities, ethnic origins and cultural backgrounds have come together under the Olympic flag for fellowship. This has let us see the aspiration of humanity to work hand in hand for the future. When athletes from steep, rugged Somali mountain paths for firewood cutting or from chaos or turmoils in the post-war Afghanistan and Iraq came to vie with their peers in Beijing arenas; when athletes from various countries and regions accompanied their champions to thank spectators at viewing stands or when enthusiastic viewers cheered for athletes in competition, people have once again seen the Olympic spirit as the might to overstep all obstacles. With the "one world, one dream" sharing by all, the Beijing Games has displayed an affable, harmonious picture of unity and friendship for the world's people.
We are unwilling to bid farewell to the 16 days and nights as our country has realized its century-old dream and met face-to-face with the splendid world.
Bearing firmly in mind their solemn commitment "to host a high-standard Olympic Games with distinctive characteristic"they had solemnly made seven years ago, the 1.3 billion Chinese people, teeming with their utmost efforts and greatest enthusiasm, have erected a joyous "theatrical stage" for the humanity and opened a door of understanding for their nation. And China has never entered into the world's vision in such a role as it is assuming today.
In Olympic sport arenas, China won 100 medals and led with 50 gold, an eye-opening performance that has arrested the wide global attention. Inside and outside sport arenas, more than one million volunteers, who in fact were working on different kinds of volunteered jobs in varied services, have been praised and commended for their hearty smiles and attentive, wholehearted services. In fact, the Olympic Games has enabled China to present itself composedly as a more confident nation after three decades of reform and opening to the outside world. With the implementation of the "Green Olympics, Hi-tech Olympics and People's Olympics", the Beijing Games is sure to exert a far-reaching impact in the process of China's modernization.
Acute contests in the sports arena epitomize ideals of people in human life. "Olympism is a philosophy of life, exalting and combining in a balanced whole the qualities of body, will and mind,"according to the Olympic Charter. In Olympic Games, there are successes, medals and champions mingled with sweat, tears and hardship; there are tenacity, staunchness and acute endeavors along with peace, freedom and fairness; there are not only confrontation, competitions and head-on challenges, but also increased understanding, tolerance and transcending. In a world with growing stark challenges, the humanity has never needed so much mutual understanding, magnanimity and cooperation as we do today in this dwindling plante of ours, and never aspire so much to share the Olympic value and sprit and erect a bridge of unity and friendship as we do today.
May the world keep Beijing in mind, and remember the harmonious, happy days of the Olympic family; and also let Beijing express its thanks and gratitude to the world, and to the people worldwide to concert efforts in writing a splendid chapter for peace and progress of the humanity.
The "Bird's Nest" National Stadium, bustling with zeal and enthusiasm, has returned to peace gradually, and the dream in people's mind are nevertheless still hovering overhead. Today, we do not bid farewell, but let us meet London in four years and hope for another great joyous gala party that will bring new glory to the Olympics, teamed with vitality, full of memory and fervent aspiration.
By People's Daily Online
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