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BEIJING. – By hosting the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games, China stunned the world with its modernity and prosperity. Another 14 years on, the country, which has already grown into a major global power, dazzled the world again by hosting a “truly exceptional” Olympics Winter Games.

If the summer edition of the Olympics impressed the world with China’s booming development, the world, especially the West, witnessed the efficiency of the Chinese mode and system in the working by way of the Winter Olympics, said experts.

Just like the 2008 Olympics, this Winter Games will also serve as a milestone in China’s road to its great rejuvenation, they said.

During the closing ceremony of the Beijing 2022  on Sunday, You and Me, the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games theme song, was sung again by a group of children, arranged by Zhang Yimou, the director of Winter Olympics’ opening and closing ceremonies, to pay tribute to the 2008 Beijing Olympics, a platform China used to stun the world with its openness and development 14 years ago.

Zhang, also the director of the opening ceremony of the 2008 Beijing Olympics, said during a Monday interview that he was doing his utmost to present the world China’s 5,000-year civilization by filling the ceremony with elements of traditional Chinese culture. Yet the Beijing Winter Olympics were concluded in a much more streamlined yet equally impressed way, and won kudos from people across the world.

“After dozens of years, we are different; there are many changes to me and to my country. We can present the closing ceremony in a streamlined way, and have the world stand together with us. We are more confident, and unhurried,” said Zhang.

Juan Antonio Samaranch Jr, the newly elected vice president of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and chairman of the IOC Coordination Commission for Beijing 2022, highly praised the Games as flawless and wonderful.

“Every aspect has impressed me at this Winter Games, not only the venues, but also the anti-epidemic measures, organisation and coordination as well as kindly smile of the volunteers. At such a difficult time, Beijing still dedicated a wonderful grand event to the world, and let the world be amazed about it,” said Samaranch.

“Amid the severe epidemic situation globally, China overcame difficulties and fulfilled its commitments and hosted the Winter Olympics as scheduled, demonstrating its stated responsibility as a major country. With ensuring the health and safety of those participating in the Games and contributing a simple, safe and splendid Olympic event to the world, it will also inject more confidence and strength into the global victory against the epidemic,” he said.

The two Olympics, hosted by China 14 years apart, may find themselves placed within similar circumstances, where the rest of the world was bogged down by an economic crisis in 2008, and now deep in the Covid-19 pandemic. The two Olympics also faced a small group of countries which staged the “boycott” farce. .

It is widely acknowledged by observers that before 2008, China, despite the then booming economy and rapid development, remained obscure to quite some from the outside world.

In 2008, by hosting the Summer Olympics, China made a dazzling appearance in front of the world, and upended many countries’ stereotype of an outmoded and poor country, said Zheng Ruolin, a research fellow at the China Institute of Fudan University,.

“The context of the 2008 Olympic Games was very different [from this Winter Olympics]. It was about the rise of China, the growing curiosity and interested in China. China’s coming-out was seen from the Olympics to the world,” said  Martin Jacques, a fellow at the Department of Politics and International Studies at Cambridge University. – Global Times