BEIJING: “Goobye, Beijing’, screams a front-page banner headline in yesterday’s China Daily, the People’s Republic’s largest circulated English language newspaper with a huge photograph underneath, showing a sort of human pyramid watched by a packed National Stadium, all bathing in different eye-catching colors.
The back-page echoes with another headine” Hello, London” with a double-decker bus below labeled London-Beijing-London to sum up the closing ceremony of the Beijing Olympics.
There are no captions to suggest that pictures speak louder than words. Surely, they did in this case to catch the imagination of readers.
The lead story in the second page under the byline OP Rana, a prolific Indian writer, depicts the mood of the night lit with fireworks combined with dance and music that come naturally to acrobatic Chinese to sway the hearts of romanticists busy clapping in the stadium and those glued to TV sets worldwide.
“Tonight I can write the saddest lines”, says the opening line of the story, as the writer recalls Pablo Neruda to describe the feelings of every heart that beat in China on Sunday night.
“Even the skies could not hold back their tears — but they made sure to cry in the silence as the last dawn broke over the Bejing Games,” says the second paragraph of the touching story headlined, also in capital letters — THANKS FOR THE MEMORIES.
Two inside pages are devoted, pictorially, to Kenyan Samuel Wanjiru, the last day’s hero for winning the marathon gold, which symbolizes the ultimate human stamina. The all-important gold was awarded to him by the IOC president at the start of the closing ceremony.” I am not invincible,” says the headline, as the Kenyan is shown in a rather meditating mood.
Martin P. Neewat, a widely-traveled South African here to watch the Beijing Olympics, said, “As if the opening ceremony was not enough, the Chinese have done another wonder to cap the Olympics.”
The man from Cape Town, who works for South African Football Association, said what has struck him most about the Chinese performers is their amazing acrobatic skills. “They are able to stretch their limbs endlessly as if they were boneless,” he told Arab News during a chance meeting in a downtown restaurant.
He was rather surprised to see David Beckham, England’s former football captain, appearing in the closing ceremony to highlight the London 2012 Olympics.” He is from Manchester, not from London. He might be the handsomest sportsman, but he is not a very outstanding footballer.”
Neewat, an ardent fan of Nelson Mandela, the gentlest soul on earth who celebrated his 90th birthday recently and in the process promoted the campaign against the AIDS, said the double-decker remained “the heart and soul of purists in London and elsewhere. I never miss the ride once I am in London.”
