Props employed at Olympic closing ceremony

The following is a list of the props employed at the closing ceremony of the Beijing Olympic Games, staged in the National Stadium, or the Bird's Nest, in north Beijing on Sunday night.

Drum

The drum has distinct symbolic meaning in traditional Chinese ceremonies. The drumbeat indicates the commencement of the ceremony, and calls people to get together to express common dreams and passion through grand ceremonial performances.

Heavenly drum

Resembling the traditional Chinese drum in shape, the 1.8-meter-thick red heavenly drum has a diameter of 4.5 meters, with golden lucky cloud pattern on it.

Drum cart

With various drum styles of minority ethnic groups in China and typical ethnic patterns as the creative elements, the "drum cart" deconstructs and restructures the splendid traditional visual elements with modern shapes, creating a "multi-functional moving performance platform" with unique, changing and modern metallic style, which can perfectly combine with performance.

Each cart is about 10 meters long, 5 meters wide and 3.6 meters high.

Silver bell

Originating from the silver ornaments of minority ethnic groups in China, the silver bell symbolizes brightness and luck. Its glittering radiance like thousands of falling stars lights the dream in people's hearts, and its incessant sound like flowing water ignites the passion and fever of the celebrations.

Romantic silver bells and masculine drum formation form a sharp contrast but harmoniously echo with each other.

Rotating pole

With "seesaw," a typical competitive sports event of minority ethnic groups in China, as the creative element, the "rotating pole" creates magical and romantic visual effects based on the simplistic and modern concept of design.

The rotating pole cart is 8 meters long, 1.8 meters wide and 2 meters high, and the pole can swing to 6 meters high at most.

Light wheel

With a diameter of 2.008 meters, the "light wheel" gives off romantic and pure fluorescent light, resembling the structure of the Bird's Nest. When it revolves in the stadium like a beautiful light circle, it shows the collision of time and space and the human spirit of constantly surpassing oneself and never giving up.

Boarding ladder truck

The boarding ladder truck simulates the elevation equipment for boarding at the airport. The all-white truck weighing five tonnes is decorated with the symbol of this Olympic Games with elevation functions, the maximum height being 8 meters.

Lucky cloud yarn strips

There are a total of 16 lucky cloud yarn strips 3 meters wide with three specifications of length -- 43 meters (10 strips), 48 meters (2 strips) and 53 meters (4 strips) -- in shades of reddish yellow and covered with smooth lucky cloud pattern.

(Xinhua News Agency August 24, 2008)